Antique Books

Once again we are pleased to sell a number of interesting books, around sixty items ranging from the end of the 15th century with a couple of incunabula to the turn of the 19th century with three of Oscar II's photo albums from the summers on the yacht Drott. There are also Luther imprints from the 16th century, a magnificent Bible printed in Nuremberg in 1662 with beautifully colored plates and a stylish festival book from Rome in 1687. A remarkable rarity that unites the Renaissance with the 19th century is one of the few preserved forgeries of bookbindings with paintings on wooden covers that were made in Siena by Icilio Federico Joni.

A significant provenance at the auction are books from the collection of Prince Alexander Erba Odescalchi (Budapest 1914-Saltsjöbaden 2008), who fled his native Hungary to Sweden in 1944 with his wife, Margarethe (Margit) of Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduchess of Austria (1925–1979), daughter of Joseph Franz of Austria and Anna of Saxony. Alexander Erba Odescalchi keenly studied his family's history, not least the Italian period, and his books touch on several of the family's most illustrious members, such as Pope Innocent XI and Livio Odescalchi in the 17th century. Both played significant roles in the victory against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, and Livio was richly rewarded for this by Emperor Leopold I. Livio Odescalchi's history has an indirect association with Sweden, since he was the one who acquired Queen Christina's collections of art, coins and engraved gemstones after her death. A few of the catalogues which were printed are included in the sale. Not many of these have found their way to Sweden.