Magellan Letter Auctioned at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg
Published November 26th, 2008
Very good results were achieved at the two-day Ketterer Kunst auction marathon in Hamburg. The evening auction alone achieved overall proceeds amounting to € 550 000*, topping an estimated sales volume of € 450 000. At approx € 1 300 000, the overall proceeds from the auction of Rare Books – Manuscripts – Autographs – Decorative Prints on 17 & 18 November 2008 match the results achieved at this year’s spring auction.
Fetching € 114 000*, the extremely rare original edition of a letter written by Maximilianus Transsylvanus, secretary to the imperial court of Charles V, achieved the highest price at this auction. In his letter, Transsylvanus reports to the cardinal-bishop of Salzburg on the circumnavigation of the globe by Ferdinand Magellan. A European dealer secured the book with a sealed bid in writing that would have left some scope for bidding up, thus surpassing the € 94 300* already achieved at Ketterer Kunst in 2004 for one of the four published editions of “De Moluccis insulis …”.
Auction info www.kettererkunst.com
