A first edition copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969) will be offered at PBA Galleries in San Francisco on March 9.
It’s set to headline a sale of art, fine bindings and children’s books.
It is one of the most acclaimed children’s books of all time and has sold around 30m copies worldwide.
Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar remains enormously popular today
Carle has won numerous awards for its design, which makes innovative use of collage.
This example is valued at $5,000-8,000.
Another first edition copy of the book, featuring Carle’s own annotations, and one of only two known to feature his signature, made $16,000 at Christie’s in 2014.
The auction will also include pieces from Gary Dollar’s acclaimed Wizard of Oz collection.
A Wizard of Oz Waddle Book, published by Blue Ribbon Books circa 1934, is among the top lots with a valuation of $5,000-8,000.
It features cut out paper toys of characters from the story.
Of these, five of the original six are included, with only the parts for Toto missing (the original page is still bound in).
There are also several printing plates used to reproduce the illustrations for Frank L Baum’s original series, including one from page 341 of The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913) which is expected to sell for around $1,500-2,500.
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