Record Price for Oliver Twist

Full results haven't been released yet, but today's Christie's sale of The Kenyon Starling Library of Charles Dickens has already set at least one record: the presentation copy of Oliver Twist I mentioned on Monday sold for a hammer price price including premium of $229,000, setting a new Dickens record (the previous was $160,000, paid for a first edition of A Christmas Carol in 1996). Pre-sale estimates on the Twist, inscribed to William Harrison Ainsworth, were for $200,000-300,000.

More results from the sale as they're available.

[Update: full results are available here. The total for the sale was $1.9 million, just inside the estimate range. The manuscript leaf from The Pickwick Papers failed to sell. Two lots besides the Oliver Twist made more than $100,000: a Christmas presentation copy of the first separate edition of The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) with significant provenance (estimated at $40-60K, sold for $115,000); and a presentation copy to the Count D'Orsay of The Cricket on the Hearth (1846, i.e. 1845). This was estimated at $60-80K, and fetched $145,000.]