Einstein Correspondence Sets Record at Stockholms Auktionsverk

Albert Einstein’s correspondence with mathematician Chaim Herman Müntz has sold at auction for SEK 1,175,000  ($126,000) at Stockholms Auktionsverk's Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts Sale contributing to making the auction its most successful book sale with total sales reaching nearly SEK 8.2m.

The Einstein letters were offered across seven lots and provide an insight into the development of field theory and shed light on Chaim Herman Müntz’s central role in Einstein’s mathematical reasoning during the years following 1927.

Other highlights in the sale included:

• an exquisitely crafted 18th century manuscript of Dala’il al-khayrat, dated 1210 (1795–96) featuring magnificent illuminations and scenes from Mecca (SEK 1,050,000)
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s four-volume Le antichità Romane (1756), a complete copy containing 218 engravings with provenance from both Horace Walpole and Gösta Stenman (SEK 675,000)
• Sir William Hamilton’s series of color engravings Campi Phlegraei (1776–79) featuring 59 hand-colored plates depicting Vesuvius and the volcanic landscapes surrounding Naples (SEK 700,000)
• the rare wall map Nova et accurata totius Americae tabula (1672) by Frederik de Wit (SEK 437,500)
• the rare first edition of the von Wright brothers’ Svenska foglar (1828–39), one of an estimated maximum of 50 complete copies (SEK 200,000)

“We are immensely proud to have achieved the most successful book auction in the long history of Stockholms Auktionsverk," said Katharina Fahlstedt, Chief Curator and Specialist in Books, Maps and Manuscripts, "and it is particularly gratifying to see such strong interest in Einstein’s unique correspondence during Nobel Week. The sale confirms the continued international demand for high-quality works of significance to both scientific and cultural history.”