KIPLING AND THE COLLECTORS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 61, 5 December 1928, Page 11

KIPLING AND THE COLLECTORS

“ITEMS” TO BE OFFERED AT SOTHEBY’S Dominion Special Service. London, October 17. A series of 26 Kipling items, several of which are of those eagerly sought at high prices by collectors, will be offered at Sotheby’s in a few weeks’ time. A few days ago Mr. Bernard Shaw gave the following counsel: “I strongly advise my friends to sell any scrap of any letters of mine they may have. There is a boom in such things, and they might as well get the best prices they can. The market is better than it has been for years.” The extent of Kipling spoil that has recently come under the hammer in London and New York suggests that admirers of Mr. Rudyard Kipling desire to take advantage of a “good market,” though it is by no means certain whether valuations have reached anything like their highest, albeit, to cite ti notable instance, the Plumtre Johnson copy of “The Smith Administration,” 1891, fetched the equivalent of £2867 in America last November. The first “lot,” belonging to “A Lady.” possesses a unique attraction. This example of the first edition, 1881, of “Schoolboy Lyrics,” printed in India by the young author’s parents while he was at school in England, is in the original white paper wrappers, the outer top one of which bears a spirited pen-and-ink design by the writer introducing tailed devils, grotesque figures, flowers, etc., with a monogram signature at the base. This is the only known example so embellished. Measuring 6 13-16 in. by 4 5-16 in.. it is only a shade smaller than the largest copy known, 6 7-Sin. by 4Jin., which at the Plumtre Johnson dispersal realised 4750 dollars (about £973) eleven months ago. Bibliographers state that two copies only have been traced of “Letters of Marque,” Vol. I, published by Sampson Low in IS9I, practically the whole edition of 1500 having been destroyed. The G. M. Williamson example came under the hammer in 1915, Captain Martindeil’s in 1921, when it fetched £l5O, and again last January when the price soared to 10,900 dollars. A third, in original wrappers, and in exceptionally fine condition, will be competed for at Sotheby’s. There also occurs tiie holograph manuscript, comprising 21 quatrians, of “With Scindia to Delhi,” with variant lines in red, differing slightly from the poem as it appears in “Barrack Room Ballads,” first published iii 1892.