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Potter and Potter Auctions: Fine Books and Manuscripts

Auction Reports

Auction Name Fine Books and Manuscripts Total Sales (USD) 321,558.00
Auction Date May 14, 2026 - May 14, 2026 Low Estimate of Lots Sold (USD) 266,900.00
Sale Number #22200 High Estimate of Lots Sold (USD) 464,800.00
Total Lots 497
Sold Lots 405.0 Low Estimate of All Lots (USD) 331,700.00
% of Lots Sold 81.49% High Estimate of All Lots (USD) 575,450.00
Unsold Lots 92 Total Sales as a % of High Est. 55.88%

Top twenty-five by sale price

Top Sale Price Lots
Lot Number Author Name Book Title Year Published Estimate Actual Price
253 Ernest Hemingway

Autograph Postcard Signed to His Father as a Child - Possibly the Earliest Known Letter by Hemingway

ca. 1907 USD 5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD 14,400.00
402 J. D. Salinger (1919-2010); Lotte Jacobi

The Catcher in the Rye

1951 USD 2,500.00 - 5,000.00 USD 11,400.00
1 Ernest Hemingway

In Our Time

1925 USD 12,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD 9,600.00
381 Francis Barrett

The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer

1801; 1875 USD 800.00 - 1,200.00 USD 7,800.00
267 Ernest Hemingway

The Torrents of Spring: A Romantic Novel in Honor of the Passing of a Great Race

1926 USD 2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD 6,000.00
256 Ernest Hemingway

Green Hills of Africa

1935 USD 2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD 5,760.00
251 Ernest Hemingway

Autograph Letter Signed to His Father as a Child - Possibly the Second Earliest Known Letter by Hemingway

1908; 1909 USD 5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD 5,520.00
233 Ernest Hemingway

"A Matter of Colour [Color]" in Tabula, Vol. XXII, No. 3

1916 USD 3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD 5,280.00
246 Ernest Hemingway

Autograph Letter Signed and Archive Related to the "Tanganyika Letters."

1934 USD 8,500.00 - 16,000.00 USD 5,280.00
298 Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird

1960 USD 8,500.00 - 12,000.00 USD 5,280.00
321 Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West

1985 USD 5,000.00 - 7,000.00 USD 4,800.00
3 John Hancock

The Twelve United Colonies by their Delegates in Congress to the Inhabitants of Great Britain

1775 USD 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD 4,560.00
257 Ernest Hemingway

In Our Time

1927 USD 2,500.00 - 5,000.00 USD 4,560.00
320 Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West

1985 USD 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD 4,560.00
241 Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms

1929 USD 4,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD 4,320.00
240 Ernest Hemingway

"The Christmas Gift [and] Part II of The Christmas Gift" in Look Magazine

1954 USD 4,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD 3,840.00
242 Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms

1929 USD 3,500.00 - 7,500.00 USD 3,600.00
319 Cormac McCarthy; Bret Easton Ellis; Rob Wood

Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West

2021 USD 1,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD 3,600.00
417 John Steinbeck

STEINBECK, John (1902-1968). East of Eden. New York: The Viking Press, 1952.

1952 USD 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD 3,600.00
142 Edward Emerson Barnard

A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way

1927 USD 2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD 3,360.00
252 Ernest Hemingway

Autograph Letter Signed to Arnold Gingrich

1933 USD 5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD 3,360.00
250 Ernest Hemingway

Autograph Letter Signed to His Best Friend, Bill Smith

1959 USD 5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD 3,120.00
419 John Steinbeck

STEINBECK, John (1902-1968). The Red Pony. With Illustrations by Wesley Dennis. New York: The Viking Press, 1945.

1945 USD 3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD 3,120.00
262 Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea

1952 USD 1,500.00 - 2,500.00 USD 2,880.00
249 Ernest Hemingway

Autograph Letter Signed to Arnold Gingrich

1934 USD 4,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD 2,640.00
  • Sotheby’s Geek Week
    14-15 July
    Sotheby’s, July 14: Henry De La Beche. "Awful Changes," 1830. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 11]. Flight Plan, Complete Original Printing Signed by Buzz Aldrin. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Thomas Alva Edison. Documents Establishing and Ending the Edison Electric Railway Company. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Richard P. Feynman. Feynman's Lectures on Gravitation 1-16, Including the Original Transcriptions of Lectures 12-16 by Morinigo and Wagner, With Richard Feynman's Manuscript Notations, 1971. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 9]. A Group of Manuals and Mission Documents used by Stuart Roosa as a member of the Astronaut Support Crew. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: [BYTE: The Small Systems Journal]. A collection of early foundational issues of Byte: The Small Systems Journal, with rare hardcover editions. $5,000 to $8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    The 10th Anniversary Sale
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    July 16, 2026
    Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
    Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
    Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
    Forum Auctions
    The 10th Anniversary Sale
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    July 16, 2026
    Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
    Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
    Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
    Forum Auctions
    The 10th Anniversary Sale
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    July 16, 2026
    Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
    Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
    Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
    Forum Auctions
    The 10th Anniversary Sale
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    July 16, 2026
    Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
    Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
    Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000