Freeman's will be busy next week with two catalog sales: one devoted to rare books, maps, prints, and autographs; the next for a private collection that will partly benefit the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

More than 600 lots of books will be sold beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday at the gallery at 1808 Chestnut St.

The most unusual of the rare books is a signed typescript of Pat Conroy's first novel, The Great Santini, bound in crushed morocco with stylized silver and leather onlay representations of fighter jets, signifying the occupation of the title figure, a military pilot.

Although little more than 30 years old, the Xerox copy typescript has a presale estimate of $20,000 to $25,000, in part because it may be the only one in existence outside of the author's personal papers, according to a description in the auction catalog. It also is signed by the author and dated Feb. 23, 2003.

Four-figure prices are expected for several of the auction's works, including a map of Alexander Mackenzie's voyages to the New World ($2,500 to $4,000), a set of Chagall lithographs ($4,000 to $6,000), a first edition of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms ($2,000 to $3,000), a signed limited-edition first edition of James Joyce's Anna Livia Plurabelle, later to be incorporated into Finnegan's Wake ($1,500 to $2,500), and a portfolio of photographs, including a classic one of Joyce, signed by the photographer, Berenice Abbott ($2,000 to $32,000).

Another top item in the auction is a first edition of Noah Brooks' The Fairport Nine, published by Charles Scribner in 1880 and regarded, as the catalog says, as the first baseball novel. Its presale estimate is $800 to $1,200. Preview is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

Beginning at 10 a.m. next Friday, Freeman's will offer a 400-lot single-owner collection of porcelains, bronzes, and other decorative objects from the estate of William R. Frazier Jr., who died last year at the age of 77, with the proceeds primarily benefiting Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Frazier was a longtime securities broker who attended Bucknell University and Cornell University law school and who lived in Lafayette Hill, according to notes in the $30 auction catalog. He developed an early interest in art and sculpture, thanks in part to his German-born maternal grandfather, from whom he inherited a Venetian painting after Michele Marieschi. (That painting will be included in Freeman's June 21 sale of American and European paintings.)

Next Friday's sale includes two dozen paintings, mostly European, with presale estimates ranging from $500 to $3,500. That range of presale estimates prevails for all the auction categories, with a handful of exceptions.

Presale estimates of $3,000 to $5,000 are given for two Roman racing chariots, one drawn by two horses modeled after Gaetano Ferrari, the other with a classic three-horse team by the early-20th-century Italian Angiolo Vanetti, that are among the 40 bronzes in the auction.

And among the almost 100 porcelains in the auction are a large, late-19th-century Vienna cobalt urn-on-stand, with a presale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000, and a pair of Sevres gilt bronze urns, mounted as lamps, with a presale estimate of $5,000 to $7,000. The auction also includes a dozen lots of furniture and other miscellaneous items.

Previews are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. For information, call 215-563-9275, or to see the catalog online, go to www.freemansauction.com.

Three-day sale at Morphy's. Single-owner collections, including shaving mugs and vending-machine items, will be highlighted by Morphy Auctions at a three-day, 2,500-lot sale Thursday, next Friday and May 30 at the auction house at 2000 N. Reading Rd. in Denver, Pa., near Reading.

Among the 60 mugs collected by Bob Miller, the top entry is a boxing-themed mug owned by Charles Hitte, a turn-of-the-20th-century boxer who died at the age of 40 in a lurid, nonboxing injury. According to a New York Times account published Jan. 19, 1905, Hitte's throat was cut by a knife-wielding oyster-opener with whom he had quarreled outside a hotel in downtown Albany.

The mug is indisputably authentic, according to chief operating officer Dan Morphy, who notes that it was featured in the boxing and wrestling magazine The Ring in the 1960s. It is expected to sell for $7,000 to $10,000 at the May 30 session, which, like all three sessions, begins at 10 a.m.

The more than 100 antique and vintage chewing-gum dispensing machines, collected by Dwight Strouse, also will be offered at the May 30 session.

The first session Thursday will feature 200 antique, vintage, and postwar paper dolls collected by the late Phyllis Grindle, including some of the earliest "Profile People" dating to the late 18th century. Also in that session are cast-iron toys, furniture, and more than 100 pieces of Art Deco Bakelite jewelry, notably a rare "googly-eyed" sailor pin with a presale estimate of $2,500 to $3,500.

Next Friday's session will feature more than 100 mechanical and still banks, including a Butting Buffalo, a Jonah and the Whale, and a Boy on Trapeze model. The session also will feature a single-owner collection of pedal cars, including an Art Deco-style Gendron model known as the "city of Denver" that is expected to sell for $3,500 to $4,500.

All forms of bidding will be available, including live via the Internet. For details, visit the Morphy Web site at www.morphyauctions.com, call 717-335-3435, or e-mail dan@morphyauctions.com. Previews are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the sale site.

Memorial Day sales. Memorial Day auctions do not seem to be quite as popular as they were a decade or so ago, but a couple are scheduled that may appeal to holiday travelers to South Jersey. Beginning at 8 a.m. Monday in Malaga, Bob Brooks Auctions will offer more than 3,000 lots of antique and used furniture, glass, china, and accessories.

Furniture includes Victorian pieces, among them a late Victorian hall rack and four marble-top tables and an early Victorian full-size bed. Among accessories are several duck decoys, including ones signed by Les Van Brant of Barnegat, N.J., and another by Gene Hendrison of Lower Bank, N.J. The auction also features a 17-foot Magna Tracker boat with Sea Lion Trailer and Mercury outboard engine.

Previews are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow and 11 a.m to 5 p.m. Sunday at the sale site on Route 47, about a mile north of its intersection with Route 40. For information, call 856-694-2960.

And beginning at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow near the intersection of Route 40 and Route 77, Action Auctions & Appraisals will conduct a sale at the Elmer Grange, 535 Daretown Rd. (Route 635), featuring Civil War and other militaria, notably a large George 3d cast-iron cannon to be sold at 3 p.m. The auction also will feature items of South Jersey interest, including a glass cane and several Ware chairs made by the same Cumberland County family for several generations in the 19th and early 20th century.

Preview is noon to sale time. For information, call 856-332-3083.

Contact David Iams

at daiams@comcast.net.