"PICKWICK PAPERS"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21467, 15 April 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

"PICKWICK PAPERS"

SOME MEMORABLE SALES A veteran Dickensian, Mr. Thomas Hatton, of Leicester, tried his luck again at Sotheby's in London recently with the romaindor of his remarkable collection. When his " nearly perfect " set of tho original issues of tho " Pickwick Papers " brought £I4BO at tho end of 1931 ono could not expect that ho had formed another of this rank, especially as lie had already sold a Simon Puro sot (occupying twenty years in its formation) which realised £32 GO in 1927. Tho price for this third set, £2lO, should therefore bo considered adequate, as the series was not comparable in " points " with either of tho two more famous sets formed by Mr. Hatton. There was even a fourth set of less pretentious qualities—and this was well sold at £52, an increase of £l2 on tho price at which it went back to Mr. Hatton after the salo in November, 1931. As for the maximum sum ever given for a perfect " Pickwick," it stands at £5600, tlio amount paid in tho wonderful Ivern sale, New York, four years ago. Before this, in 1922, tho absolutely complete set which Dickens had given to tho younger sister of Mary Hogarth w*ais sold privately in America for £5500, to join tho Elkins collection. This sot had been picked up in London for only 100 guineas in 1599, but, as the Dickens auction craze had not then begun, it was considered to be a goodly sum. But what about tho original manuscript of "Pickwick"? A few pages havo survived, and five of them —which Dickens had gaily given to a Halifax admirer —wero bought by tho Rosonbachs for as much as £7500 in 1928. Thero was a minor boom too, recently for tho works of John Galsworthy, and a first edition, 1901, of his " Man of Devon," purporting to bo by " John Sinjohn," fetched £4G.