1. bioephemera
  2. Edward Tufte auctions off his library

Edward Tufte auctions off his library

By bioephemera on November 13, 2010.

In less than a month (December 2nd), Christie's will auction off Edward Tufte's library - an idiosyncratic collection of first edition books, plates, prints, and ephemera that the dataviz guru calls his "Museum of Cognitive Art," and I call "Jessica's Christmas List."

I'm not going to sample low-rez images of the lots here, because there's a stunning slideshow, complete with curation, at the Christie's website. If you've got ten minutes, this is virtual antiquarian dataviz windowshopping at its best.

There appear to be 160 lots; Tufte's website describes it as "200 rare books, including major works in the history of science, statistical graphics, 20th-century artists books, ET artworks, Sidereus Nuncius (1610), Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499)." Apparently Tufte intends to use the proceeds to fund his gallery ET Modern, among other art projects.

If, like me, you've taken Tufte's course on data visualization, you've already seen some of these books - he uses them in his lectures. And if you are in NYC, Tufte's website promises that

at ET Modern, ET will show special rare books from his library to be auctioned at Christie's on December 2, 2010. He will discuss how those books participated in creating his own books, especially Beautiful Evidence. These historic, beautiful, rare, important books on show include: Galileo's Starry Messenger (1610), Hypnerotomachia (1499), Durer on measurement (1532), Cousin on perspective (1560), Bayer's first accurate star atlas (1603), Playfair on statistical graphics (1785), and two of Picasso's artists books. Free lecture at ET Modern on Thursday November 18 at 7.00pm, and again on Friday November 19 at 2.00pm. Free lecture at Christie's (where all 200 books will be on view) on Monday November 29 at 2.00pm and again on Tuesday November 30 at 2.00pm.

More:

Christie's slideshow of the lots for auction.
Christie's catalogue for the auction, with detailed curator's notes.
Tufte's comment on the sale.

Can't afford a Christie's bid? There's always Amazon. . .

Via Slashdot.

Tags
Books & Essays
Conspicuous consumption
Dataviz
design
ephemera
history of science
Littademia
Museum Lust
Retrotechnology and steampunk
Wonder Cabinets

More like this

"Anatomy as Art" auction at Christie's
  These illustrations by Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty are part of a collection which is to be auctioned off at Christie's in New York on October 5th. The auction, which is called Anatomy as Art: The Dean Endell Medical Collection, has 229 lots, including the first edition of De Humani…
Book Review: Visual Language for Designers (and Scientists)
Modeling the flight of a bat (click to enlarge) Dave Willis et. al., Brown University and MIT Visual complexity is a paradox. On the one hand, complexity is a compelling feature known to capture a viewer's attention and stimulate interest. . . . On the other hand, complexity only arouses curiosity…
If you're chased by an angry mob armed with infographics...
A short (~4 minute) sweet overview of the political power of data visualization, by Tufte disciple Alex Lundry. He says so-called "dataviz" exists (you guessed it) "at the intersection of art and science." Quite right, sir! You'll note Lundry makes use of the classic pirates-global warming…
Juxtaposition #8
Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace)Fritz Kahn, 1926 Pintura/Anatomias, SintonizandoFernando Vicente, 2000 The suddenly blogospherically ubiquitous pinup-artist turned anatomical illustrator Fernando Vicente is clearly influenced by German artist Fritz Kahn. If this is your…