A Chinese bible given to a UK charity shop has made nearly £60,000 at auction.
The book, thought to be the first complete copy of the Bible in a Chinese language, was given to an Oxfam bookshop in Chelmsford, Essex. It was auctioned by Bonhams in a sale that ended last Thursday, March 20.
The Bible, in a translation by John Lassar and Joshua Marshman, was spotted by shop volunteers as potentially valuable.
But it far exceeded the £600 to £800 estimate given before the two-week online sale, and realised £56,280.
Nick Reeves, Oxfam Chelmsford’s bookshop manager, said: “We were sat watching the bidding and just seeing it go up and up. When it finally ended, I was in complete shock. We were absolutely speechless.
“It’s amazing to think that a donation from our shop could help raise that much money for Oxfam. It’s just wonderful.”
Serampore College today. Translator Joshua Marshman helped found the institution in the Indian city where he published this Bible. Image: By cc-by 3.0, CC BY 3.0.
This Chinese bible was published in five parts in Serampore – now in West Bengal in India – from 1817. Collected together and bound, It was owned by a Thomas Dickson, whose mother gave it to him on March 28, 1836 according to an inscription.
It was by far the most valuable item in a collection of 23 books donated to Oxfam shops auctioned at the Bonhams sale.
A signed, first edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens made £16,640; a Dickens autograph with a quote from the same book sold for £12,160.
Dr Lorenza Gay, Bonhams associate specialist – books and manuscripts, said: “For more than 20 years, Bonhams has proudly worked with Oxfam bookshops, and we are thrilled that we’ve been able to use our expertise and platform once again to deliver brilliant results for the charity.
“The Lassar and Marshman Chinese translation of the Bible was an exceedingly rare item, which we could not trace at auction previously. We hoped it would exceed the estimate, but it definitely surprised us with the final price achieved. This remarkable outcome is great news for the important work Oxfam does around the world.”
Joshua Marshman was a missionary and translator originally from Wiltshire in the UK. He was one of the founders of Serampore University, where he worked as a missionary from 1799.
Johannes Lassar was an Armenian, born in Macao, who assisted on several translation projects.
