ere Jim Spencer, Head of Books and Works on Paper at Hansons Auctioneers, reveals the top lots in his October Library Auction – including a hidden gem found in the nick of time which sold for £65,000.
What could be more tempting, in
the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’, than a curious old tome
and a large glass of something rich and warming?
Our quarterly Library
Auction of Books & Works on Paper has been making headlines around the
world with its unusual offerings – we’ll never forget the
300-year-old sex manual – and breaking records with its hammer
prices.
I work hard to deliver the best results for my clients and to
bring books to the widest audience; I don’t believe books should be elitist or
unnecessarily stuffy or academic.
I enjoy a little pomposity as much as the
next antiquarian book enthusiast, but I do like to find a sales
angle to generate excitement around every object that I
catalogue.
As much as I love the peace and solitude of being away
from a computer, I understand the importance of presenting items to the
international market with enticing descriptions. The internet has democratised
the antiques industry, and it’s good to think that collectors can
buy comfortably and confidently at auction, just like they would from a
retailer.
And so, once again, we witnessed the buzz of a book sale,
with collectors exploring the bookcases and cabinets, enthusing about the
wonderful old leather-bound volumes, and all in the glorious setting of Bishton
Hall, a beautiful ivy-clad Georgian mansion in Staffordshire.
The best things always turn up at
the eleventh hour. I’ll never forget the Medieval illuminated manuscript
Psalter that arrived in the post just 30 minutes before the catalogue was going
to print, with a note stating, ‘it’s probably nothing, but I forgot to show you
when you visited the house’.
This time it was a first edition of Adam
Smith’s Wealth of Nations, discovered at the last minute beneath a silver
cabinet, where the family used to store hymn books and boxing
gloves. It was a magical moment and I had to catch my breath when I saw
it. It sailed above guide price to fetch £65,000.
A manuscript night-watchman’s journal dating from the 1830s generated huge interest from the moment I first mentioned it. I found myself being interviewed at radio stations to discuss the wonderful entries recorded in its pages (one poor fellow was imprisoned for three months for scrumping six pears), and I was confident that it would race past its conservative guide price of £300-400.
It
sold to a private collector in the UK for £2,100. From the same house in Belper
I discovered a soldier’s diary and sketch book recording a tour of India in the
1850s which rocketed away for £3,400.
My reputation for erotic
literature shows no sign of diminishing, and a very scarce part-set of the
Marquis de Sade’s notorious work, Justine, dated 1797, clearly aroused the
interest of bidders as it reached its climax at £8,200. Napoleon Bonaparte
famously ordered the destruction of this work and so it was a thrill to
discover this elusive and beautifully bound collection.
Among the more unusual works on
paper was an interesting set of autograph letters revealing a spat between
Churchill and ‘Monty’, which fetched £1,300.
Meanwhile, a little handmade
18th-century Valentine’s card, a love token or puzzle
purse, soared to £750. A super archive of Rolls-Royce ephemera raced away
for £1,400. And an interesting album of 19th-century photographs
of the English landed gentry galloped to £800.
As for curiosities, well, there
were the cased sets of prosthetic glass eyes (£3,200), an original Wicca
witch’s wand made by Alex Sanders (£520) and Pope Leo XIII’s skull-cap (£440).
The Library Auction at Hansons is
well-known by map collectors, and this sale didn’t disappoint. We had some
important 17th-century maps by Joan Blaeu, including the Moscow
Kremlin in Russia (£1,800) and Lithuania (£700). An interesting early-18th
century map of Malta by Alexis-Hubert Jaillot sold for £1,000; a John Speed map
of Poland fetched £800, and a double-hemisphere world map by Adam
Friedrich Zürner went under the gavel for £1,350.
The prints section of the sale
was a popular event with a number of signed limited editions by Jack Vettriano
(including Game On, which fetched £620), an etching of a boy by Gerald
Brockhurst (£380), a signed Artist Proof by Norman Ackroyd (£520) and a very
scarce set of 18th-century engravings depicting an initiation ceremony at a
secret society (£800).
I now look forward to the next
Library Auction in December, and already I am burrowing like a mole through a
hill of books (I have just received 350 different editions of The Compleat
Angler!), so I intend to maintain the momentum and passion to build yet another
exciting and fruitful sale.
