“One of the finest complete collections of first editions by Jane Austen to ever come to auction” will be sold in New York next month.
The Austen works lead Christie’s Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts including Americana sale from October 2 to 16 online.
These items come from the Norland collection, and belong to an “East Coast Gentleman”.
An 1813 copy of Pride and Prejudice carries an estimate of $120,000 to $180,000. Sense and Sensibility (1811) is listed for $80,000 to $120,000. A copy of Mansfield Park from 1814 is expected to make $30,000 to $50,000.
A manuscript of an unpublished novel by Austen sold for just under £1 million in 2011. A first edition Sense and Sensibility brought in $241,300 at auction in December 2023. A signed copy of Emma made £375,000 in 2022.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, to whom Christopher Columbus wrote his first account of the journey to the Americas.
The most valuable item in the sale based on estimate is a copy of De Insulis nuper inventis by Christopher Columbus. It carries an estimate of $1.5 to $2 million.
The work is a copy of a letter by Columbus describing his first journey across the Atlantic, apparently written on the return trip. This copy is dated 1494. In 2023, a copy from 1493 made $3.9 million.
Also for sale at Christie’s is a copy of Langland’s Piers Plowman, printed in 1540. A manuscript copy of the recently discovered Robert Frost poem, Nothing New, from 1918 also features. As does The booke callyd Caton printed by William Caxton in 1483: one of the first books printed in England after Caxton founded the first press in 1476.
Items yet to be listed will include original Beatles material say Christie’s.
