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Stride’s September sale contained a good
muster of items of historical significance and not surprisingly these
achieved some good prices. A Letters Patent of 1553 granting various
manors in Surrey and Sussex to Lord William Howard, once the property of
the Duke of Norfolk, ‘now attainted of high treason’, made £1150 (plus
buyers premium). This vellum document had an initial portrait letter of
the boy king. Edward VI, together with his great seal. Another Howard, the
prison reformer John, made £1000 with a first edition of his life work,
‘The State of the Prisons in England and Wales’. A good collection of C17
letters and documents of a Yorkshire family sold for £2500 and a notebook
of the same vintage containing theological notes intermixed with comments
on the Civil War, attracted much interest, selling well above estimate at
£525. Nearer the present time a small archive of material relating to a
Times War Correspondent sold in 5 lots for £1615. Included was a
collection of photographs taken on the Hunza Campaign of 1891 and his war
correspondent’s pass for the Spanish/American War of 1898.
Books on offer included some fine bindings, in
particular a pristine sixty volume set of the works of Walter Scott in
uniform polished calf for £550. But the item to attract most interest were
two battered copies of ‘The Conjuror’s Magazine’ 1791-93. Catalogued with
an estimate of £30-40 these made an astonishing £580. This magazine is
apparently very rare and much sought after by conjuring collectors as the
first reference in print to conjuring in England.
More predictably illustrated books sold well.
Kay Nielson’s ‘East of the Sun and West of the Moon’ first trade edition
1914 made £320, and two Rackham illustrated editions of Wagner’s ‘The
Rhinegold & The Valkerie’ and ‘Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods’
made £200 and £260 respectively.
Inevitably the sale reflected current Nelson
fever with several lots of Nelsoniana on offer. Results however were
rather mixed. Best price was £320 for Clarke’s two volume ‘Life of Admiral
Lord Nelson’ first edition 1809.
Other significant prices were £410 for Erskine
Childers ‘Riddle of the Sands’ first edition 1903 and £400 for a
miscellaneous lot, estimated at £40-50 but no doubt containing some hidden
treasure.
Ephemera and photograph albums sold well. An
album recording the work of a field ambulance unit throughout World War 1,
including Gallipoli and Palestine, went for £520. A circular letter
encouraging emigration from India to South Australia in 1839 made £400 and
collections of local C19 billheads sold at prices ranging from £10 to
£140. But of most local interest was a fixture card for Brighton and Hove
Albion’s 1914/15 season. This soared well above a modest estimate to £120.
How many more are waiting to be discovered?
Stride’s next Book and
Document Sale is on Friday 2nd December.
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