VALUABLE COLLECTIONS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 8 January 1927, Page 11

VALUABLE COLLECTIONS

ROMANCE AT THE AUCTION

SALES AT CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S

Ek, OOKS. autograph letters, and documents of various kinds produced £3990 recent- * ly at Sotheby’s, the highest price, £7BO, being paid by Mr Fleming, a private collector, for a copy of the first edition ol Robert Burns s “Poems,” published at Kilmarnock in 1786. This copy is of “association” interest, for if has the book-plate of James, Earl of Glencairn, whose kindness to the poet found expression in the beautiful lament which Burns wrote on the Earl’s death. The copy sold is bound in contemporary, and has. therefore, been slightly “trimmed”; it was the property of the late Mr David Barlas, of Edinburgh, as was also the presentation copy from the translator of Sir Walter Scott’s version of Goethe’s “Goetz of Berlichingen, ” 1799—£19. The second highest price, £520, was paid for Mr 0. Hawkshaw’s extra-illustrated copy of Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson.” 1831, extended to 16 folio volumes by the addition of over 900 portraits, views, drawings, and autograph letters. A set of the first edition of Dickens’s “Pickwick Papers.” 1836-7, in the original parts, but wanting Part X., with wrappers and some of the advertisements, £470; G. L. Dodgson. “ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” 1886, and .Mice's Adventures Under Ground,” 1886, both inscribed presentation copies to the vendor. Miss Edith Martin (now Mrs E. E. Pitt), £SO; R. L. Stevenson, “The La urea t Ste’enson.” Edinburgh. 1885. four pages, exceedingly rare. £l6O. Among the MSS. were:—John Dawland. “A Collection of Songs and Dances by Dowland and Others,” circa 1600, on 136 leaves. £390 (this volume has continued until now in the possession of the composer’s family) ; Lope do Vega Oarpio, the manuscript (partly autograph) of his play “De Desdichado Este.jania. 1604, 70 pages, £IOO. (The last MS. was ac(|uired in Spain by the 4th Earl of Clarendon during his official residence there, 1833-39, and was now sold as the property of his descendant. Mr Gerald H. Villicrs). Christie’s began their season of sales in London recently with decorative furniture, objects

of art, and porcelain from varicv.: . the total amounting to £4305. A set of eight Tfepplewhite mahogany armchairs, carved with honeysuckle ornament, etc., brought 440 guineas; a marquerterie pedestal table of "French design, 17 inches wide, 205 guineas; a commode of Louis XV. design, with ormolu mounts, 44 inches wide, 270 guineas; a Sheraton writing table, 4 feet wide, 170 guineas; an Elizabethan oak court cupboard, inlaid with flowers in marqueterie, 75 inches wide,, 210 guineas; and a Spanish six-leaf leather screen, painted with Chinese figures, 8 feel high, 125 guineas. Some high prices were paid at Puttielc and Simpson’s during a three days’ sale of Mr E. J. Pillisoher’s extensive collection of postage stamps of Great Britain and the colonies Issued during the reign of King <leorge W The principal lots in the order of sale were: Cyprus, 1922-23, Mock of four £l. purple and black on red, £52; Kenya and Uganda, 1921-22. block of four 50 rupees, carmine and green. £9O; Malta. 1919-20/ block of four 10s black. £120; Rhodesia, 1913-22, block of four £1 black and purple. £2B; St. Kitts-Nevis. 1923, tercentenary issue, block of four £1 purple on red, £4O; Sierra Leone, 1912-16, block of four £5 green and orange. £3O; and Straits Settlements. Trengganu. 1910-19, block of four 25 dollars, green and carmine, £32 10s. At Hurcomb’s sale, at Calder House. Piccadilly, a total of £SOOO was realised for jewels and silver. A Charles IT. plain tankard. 431 oz, sold at 250 s per oz—£s43 15s; and an antique bullet teapot, lloz., at 180 s per oz.— £9B. The tankard is said to have been sold a short time ago. with some other articles, for about £3O. 7b At Mesrs Glendining’s, Oxford circus, the Victoria Cross awarded to Private William Norman, of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, for his achievement in the Crimean War, brought £9O. The choice library of English literature, ancient and modern, formed by Mr Harry Cllemby, of New York—sold at the Anderson Galleries in that eitv recently—brought. 98,000 dollars (£19.600).