Monday, May 14, 2012

Ensemble of historic documents, books, letters and poems featured at Sotheby's sale Books & Manuscripts


Art Daily Newsletter
Two autograph letters including 8 original drawings by Salvador and Gala Dali about the project of a ballet with the dancer Léonid Massine, c. 1941-1942. Est. €30,000-40,000 / $40,000-52,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

PARIS.- The 184-lot sale of Books & Manuscripts to be held at Sotheby’s Paris on 15 May 2012 includes an ensemble of historic documents, books, letters and poems concerning two great names of French poetry: Paul Verlaine and Guillaume Apollinaire. Other giants of French literature present in the auction include Montesquieu, Voltaire, Balzac, Baudelaire, Flaubert and Victor Hugo, alongside drawings (by Victor Hugo), photographs (a unicum of Verlaine by Carjat), or one the masters of world cinema (91 coloured drawings by Orson Welles). 46 signed letters to André Level, his parrain de guerre and a celebrated collector and patron, help chart the course of Apollinaire’s military career, and his changes of rank, prior to the moment when he was famously wounded in March 1916 (est. €150,000-250,000 / $195,000-325,000). Another ... More

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