Evelyn And Eric Newman Cartographic Collection Realizes $742,000

The November 12 single-owner auction of The Fine Cartographic and Printed Americana Collection of Evelyn and Eric Newman contributed to Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ Fine Books and Manuscripts’ highest-grossing year in department history. The collection of the notable St. Louis philanthropists offered premier examples of iconic maps and atlases. The auction closed at a 98% sell-through rate, with competitive bidding throughout the sale in the Chicago saleroom and on the phone. Combined, the 117 lots that sold realized just under $742,000.

The top selling lot of the auction, Henry Popple’s A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish settlements adjacent thereto sold for over double the high estimate, realizing $81,250 against a presale estimate of $30,000 – 40,000. It is the first printed map to show the thirteen colonies, making it a monument of North American cartography.

Two editions of John Melish’s Map of the United States from Thomas W. Streeter’s Two editions of John Melish’s Map of the United States from Thomas W. Streeter’s collection also led the sale. The 1820 edition of the Melish map, one of only three copies of the map to come to auction in the last forty years,sold for $68,750, exceeding the presale estimate of $30,000 – 40,000. The 1818 edition of Melish’s Map of the United State sold for $40,000 against a presale estimate of $25,000 – 35,000.

Additional highlights which far surpassed their presale estimates include: Atlas Amériquain Septentrional contenant les details des differentes provinces, de ce vaste continent by Georges-Louis Le Rouge, which sold for $47,500 (presale estimate: $25,000 – 35,000), and John Senex’s A New General Atlas, Containing a Geographical and Historical Account of All the Empires, Kingdoms and other Dominions of the World, which realized $32,500 (presale estimate: $12,000 – 18,000). A rare Revolutionary War-era broadside map of New York harbor, The Country Twenty Five Miles Round New York, Drawn by a Gentleman from that City, published in London on 21 November 1776, was met with enthusiastic bidding and realized $20,000 against a presale estimate of $5,000-7,000.

Gretchen Hause, Director of Fine Books and Manuscripts, commented: “We are thrilled with the strong result for the sale of Evelyn and Eric Newman’s exceptional collection of maps, atlases, and Americana.  We saw active participation across all channels of bidding, and as a result, a number of rarities from this fine collection sold for prices well above their pre-sale estimates. The exceptional sell-through rate is a testament to the fine examples in the collection, many with notable provenance, and speaks to the strength of the market for similar material at auction.”