March 2015 |
"Pilgrimes" Purchased for $85,000
At $85,267 (£57,000), this finely bound set of Samuel Purchas's Pilgrimes (1625-26)
was the top lot at the third sale of the Brooke-Hitching library at
Sotheby's London last week. Over forty years this collector had amassed a
stunning collection of rare books related to voyages, exploration, and
discovery between 1576-1939. As our correspondent Ian McKay reported in FB&C's winter issue,
"Records have become almost commonplace where the two sales so far
conducted to disperse the magnificent Franklin Brooke-Hitching library
... are concerned." McKay went on to highlight two examples of the
"superlative condition" and rarity "that the collector always strove
for."
On March 19, there were three more record-breakers, according to Sotheby's: $66,731 (£45,000) for the Huth-Penrose copy of Mortimer's Observations and Remarks made during a Voyage... in the Brig Mercury (1791); $51,902 (£35,000) for Middleston's The Last East-Indian Voyage (1606); and $48,194 (£32,500) for a first edition of Lind's landmark, A Treatise of the Scurvy (1753).
The sale achieved a total of $1.8 million (£1.2) well above its pre-sale high estimate. The final sale (Q-Z) will be held in London on September 30.
Image: Courtesy of Sotheby's.
On March 19, there were three more record-breakers, according to Sotheby's: $66,731 (£45,000) for the Huth-Penrose copy of Mortimer's Observations and Remarks made during a Voyage... in the Brig Mercury (1791); $51,902 (£35,000) for Middleston's The Last East-Indian Voyage (1606); and $48,194 (£32,500) for a first edition of Lind's landmark, A Treatise of the Scurvy (1753).
The sale achieved a total of $1.8 million (£1.2) well above its pre-sale high estimate. The final sale (Q-Z) will be held in London on September 30.
Image: Courtesy of Sotheby's.
