Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Auction Report: Recent Highlights

- On 24 March, PBA Galleries sold Property of a Gentleman: Modern Literature, in 279 lots. Of those, just 176 lots sold, with the high price going to an inscribed first issue of Of Mice and Men, for $3,000.

- Also on 24 March, Bloomsbury London sold books in Food & Allied Subjects, including the Cookery Library of the late Alan Davidson, Country Pursuits and Natural History, in 469 lots. The top seller was a set of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, in the original 24 parts, which made £7,000.

- This morning, 29 March, Bonhams London sold Paper & Portraits: The Roy Davids Collection II, in 503 lots. The only known John Keats letter to Fanny Brawne in private hands sold for £96,000, while a Walter Ralegh letter to Bess of Hardwick made £36,000. A James Joyce letter describing his difficulties publishing Ulysses sold for £33,600.

[Update: The Keats letter was purchased by the City of London Corporation and will be displayed at Keats House in Hampstead.]