HAMBURG.- With an overall result of more than € 1.6 million the two-day auction of Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg on 23/24 November provided excellent results, with overall proceeds around € 200,000 above the figures realized in spring. Three 13th to 15th century parchment manuscripts were particularly sought-after and were all sold with unusually sharp increases.

The auction was led by two renowned Paris Horae, which, with foresight, had been promoted in their own separte catalog. It surely is the miniatures' impressive quality and quantity that most book lovers were taken with. A good score of written bids and several bidders in the salesroom, as well as on the phones made sure that the starting prices of both books were almost doubled. The demand was highest in Great Britain and in Switzerland. While the Latin book of hours for the use of Rome (lot 4), made around 1500-1510, climbed from a calling price of € 64,000 to a result of € 96,000 and was sold to a Swiss bidder, the Latin book of hours, made in Paris around 1450 (lot 3) was lifted from € 80,000 to a result of € 150,000 by a French book lover.

The Biblia latina vulgata (lot 2), made in Paris between 1250-1270, was not any less popular with the bidders when it was called up at € 50,000. Competition from all over Europe was strong and especially bidders from France, England and Switzerland were competing fiercely. In the end, however, a private collector from North Rhine-Westphalia stood his grounds and stopped the bidding frenzy at a result of € 91,200.

Salvation or rather the soul's immortality, albeit from a philosophical perspective, is the issue touched in the famous Plato editions by Marsilio Ficino (lot 8), which he translated from Greek to Latin in 1491. This incunabula in a contemporary binding from the binder Johannes Zoll, Tübingen was sold to a German trader for a result of € 26,400.

Another philosophical milestone, the first edition of “Critik der reinen Vernunft” released by Immanuel Kant in Riga in 1781 (lot 52) went to one of the many online bidders for a result of € 19,200. The same was paid by another internet client for the “Relations de divers voyages curieus“ (lot 35) by Melchisédec Thevenot. He did not only triple the starting price of the famous collection of travelogs, but also relegated seven phone bidders from all over Europe to places second and beyond.

A copy of Albertus Seba's “Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio“(lot 19), called up at € 16,000, made for some commotion in the salesroom. It took more than 30 years to release this first comprehensive account of the world's diversity of species. Half a dozen phone bidders alone were competing for the work. The heated skirmish was eventually won by a British trader who made the famous work, which even the Russian tzar Peter I. inspected in the author's Amsterdam home back then, sure for himself with a result of € 55,200.

The sharpest increase of all, that is almost an 80-fold of the estimate of € 400, was achieved by a sheet with the program of the Galerie Dada on occasion of the sixth soiree for Hans Heuser, with original drawings and autographed text by the Romanian writer Tristan Tzara (lot 968). Written bids and many phone bidders from England, Germany and the U.S.A. fought persistently, in the end, however, two collectors from Hamburg and Berlin in the salesroom fought it out. Eventually, the work remained in the port town for a result of € 31,200.

A copy from a total of 15 numbered copies of the absolute deluxe edition of Dante Alighieri's “La divine comédie“ with illustrations by Salvador Dalí (lot 994) also caused quite a stir. Starting at € 7,000, both domestic and international art lovers were likewise committed. In the end, however, a Californian phone bidder carried the trophy away, as he stood his grounds against a particularly fierce North German competitor in the salesroom with a price of € 21,600.