BOSTON, MASS.- Bonhams Skinner will close out October with a slate of sales which feature important works of Americana, rare books and manuscripts, as well as fine wine and spirits. Autumn Americana Collections will be highlighted by an important Bickley Family Silver Tankard, c. 1710 by silversmith Bartholomew Le Roux. Fine Wines will then feature a bottle of M. Gentaz Dervieux Cote Rotie Brune Cuvee Reserve from 1992 while Rare Spirits will present a bottle of Macallan 68 Years Old Exceptional Single Cask, distilled in 1950 and bottled in 2018. Finally, A Journal of Captain Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and in quest of a North-West Passage, between Asia & America, 1783 by John Ledyard (1751-1789) is a highlight of Fine Books & Manuscripts.

Autumn Americana Collections
October 14 – 24

An important silver tankard, c. 1710, engraved with an elaborate griffin above a knight’s helmet and a coat of arms, by New York's first Huguenot silversmith Bartholomew Le Roux (c. 1665-1713) will highlight the Autumn Americana Collections sale from October 14 – 24. Estimated at $20,000 – 30,000, the tankard’s coat of arms is that of the Bickley family and it was probably owned by May Bickley, Province of New York Attorney General.

The sale will additionally feature an oil painting, The Goldfish Bowl, c. 1832, by Samuel F.B. Morse (American, 1791-1872), an American painter and inventor who contributed to the single wire telegraph and created “Morse code". The work, which was previously exhibited at the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum in Spain, depicts Morse’s sister-in-law and two nieces and is estimated at $20,000 – 30,000.

Fine Wines
October 15 – 24

From October 15 – 24, the Fine Wines sale will present over 300 lots which feature bottlings that span the 20th and 21st centuries and from top wineries such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Screaming Eagle, and Chateau Montrose. A highlight of the sale are four bottles of M. Gentaz Dervieux Cote Rotie Brune Cuvee Reserve from 1992, estimated at $6,000 – 10,000, as well as 12 bottles of Chateau Montrose St. Estephe from 1989, estimated at $5,500 – 7,000. Also of note is a bottle of 1966 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti, estimated at $5,000 – 7,000.

Rare Spirits
October 16 - 25

The Rare Spirits sale from October 16 – 25 will feature a number of excellent whiskies including a bottle of Macallan 68 Years Old Exceptional Single Cask which was distilled in 1950 and bottled in 2018, estimated at $60,000 – 85,000. This rare bottling hailed from a single cask which produced only 336 bottles and was put into a first fill sherry butt. Additionally, the sale will present a number of bottles which distilled over a century ago including a 22 Years Old A. Keller Bourbon Whiskey from 1856, estimated at $15,000 – 25,000, and an Old Rip Van Winkle "Many Years In The Wood" from 1916, estimated at $7,500 – 10,000.

Fine Books & Manuscripts
October 22 – November 1
October 31

The first work to be protected by copyright in the United States – A Journal of Captain Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and in quest of a North-West Passage, between Asia & America, 1783 by John Ledyard (1751-1789) – will be presented at the Fine Books & Manuscripts sale on October 31. Captain James Cook was a British explorer best known for his three voyages in the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1779 and Ledyard, a native of Connecticut who served as a Royal Marine on board the HMS Resolution, was in the boat that took Cook ashore on the day he was killed in Hawaii in 1779. This book chronicles his journey with Captain Cook and is the first by an American to depict Hawaii and the Northwest Coast. Estimated at $50,000 – 75,000, this first edition is extremely rare as it still has its map fully intact.

An additional highlight of the sale is a German edition from 1493 of the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), estimated at $50,000 – 75,000. The Nuremberg Chronicle is an illustrated history of the world, celebrated as one of the most technically advanced works of early printing, and only 300 of the German edition are believed to have survived to the present. Also of note in the sale are four John James Audubon (1785-1851) plates highlighted by Brown Pelican (Pelicanus Fuscus), 1838, estimated at $30,000 – 50,000, as well as a first edition of Audubon’s The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories, 1880-84, estimated at $25,000 – 35,000.

The department will also present an online sale from October 22 – November 1 which will feature a complete set of Mark Twain novels including a letter signed by Twain, estimated at $8,000 – 12,000.