Cat-Themed Books by Poe, Colette, and Warhol to Auction

A four-part sale series featuring one of the most significant private collections of cat-related books and art ever assembled begins tomorrow at Bonhams.

The Sandy Lerner Collection from American businesswoman and philanthropist Sandy Lerner (b.1955) features nearly 1,000 lots and will be offered across a series of four auctions, two live and two online, taking place this month and next in New York and Massachusetts. 

Leading the sale is 25 Cats Name[d] Sam and One Blue Pussy by Andy Warhol, a rare, limited-edition, signed copy of Warhol's humorous book depicting the cats that lived with him in the Manhattan townhouse he shared with his mother Julia Warhola who also contributed the hand-lettering throughout the volume (estimate: $40,000-$60,000). 

Also going under the hammer is A Monograph of the Felidae or Family of Cats by Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835–1915), estimated at $40,000-$60,000, produced by leading American zoologist and American Museum of Natural History founder Daniel Giraud Elliot. It offered the most authoritative 19th century classification of the world's cats. 

Other highlights include:

• a limited edition of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe (estimate: $1,000-$1,500)
• first edition, first issue of The Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case inscribed by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll (estimate: $2,000-$3,000)
• Chats by Jacques (Lehmann) Nam and Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, estimated at $8,000-$12,000, a collaboration between French writer Colette and feline artist Jacques Nam comprising five signed aquatints and an original signed and inscribed gouache, issued in a deluxe edition of just 25 copies
• an original watercolor illustration on silk for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, circa 1902, by Beatrix Potter (estimate: $8,000-$12,000)
• A Book of Cats. Being Twenty Drawings by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886–1968), estimated at $30,000–$50,000, signed by the artist and limited to 500 copies