NEW YORK.- On June 27 and 28, Christie’s New York will sell an extraordinary single-owner collection: The History of the Book: The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection. Formed between 1945 and 1965, this unique ensemble features over 700 lots and documents the history of the book around the world. The sale offers remarkable examples of the book in all forms including Babylonian cuneiform tablets, Greek papyri fragments, Persian and Asian manuscripts, European medieval manuscripts, Hebrew manuscripts, fine bindings of all periods, and an interesting group of book-related curiosities. The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection is being offered by Cincinnati Museum Center and the proceeds of the sale will be used for the conservation and preservation of their extensive history collections. The collection is expected to realize in excess of $4,500,000.

The Hauck Collection was built through the guidance of the well-respected antiquarian bookseller, Emil Offenbacher, based in Kew Gardens (Queens), New York from 1945 until his death in 1990. Offenbacher specialized in pre-1800 imprints in science, technology and medicine and, to a lesser degree, in Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and unusual bindings. His clients included major public and private academic libraries as well as institutions such as the New York Public Library, the Newberry Library, the John Crerar Library, and the National Library of Medicine. Among the outstanding private collections he helped to build was that of Cornelius J. Hauck of Cincinnati. The collection was given to the Cincinnati Historical Society Library in 1966, where it has remained largely unknown to the world until now.

The breathtaking top lot of the sale is the Album Amicorum – Das Grosse Stammbuch of Philip Hainhofer, an illuminated manuscript on vellum and paper in German, Italian, Latin and French, 1596-1633 (estimate: $600,000-800,000). This renowned ‘Book of Friendship’ is a monument to the princes of Europe and court art. Brought together by Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647), an internationally influential figure who was employed by the European princes as an art advisor and political agent, the Grosses Stammbuch contains signatures and coats of arms of princely persons, paintings and drawings and an ensemble of lavishly illustrated ‘natural history’ pages which are strikingly meticulous, delicate and elegant. Some of the illustrious names featured in the album are Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612); Elizabeth Stuart, princess royal of England (1596-1662); Cosimo II de’ Medici (1590-1621); Cardinal Alessandro Orsini; Aloysio Gonzaga, Principe de Castiglione; and Charles de Valois, Duke of Angoulême (1573-1650).

Among the more exotic highlights of the sale is an exquisite Chinese celadon jade book, dating from the late 18th/early 19th century and consisting of eight incised and gilded rectangular plaques depicting a total of sixteen Luohan in various pursuits, each accompanied by an inscription illuminating their character (estimate: $40,000-60,000).

Of great rarity is Ulrich Richental’s first edition of Chronik des Konstanzer Konzils, Augsburg, 1483 (estimate: $80,000-120,000), the only illustrated contemporary account of the Council of Constance, comprising 44 pictorial woodcuts, all finely colored by a South-German hand.

Among the Hebrew works in the collection is a beautiful Dutch Haggadah, Seder Haggadah shel Pesach, written and illuminated by Aaron Wolf ben Benjamin Zeev Schreiber Herlinger of Gewitsch, 5485 [1725 CE] (estimate: $100,000-150,000). The work contains 47 small miniatures and 12 large ones, is signed by the author and comes in the original Viennese binding.

The sale also features the only known round bookbinding of the Renaissance: a superb binding executed around 1590 by Caspar Meuser of Dresden for Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, Prince-Bishop of Würzburg (estimate: $30,000-40,000).

Other featured lots are an Egyptian wood stela for Neskhons, Ptolemaic Period, 304-30 BC, painted in white, red, green, blue and black on a cream ground (estimate: $5,000-7,000); a first edition of De veris ac salutaribus animi gaudiis dialogues by Matthaeus Bossus, Abbot of the Augustinian Canons at Fiesole, with a dedicatory letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici in an important Italian Renaissance plaquette binding (estimate: $40,000-60,000); and an important, early 19th century odorless varnished binding – a Vernis Martin binding – containing three works by Charles-Guillaume Etienne (estimate: $15,000-20,000).

With estimates ranging from the hundreds to the hundreds of thousands, the sale offers both established and novice collectors the opportunity to bid on a stunning variety of materials.