Prestigious volumes and true rarities kick off the first six months of auctions at Il Ponte with the success of the Antique Books and Livres d'Artistes auction,
whose turnover reaches € 490,000, 90% of lots sold, 120% increase on reserve prices. From 15th-century incunabula to precious editions of contemporary literature, the proposal curated by the department proved to be highly appreciated by bibliophiles from all over the world.
The competition for the section dedicated to maps was fierce and intense, with the “Theatrum orbis terrarum“ of 1579 by Abraham Ortelius (€ 22,500), the first European atlas to offer descriptions and geographical coordinates of the fifteen provinces of the Chinese Empire by Giacomo Gastaldi (€ 13,750), the “Voyage pittoresque ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile“ by the engraver Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non (€ 10,625) and Mario Cartaro's “Map of Sicily” which, starting from an estimate of € 800, was sold for € 8,125.
Lot 233
Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)
Theatrum orbis terrarum. Nomenclator ptolemaicus. Anti: Christopher Plantin, 1579.
First edition of the Theatrum printed by Plantin and second Latin edition of this seminal atlas first published in 1570.
Sold € 22,500
Lot 227 Giacomo Gastaldi (1500-1566)
[Mappa dell'Asia] - La Descrittione della Prima parte dell'Asia. Rome: Antonio Lafreri, 1561.
Sold € 13,750
Lot 234
Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non l'abbé de (1727-1791)
Voyage pittoresque ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile. Paris: Clousier, 1781-86.
Sold € 10,625
The highest podium place went to Giovanni Battista Piranesi with the edition of his “Carceri d'invenzione” published between 1778/79 (€ 42,500), which decreed the interest for the entire large section dedicated to artists' books.
Lot 258
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)
Carceri d'invenzione. [Rome: G.B. Piranesi, tra la metà e la fine degli anni '70 XVIII secolo].
Sold € 42,500
Advertising illustrations are also increasingly sought after by collectors, where the collection of posters by Officine Grafiche Ricordi produced between 1895 and 1914 stands out (€ 10,000).
Lot 155
[Ricordi - Dudovich, Mazza, Beltrame and others] - Gli avvisi delle officine Ricordi.
Milan: Ricordi, [ca.1914]. An important collection of posters printed by Officine Ricordi between 1895 and 1914
and excecuted by the masters of advertising illustration of the time such as
Dudovich, Mazza, Beltrame, Villa, Terzi, Mellikovitch, Caldanzano, Laskoff and others.
Sold € 10,000