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  • DURER’S STAR CHARTS OF 1515 AT SOTHEBY’S

    The Northern Sky (click to enlarge)

    The Southern Sky (click to enlarge)

    Dürer’s maps of the Northern and Southern skies, the earliest printed star charts, feature at Sotheby’s sale of Old Master, modern and contemporary prints in London on March 30.  The extremely rare woodcuts celestial maps by Albrecht Dürer are the oldest printed star charts published in Europe. Dated circa 1515, they were produced in Nuremberg under the patronage of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I, and were the product of an innovative collaboration between Dürer, Viennese astronomer Johannes Stabius and German astronomer Conrad Heinfogel. They are estimated at £120,000-180,000.

    The sale also features a large group of prints by Rembrandt, a collection of works on paper by Paul Gauguin, and a rare linocut by Pablo Picasso. There is a group of seven works by Lucian Freud, comprising a series of etchings of landscapes and figure studies and three works by Roy Lichtenstein, all dating from the 1990’s.
    UPDATE: The earliest printed star charts, A Map of the Northern Sky and A Map of the Southern Sky, sold for £361,250 ($578,542) to Daniel Crouch Rare Books,

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