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DOYLE NEW YORK TO AUCTION RARE BOOKS AND AUTOGRAPHS ON MAY 4

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NEW YORK CITY — On Wednesday, May 4, at 11 am, Doyle New York will conduct an auction of autographs and fine books. The sale will offer a range of material from a number of estates and collections. Among the highlights is a group of autographs and material related to American playwright Tennessee Williams from a Southern collection.

A highlight of this group is a small spiral notebook of 58 pages containing a working pencil manuscript for Williams’ play Camino Real ($4/6,000). Williams worked on Camino Real from 1942 to 1947, and the draft in this notebook apparently dates from that period. The play was first produced on Broadway on March 19, 1963, and starred Eli Wallach, Jo Van Fleet and Martin Balsam. It became a motion picture as Ten Blocks on the Camino Real in 1966, starring Martin Sheen, Lotte Lenya and Tom Aldredge.

Camino Real, which takes place in an unidentified Latin American country, is considered the most surreal of Williams’ plays. It was divided into scenes referred to by Williams as “Blocks.” The bulk of the manuscript notebook is a draft of “Block Six” and consists of dialogue among the characters known as Kilroy, Nursie, Gypsy and Esmeralda. The approximately 1,000 words in the manuscript vary considerably from the printed version.

Other Tennessee Williams material from the same collection includes a typed letter signed “10” and dated May 26, 1970, to his longtime agent, Audrey Wood ($1/1,500); a typescript on letterhead of the Erawan Hotel, Bangkok, circa 1961, with correction for the dialogue between Nonno and Miss Jenkins in his play Night of the Iguana ($800/1,200); and a photographic portrait of Williams in an attic room in New Orleans by Christopher Harris that was published in People magazine on February 14, 1977 ($400/600).

From the estate of dance aficionado Thomas Luce Summa is a pair of pink satin ballet shoes signed by ballet legend Dame Margo Fonteyn and dated 1972. The slippers are mounted on a specially made stand with a plastic cover and a drawer containing two autograph letters by Dame Margo to Summa. Dated July 28, 1971, and June 27, 1976, the letters thank him for flowers. Included in the lot is correspondence with the Royal Academy of Dancing regarding the shoes.

The auction will also offer dozens of autographs relating to figures in literature, politics, world history, music and science, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Judah Benjamin, J. Frank Dobie, Gaetano Donizetti, Thomas Edison, Hannibal Hamlin, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Jules Massenet, Douglas MacArthur, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Franklin Pierce, Camille Saint-Saens, Alexander H. Stevens, and Giuseppe Verdi.

A selection of fine books will include a group of Western Americana; a selection of sporting books on angling, hunting, yachting and others; and a collection of American Colonial almanacs.

Preview will take place from Saturday, April 30, through Monday, May 2. The gallery is at 175 East 87th Street. For information, 212-427-2730, or DoyleNewYork.com.

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HERITAGE TO OFFER RARE DECKER OIL PAINTING MAY 11

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DALLAS, TEXAS — Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers (HGA) will offer an oil painting titled “Butch” by American artist Joseph Decker in its fine arts auction on May 11.

“Joseph Decker was born in Germany in 1853, but moved to America with his parents in 1867,” said Lucas Rigby, consignment director for HGA. “He spent most of his life in Brooklyn, and studied for several years at night at New York’s National Academy of Design while working as a sign painter during the day.

“In 1879, Decker returned to Germany where he studied under Wilhelm Lindenschmidt at the Munich Academy,” said Mr Rigby. “It was during this time that he learned the dark toned, bravura style of the day. When he returned to America, he quickly incorporated this style into his still life and landscape work, resulting in a bold, vibrant look that few of his contemporaries could match.

“The piece offered here,” Mr Rigby continued, “is from a later period in the artist’s life, when his style had developed a softer, more classical edge, as opposed to the harsh, more closely focused and emotionally detached feeling of his earlier paintings. This later period owes more to the emerging Impressionist style than to the earlier, almost photorealistic style that he employed previously.

“Decker died in poverty in 1924 and his work, which had not been exhibited on a regular basis since the 1880s, slipped into an undeserved obscurity,” Mr Rigby added, “but he became newsworthy again several years ago when a painting of his was sold in a garage sale for $5. The buyer, suspecting there might be more to the painting than at first seemed to be the case, researched the piece and soon after sold it to the National Gallery in Washington, DC for $1 million.”

This piece carries a preauction estimate of $80/100,000.

Also offered in the same auction is a smaller painting by Decker titled “Hammer and Nuts.” This still life has a preauction estimate of $30/50,000.

Heritage Gallery and Auctioneers is at 3500 Maple Avenue. For information, www.HeritageGalleries.com or 800-872-6467.