Fossil Fish, Book of Mormon, SciFi Art: Auction Preview

Here are the sales I'll be keeping an eye on:

At Heritage Auctions on Tuesday, August 26, 125 lots in a Pulp, Paperback, Science Fiction & Fantasy showcase auction, with original illustration and cover art expected to lead the way These include John Conrad Berkey's cover art for the 1998 publication From Afar estimated at $4,000+; Greg and Tim Hildebrandt's "Skull Mountain" illustration from Terry Brooks's Sword of Shannara (1977), rated at $3,000+; and Les Edwards's cover art for issue 124 of White Dwarf (1989), estimated at $1,000+.

New England Book Auctions sells 198 lots on August 26 in A Fine Summer Miscellany.

On Wednesday, August 27, University Archives sells 435 lots of Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books, with a Bob Dylan autograph manuscript of his lyrics for "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" (signed and dated 2013) estimated at $35,000–40,000. A large collection of Benjamin Disraeli letters among the papers of his secretary Algernon Turnor could sell for $30,000–40,000.

Forum Auctions sells Travel Books, Maps & Atlases on Thursday, August 28; the 380 lots include Giuseppe Vasi's 1765 panoramic view of Rome (£3,000–5,000) and a large group of some 250 Baedeker guidebooks (£1,000–1,500).

At PBA Galleries on August 28, 324 lots of History of Science – Illustrated Publisher's Bindings from the Morris-Levin Collection – Miniature Books – Children's Literature. Sharing the top estimate of $10,000–15,000 are an Albert Einstein note to his colleague Max von Laue; a copy of Oliver Bryne's 1847 edition of Euclid; and James Stirling's 1717 work on Newton's cubics. A presentation copy of Marie Curie's biography of her husband, given by Curie to Herbert Hoover in 1929, is estimated at $6,000–9,000.

Chiswick Auctions holds their Poster Sale on Monday, September 1, in 91 lots.

At Dominic Winter Auctioneers on Wednesday, September 3, 465 lots of Books, Maps & Decorative Prints, with Louis Agassiz's Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles (1833–1843) rating the top estimate at £4,000–6,000. William Smith's Strata Identified by Organized Fossils (1816–1817) could sell for £3,000–5,000. At the same range are James Sowerby's The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain (1812–1829) and Richard Bentley's 1833 edition of Jane Austen's novels, in five volumes.

On Thursday, September 4, Potter & Potter Auctions sell 116 lots of Exceptional Books & Manuscripts, with a first edition Book of Mormon rating the top estimate at $120,000–150,000. A copy of the "Author's Edition" of Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) could sell for $20,000–30,000.