Hamburg, 20 November 2013, (kk) – The Rare Books auction at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg on 18/19 November generated an overall result of € 1.6 million*. Accordingly, the two-day sale did not only achieve a remarkable result, it even outperformed the last two auctions' results by € 100.000.

The list of desired lots was further led by Jan Huygen van Linschoten's rare travelog "Navigatio ..." (lot 38), which went to a Dutch private collector for € 95.000*, as well as the "Topographia" (lots 45+46) by Matthäus Merian the Elder, sold to a collector from the German language region for a result of € 70.000*. Additionally, the original edition of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's “Die Leiden des jungen Werthers“ (The Sorrows of Young Werther, lot 76) belongs in the triad. The first print of the first edition, the only containing the unaltered original text, was quite popular. Half a dozen international bidders competed for the rare work, which was eventually sold to a European antiquarian book dealer for € 38.000* .

A London book trader was willing to pay more than a four-fold of the starting price of € 7.000 for Hermann Moll's large world atlas "The world described" (lot 39) from around 1720. After a fierce bidding skirmish that was stopped at a result of € 30.000*, he eventually stood his grounds against a dozen written bids, numerous telephones and the auction room.

The contest for the only de-luxe edition of Nikodim Kondakow's "Byzantinische Zellen-Emails" (lot 68) was no less thrilling. It was no big surprise that the book in its rare original silk wrappers (starting price: € 5.000) went to a private collector from Russia, who had relegated several fellow countrymen, as well as bidders from Germany and Great Britain, to places second and beyond with a result of € 19.200*.

A 9 and a half page signed letter by Rainer Maria Rilke (lot 83, starting price: € 7.000) to the poet and writer Friedrich Huch was the highlight in the autograph section. It almost seemed as if the rich contemporary document would remain in Germany, but in the end the persistency of a private American collector paid off, he won the wonderful piece of writing for a result of € 12.000*.

The first edition of a rare and complete copy with all four parts of Friedrich Nietzsche's "Also sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, lot 50) was particularly popular with German and American bidders. Eventually, a European antiquarian won the trophy. He took the copy of Nietzsche's most popular work from a starting price of € 2.400 to a result of € 16.200*.

Further nice results were achieved by, among others, the following:

The auction of Maritime and Northern German Art, which is traditionally held in Hamburg right before the auction of Rare Books, should not remain unmentioned. Here a selection of some results:

Unsold objects can be purchased in the post auction sale until 15 December, 2013.

* The rounded result is the hammer + 20 percent buyer’s premium