The Dukes of Dorchester Rare books sale (mentioned here and here) went off without a hitch today, reports the Dorset Echo. The Kelmscott Press edition of Chaucer's works sold for £74,000 (a new record for a Kelmscott Press book); it was beat out for the top price by a first edition of Newton's Principia Mathematica, which went for £75,000 (or over £90,000 with the added premium).
A Newton Euclid sold for £62,000, and a first edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species hammered in at £42,000. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations fetched £34,000, and a subscriber's edition of T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom was had for £22,000.
Auctioneer Guy Schwinge "said the majority of books would go to private collectors and dealers though he believed some would go to museums." All told, nearly a million pounds was realized in today's sale.
