HAMBURG.- With total proceeds of more than € 1.6 million the auction of Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg on May 28, 2018 realized an excellent result. The fact that the last auction‘s result was topped by around € 200,000 surely is also owed to the sophisticated new catalog concept. Late medieval books of prayer and devotion were particularly sought-after.

”With its thematic focal points, our concept, which is probably unique in Germany, creates a very unusual flair in the evening auction“, says auctioneer Christoph Calaminus. ”Objects gain an enormous presence in this special environment. This increases the reach and eventually leads to top prices.“

It all began with a big bang. The very first lot in the evening auction was the whole auction‘s top lot. A private collection from Hamburg and a written bid that would have allowed for some more bidding steps won the pocket-size Bruges Book of Hours. In the end phone bidders from Germany, France and the USA had to face defeat. The remarkable result of € 103,000 is more than a five-fold of the calling price of € 20,000.

Further medieval manuscripts were among the other auction highlights. Accordingly, a Rouen Book of Hours (lot 3) occupies second place. Eventually an American trader on the phone made for a three-fold of the starting price by lifting it to € 79,000, relegating two other traders and two private collectors from Germany and France to places second and beyond.

Next to a Book of Hours from Northern Italy (lot 4), which was sold to a trader in the American Mid West against strong opposition on the phone from Italy and France for € 25,000 (calling price: € 7,000) a further Book of Hours from Flanders provided yet another highlight (lot 2). For a written bid of € 42,000 the prayer book (calling price: € 27,000) will also go to the Great Lakes region.

Third place in the auction goes to the section of botany. Next to a large number of written bids, competition for Maria Sybilla Merian‘s book “Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung“ (lot 24) also came from numerous phone bidders from Germany, Denmark, France, Great Britain and the USA. The calling price of € 7,000 soon disappeared in the bidding stampede’s dust. Despite tough commitment of a German collector, a Danish book lover eventually carried the trophy home. With a bid of € 52,000 he provided a result that is a seven-fold of the starting price.

Another lot providing excitement in the saleroom was Michael Johann Seligmann‘s “Sammlung verschiedener ausländischer und seltener Vögel“ (lot 29), which was lifted from a calling price of € 18,000 to a result of € 31,000 by a phone bidder from Oregon. Private collectors and traders from Germany and France drew the short straw.

A sharp increase in this section was realized by Hieronymus Bock‘s “De stirpium“ (lot 31), which a French trader eventually won against strong opposition from a colleague from London. The result of € 27,060 is almost a five-fold of the calling price of € 5,500.

In the section of Modernism Paul Verlaine‘s book “Parallèlement“ with illustrations by Pierre Bonnard (lot 68) provided a particularly convincing result. Called up at € 7,000, the bid over € 17,000 offered by a representative of a Hamburg museum, eventually even beat a tenacious trader from London.