Friday, January 18, 2008

Auction Report: Lyon & Turnbull

Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull had a rare books sale on 16 January. A few highlights:
- Several views of London surpassed their estimates: an balloon-view of London taken in 1851 fetched £1050; a Matthias Merian prospect of the city c. 1650 made £1250, and a W. Hollar engraving of London and Westminster from c. 1700 sold for £1400

- An elaborately-decorated manuscript Qu'ran dated 1289 sold for £1200.

- A 1682 edition of Pierre Du Val's La Geographie du Temps made £2100, better than doubling its high estimate.

- A 48-volume Works of Charles Dickens from the library of Theodore Roosevelt sold for £1600.

- Signed copies of all seven Harry Potter books, sold to benefit a rugby club, made £5800.

- Twenty-two documents "relating to the position of John Gibson as Sir Winston Churchill's footman/valet" barely hit their estimate, reaching £320.

- The Mussolini telegram failed to sell.