Hamburg, 23/24 May 2011, (kk) - With an overall result of more than € 1,5 million*, the two day auction of Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg realized a result that beat last year’s by € 300.000. "The ever growing appeal this auction has to numerous new international customers that have previously been interested in art only is largely owed to the quality and the range of offerings", said Robert Ketterer, owner of Ketterer Kunst.

       The TOP 5

€ 74 400* Starting price: €3 000
No. 683: Sven Hedin
E. Zimmermann: Durch Asiens Wüsten
2 photo albums. 1926-1930
see illustration.
€ 54 000* Starting price: €45 000
No. 90: Ludovico Mirri
Vestigia delle terme di Tito
Series of plates. Rome, 1776
€ 43 200* Starting price: €5 000
No. 107: Hermann Max Pechstein
Postcard with signature
Berlin-Wilmersdorf, 1910

€ 37 200* Starting price: €25 000
No. 46: Maria Sibylla Merian De europische Insecten Amsterdam, 1730
€ 32 400* Starting price: €27 000
No. 19: Bernardus Claravallensis Sermones in Duytssche. Zwolle, 1495

The two folio volumes comprising some 380 original photographs by Sven Hedin and Eduard Zimmermann under the title "Durch Asiens Wüsten" (lot 683) did not only enthuse customers from Germany and Italy. A collector from Great Britain stood his grounds against a number of written bids, live bidders in the room and a tough opponent from the States on the phone. Eventually he took the remarkable collection of photographs to a result of € 74 400* (starting price € 3 000) and thus to first place in the auction. In the end the two albums also made for the auction’s sharpest increase.

Second place is occupied by the de-luxe edition of Ludovico Mirri's series of plates "Vestigia delle terme di Tito" (lot 90), which went to a foreign phone bidder for the result of € 54 000*.

When two postcards by Hermann Max Pechstein were called up, the bidding frenzy took its course. After the great success of six similar artist postcards which had been auctioned by Ketterer Kunst in Munich only a few days before with results of up to € 39 040**, more than 30 art lovers from Belgium, Switzerland, the U.S. and mostly from Germany entered the race with written and phone bids against bidders in the room. While the frenzy for lot 106, which carries signatures of the expressionist triumvirate Heckel, Kirchner and Pechstein was stopped by a private collector in the auction room at a result of € 26 400*, a German art dealer even honored lot 107 with a result of € 43 200*. Thus the circus scene with Pechstein’s signature, a greeting to Doris Grosse, a Dresden hat maker and lover of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, did not only achieve the evening auction’s second highest hammer price, it also made it among the list of the auction’s sharpest increases.

A collector from the east of Germany, present in the auction room, stood his grounds against numerous written bids and eventually won Maria Sibylla Merian’s first folio edition of "De Europische insecten" (lot 46) from 1730. After it was called up at € 25 000, his eagerness to win let the fine copy in an excellent coloring climb to a result of € 37 200 *. It took nothing less to put a stop to his opponents’ bids.

While the sermons by Bernardus Claravallensis (lot 19) went to a German collector for € 32 400*, a dealer from New York relegated his colleague from London to second place in the race for William Harvey's "De motu cordis ..." (lot 37) with a result of € 31 200*.

A collection of more than 200 works of German Freemason Literature (lot 434) made for excitement in the auction room. A German dealer stood its ground against two other German colleagues and two libraries at a result of € 18 000*. Called up at € 800, this lot achieved the second highest increase in the auction.

The number one increase, however, was realized by Johann Christian Fritsche's "Von denen Vampyren" (lot 51), which went to a starting price of € 170 to a result of € 3 960*. At the same time this very rare first edition of the vampire book called "Muthmaßlichen Gedancken von denen Vampyren, oder sogenannten Blut-Saugern eines Weimarischen Medici" was the auction's most sought after lot with 14 international written bids from, among other France, Great Britain and Poland as well as numerous phone bidders from the Netherlands and the Alsace. br />
The auction of Maritime and Northern German Art, which is traditionally held in Hamburg and now as a prelude to the Rare Books auction, is also worthwhile mentioning. Here is a selection of some important results:

Until 24 June, 2011 the post auction sale offers a number of exciting objects.

         *  The result is the hammer price + 20 percent buyer’s premium.
          ** The result is the hammer price + 22 percent buyer’s premium.