19th Century European Art

Thomas Venning has been Christie’s lead specialist for autographs and archives since 1998, and Head of Books & Manuscripts in London since 2014.

As specialist and head of department, he has overseen many high-profile sales: an early favourite was The Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters (July 2007), described in 100-point type by one newspaper as ‘the greatest letters ever written’; but his favourite single lot is undoubtedly the wonderful autograph of J.S. Bach’s prelude, fugue and allegro for lute, BWV 998, which sold for just over £2.5m in July 2016. His fascination for the life and work of Albert Einstein, sealed when he sold Einstein’s iconic leather jacket in July 2016 (£110,500), led in September 2023 to the auction of Einstein’s autograph manuscript Altes und Neues zur Feld-Theorie at Christie’s Shanghai (CNY 9.375m / £1.05m), the first Classic Art lot to be offered by Christie’s in Mainland China. As head of department, he has led Christie’s to market leadership in London, a position founded on the success of the twice-yearly Valuable Books and Manuscripts sales, the most valuable regular auction series in the Books world, coupled with a stellar series of single-owner sales, including most recently the library of the late Charlie Watts and the autograph collection The Alphabet of Genius (both 2023).

Thomas is one of the UK’s leading specialists in the valuation and sale of archives: notable sales have included the original manuscripts for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the ‘A’ manuscript of the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the archive and office of Stephen Hawking, the archives of prime ministers and politicians including George Canning, Arthur Balfour and Edward Heath, and papers of soldiers, scientists, industrialists and opera companies, as well as many family and estate archives. He has a particular expertise in the Acceptance In Lieu process.

A graduate of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Thomas speaks fluent English and French.

A recognised authority on early printing, Meg has handled rare books ranging from editio princeps of classical texts, beautiful botanical books, ground-breaking scientific texts, and great world literature, setting auction records in all these fields, with books such as Pacioli’s Summa de Arithmetica ($1.215m, 2019), Adam Smith’s own copy of The Wealth of Nations (£908,000, 2018), Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis, (£1.9m, 2016), and a deluxe vellum copy of the 1470 Virgil (£1.2m, 2013). She led the team in the record-breaking sale of a printed Columbus Letter ($3.9 million, 2023), an autograph manuscript with Isaac Newton's revisions of his Principia for the second edition (£1.7m, 2021) and masterminded the series of Beltrame and Braune science sales. She was responsible for the only auction coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death (Shakespeare, The Four Folios, 25 May 2016) and likes to think that she may be the only person since the 18th century to have sold 7 copies of the First Folio in as many years; she regularly features on documentaries about Shakespeare’s First Folio. Her rare book research has led to numerous discoveries and detecting books stolen from the Danish Royal Library.

Meg is the author of the two-volume catalogue of incunabula in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (1989); a contributing author to The History of the Book in Britain, vol. III (Cambridge University Press: 1999), and of numerous articles in scholarly journals. She has been an invited speaker at the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Grolier Club and elsewhere and has given bibliographic masterclasses at Cambridge University Library. Meg is a past-President of the Bibliographical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a member of the Grolier Club and the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, and she sits on the development board of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Meg speaks German fluently.

Eugenio Donadoni joined Christie’s in 2010, where he leads the manuscripts team with responsibility for the appraisal, researching, cataloguing and marketing of medieval and Renaissance and earlier western manuscripts worldwide.

Born in Florence and raised in Naples, he underwent a radical process of Anglicisation and ended up reading for an undergraduate degree, a Master’s degree, and a doctorate at Oxford University. His loyalties are still divided, especially come the World Cup. Highlights include the sale of the Rothschild Prayerbook ($13.6m, the world record at auction for an illuminated manuscript, January 2014); the Carolingian ‘Gospels of Queen Theutberga’ (£1.99m, July 2015); the only copy of the Ripley Scroll in private hands (£584,750, December 2017); the Middle English Audley End Lydgate (£392,750, July 2018); the lavishly illuminated Almanac Hours (£1.63m, July 2020); and a sumptuous Book of Hours by the Master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus ($3.6m, April 2021).

Notable collection sales have included the Arcana Collection of Exceptional Illuminated Manuscripts (London, 2010-11); the stunning group of manuscripts in Yates, Thompson and Bright: a Family of Bibliophiles (London, 16 July 2014), the collection of Maurice Burrus (London, 25 May 2016); The History of Western Script: Important Antiquities and Manuscripts from the Schøyen Collection (London, 10 July 2019); the extraordinary illuminated manuscripts and printed books from the collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg (New York, 23 April 2021); and one of the finest Continental collections of miniatures in private hands (London, 2021-22).

Over the past 13 years Eugenio has negotiated a number of multi-million pound private sales of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts to clients in Europe, the UK and the Americas: most significantly the Clumber Park Chartier (now in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library) and the Breviary of Saint-Louis de Poissy (now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France). Eugenio is one of Christie’s international auctioneers and takes sales in London, Paris and New York. He plays in a much-loved – if terrible – rock band, will offer unsolicited advice on anything food-related and is trilingual in English, Italian and French. He also reads Latin and Ancient Greek.

As Client Relationship Manager, Abigail Bisbee Dean provides bespoke support to Christie’s clients who have varied collecting interests. Abigail began her career at Christie’s in 2014 as the American Art Sale Coordinator, managing the department’s biannual live and online auctions and providing support with private sale transactions. She is also a charity auctioneer. Abigail attended Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service where she majored in Culture and Politics, receiving her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. Following her undergraduate career, she earned her Master in Art & Museum Studies, also from Georgetown University and received a certificate in Art and Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.

Julian has over a quarter-of-a-century’s experience in the antiquarian book world, and has worked for over 15 years in Christie's Books & Manuscripts department.

Julian’s first job as a Christie’s Specialist was to catalogue the Foljambe Collection of natural history. This included selling a complete subscriber’s set of John Gould’s magnificent ornithological books for £1,252,500 (April 2008). He has gone on to handle many other important natural history, science and travel books, including maps and atlases: in December 2022, he brought to market a fine coloured copy of the complete first edition of Gerard Mercator’s Atlas, 1585-1595 (£882,000). Julian has also been responsible for such rare and valuable lots as: a pair of John Russell’s extremely scarce prints of the moon (£125,000, December 2016); two copies of Mendel’s offprint on genetics and the laws of inheritance, Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden (£242,500, July 2016 and £287,250, July 2019); a beautiful example of the famous Chinese ‘Blue Map’, Complete Geographical Map of the Great Qing Dynasty (£137,500 December 2018); and Marx’s presentation copy of Das Kapital to his cousin (£344,750, December 2019).

He has also enjoyed being involved with non-book lots, and pioneered new markets for objects such as Apple-1 computers (£133,250, November 2010) and Enigma machines (£67,250, same sale), setting new world records at that time.

Over the past decade, Julian has grown and developed successful sales of photographs, maps, posters and other ephemera relating to major 20th-century geo-political events. This ties into his life-long interest with TE Lawrence.

Julian also has a fascination with paleontology, geology and the earth sciences, and has helped catalogue a major private collection on the subject.

Sophie joined the Book Department as a specialist in 2013, covering medieval and renaissance manuscripts, autograph letters and manuscripts, and archives. She is also Head of Private Sales for the International Books and Manuscripts department.

Mark joined the Books and Manuscripts department at King Street in 2017 as a specialist in printed books.

Responsible for the appraisal and cataloguing of all manner of books, he has nevertheless been able to fulfil his passion for literature by overseeing important sales such as Shakespeare and Goethe: Masterpieces of European Literature from the Schøyen Collection (December 2019), First Editions, Second Thoughts: An Auction in Support of English PEN (July 2022), and Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone (September 2023). He was a co-curator of the successful Private Selling exhibition The Art of Literature in 2022.

Mark holds a Master’s degree in English Literature (1700-1830) from the University of Oxford, where he specialised in the works of the Romantic poets, and has lectured on the life and poetry of his beloved John Keats.