Graham Greene's Rumour at Nightfall, brought to Bloomsbury by the charity Oxfam, realized a world record price of $36,300.
:Bloomsbury's sale of modern first editions, literature and history, economics and law on March 13 was a big success, emphasizing once again that Bloomsbury is the natural home of first editions.
The star of the modern firsts section was undoubtedly a single Graham Greene,
Rumour at Nightfall
. Brought to Bloomsbury by the charity Oxfam, it realized a world record price of $36,300. As Greene had never allowed it to be reprinted, there is a paucity of this book on the market, which combined with its extremely rare dust-jacket — not only torn but water-damaged — it broke previous records of around $24,000. Had it been in good condition, Roddy Newlands, Bloomsbury's modern firsts expert, said he believes it might have fetched more than $40,000.
Among the Conan Doyle items, a signed first edition
of The Hound of the Baskervilles
sold for $3,830, just under five times the higher estimate. The first English edition in book form of "The Waste Land" by TS Eliot made $9,290. Bloomsbury regularly breaks its own record prices for Ian Fleming, and in this sale the Bond books all did extremely well. There were three 1955
Moonraker
first editions — one with a near full-page signed inscription fetched $21,200; the following lot made $12,000; and the copy made $2,800.
From Russia, With Love,
with an inscription reading, "To Gomer Who has helped James Bond so much & so long," sold for $33,300, probably because Bond himself was mentioned in the inscription.
Other highlights included a group of privately owned first edition Jane Austen books. Austen's first book,
Sense and Sensibility
, 1811, had a contemporary author attribution of "Miss Austen," and it sold for $24,200.
Pride and Prejudice,
also in three volumes, made $33,300;
Mansfield Park
fetched $6,460,
Emma
made $11,400, and
Northanger Abbey
sold for just above its higher estimate at$7,250.
Prices have been converted from British pounds to US dollars and include the buyer's premium.
For information, +44 20 7495 9494 or
www.bloomsburyauctions.com
.
