Books and manuskripts

Bjarne Saxhof (1953-2003) was secretary for the Danish Bibliophile Society for many years, and was a serious collector of French bindings and ”livre d’artistes” of which several are presented here.

Part V of the Saxhof Collection also includes highlights such as a copy of the Martin Luther Bible from 1560 which is richly illustrated in the margins of the text with hundreds of small naive drawings in colour and gold, illustrating the verses of the entire Bible. Furthermore this is the first edition with woodcut illustrations by Virgil Solis. His illustrations were later spread to and copied in other European Bible editions.

Important books and manuscripts from other properties are presented in the second part of the sale. We open this part of the auction with Shakespeare’s second folio from 1632, which contains the first printing of John Milton’s poem “An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatick Poet, W. Shakespeare”. Shakespeare’s second folio is regarded as one of the most desired books in the world, since prices for the First folio exceeds 4 million euros.

The second part of the auction also includes important autograph letters and manuscripts from prominent Danish and foreign authors such as Johannes V. Jensen, H.C. Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard and Knut Hamsun.

Ongoing auction