First lifetime edition of Eugene Onegin put up for auction

Photo credit: Flickr / JC

Christie's will put up for auction a lifetime edition of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, TASS reports.

The bidding called Russia: outstanding books and manuscripts will be held in London on November 27.

The lot includes the first edition of the first chapter, chapters three through eight and the second edition of the second chapter published by the printing house of the Department of Public Education of St. Petersburg. A preliminary estimate of the book reaches nearly two hundred thousand dollars.

Another rarity - the first edition of Mandelstam's poem collection Stone – will also be presented to collectors and bibliophiles. The author printed it in 1913 at his own expense. Its estimate is from ninety to one hundred thirty thousand dollars. The book remained with the poet for almost a quarter of a century, then Mandelstam presented it with a dedicatory inscription to writer Sergey Rudakov.

Books of the 17th-18th centuries in Church Slavonic, a textbook on mathematics by Magnitsky, scientific works of Lobachevsky, Mendeleev, Darwin, Malthus and Adam Smith will also be put on sale. Literature of the twentieth century will be represented by the works of Akhmatova, Yesenin, Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva and other authors.

The auction will be held as part of a week of trading in Russian art, which is traditionally held in London twice a year.

Russkiy Mir