Results: Sotheby's London Books and Manuscripts

On December 7th Sotheby's London held a book and manuscripts sale.  The sale totaled $23.6 million and included a record price for a book at auction.

The sale offered 92 lots of which 81 sold for a buy through rate of just over 90%.  The top selling lot and record for a book at auction was a four volume set by John James Audubon, The Birds of America. London, 1827-1838 which sold for $11.54 million. The four volume set was purchased by London dealer Michale Tollemache.  The pre sale estimate of the Audubon set was $$6.3 million to $9.45 million.

Click HERE (email readers to go to the AW Blog home page) to watch a video (pre sale) on the Audubon and other books in this auction.  The video player is located at the top of the right side column.

Sotheby's reported on the sale

John James Audubon’s Birds of America, sold at Sotheby’s London for £7,321,250/ US$11,542,683, establishing a new world record for any printed book ever sold at auction. A fiery enthusiasm among four collectors bidding on the phones and in the room drove the price rapidly beyond pre-sale expectations (£4-6 million/US$6.3-9.5 million). The book was bought by London dealer Michael Tollemache, who was bidding in the room and who described the work after the sale as “priceless”.

The Audubon was part of the sale of Magnificent Books, Manuscripts and Drawings from the Collection of Frederick, 2nd Lord Hesketh which totalled £14,971,950 / US$23,604,776 - over a pre-sale estimate of £8-11.8 million/ US$12.7-18.6 million – the highest price ever achieved for a single-session sale of Books and Manuscripts ever held in London. The sale was 99.6% sold-by-value and 90% sold-by-lot.

David Goldthorpe, Sotheby’s Director, Books and Manuscripts Department, said after the sale: “Lord Hesketh’s magnificent copy of Audubon’s Birds of America fully deserved the extraordinary price it achieved today (£7.3 million) which represents a record price for a printed book at auction. It is a remarkable work – both in terms of its scale, and in terms of the dedication that went into producing
it. To have handled such rare and splendid volumes has been a privilege and a joy.”

Aside from the record price achieved for the Audubon, a number of other new benchmark prices were set:

• Forty letters relating to the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots, including four letters signed by Queen Elizabeth I, sold for £349,250/ US$550,628 (est. £150,000-200,000) – a record for a group of Elizabethan manuscripts at auction.

• A splendid watercolour of “The Four Seasons Rose” by Pierre-Joseph Redouté sold for £265,250/ US$418,193 – a record for a watercolour by the artist at auction. The work was part of a series of 50 watercolour drawings by Redouté (“The Raphael of Flowers”). The group, which was estimated to fetch £1.4-1.9 million, made £3,320,450 /US$5,235,021.

•A textually complete copy of the ‘First Folio’ of William Shakespeare, one of the most important books in English Literature and the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, sold for £1,497,250/ US$2,360,564 (est. £1-1.5 million). The work was purchased by Stephan Loewentheil.