| THE SALE of a profusely extra-illustrated Bible that was once part of the Revd Franke Parker’s 1883 bequest to the Bishop Philpotts library in Truro reached £55,000 last year (News, 15 December).
The book was packed with 9000 additional prints and original drawings. What made the story was that this monster, 65-volume Bible came from a bulk disposal of early books by the Truro library, now housed in Exeter, which had earned the library just £36,000.
If the trustees were disturbed to hear that news, they could not have been happy to hear last month that a further small group of those unwanted Parker-Philpotts books had sold for nearly £400,000 at Sotheby’s.
Cramped for space and in latter years under-used, the library had been making efforts to catalogue and refine its stock and to rebuild its role as a working library. Although the library is housed at Exeter diocesan house, it functions as an independent trust.
The decision to sell the residue of unwanted earlier material was part of that plan. Insurance costs and difficulties in providing adequate storage were also cited as reasons for the sale.
At this point, some libraries might have called in an auction house to advise and evaluate. Had the trustees themselves gone to Sotheby’s — where many of their finest books ended up this summer — they would now be in a much better position to further their primary aim of encouraging better use of their resources.
They chose instead to invite book dealers to make offers; but it seems, perhaps, that, of those who looked at the books, only one had any real notion of what treasures might be found. Over a period of two years, some showed little or no interest, and others made offers that were rejected as ridiculous, but three more serious bids were received. The final offer of £36,000 from a London dealer, John Thornton, was accepted.
There was, I am told, a feeling by this time that the matter was dragging on, and the trustees wanted the matter settled. There was no hasty sell-off, and their intentions were good, but for them the story has gone from sad to far, far worse.
Carting away vanloads of old theological books is not everyone’s idea of a good deal, but on this occasion the buyer struck it rich.
Among the more important items sold at Sotheby’s last month was a 1470 Augsburg first edition of Flavius Josephus’s great Jewish history, Antiquitates judaicae (£78,000); a six-volume Complutensian Polyglot Bible of 1514-17, the first of the polyglot Bibles and a monument of the art of printing (£69,600); and the 1518 Aldine Greek Bible, the first complete Bible in Greek (£60,000).
It may seem remarkable that works of this stature, however shabby their appearance, should be overlooked by the librarian and trustees, though it should also be noted that most dealers who came to view did not, if they saw them, appear to recognise their worth, either.
But the tale may be seen as a cautionary one by others with books to dispose of. Take all the expert advice you can get..
In simple terms, what has happened is this: Sotheby’s, who could in happier circumstances have been acting for the Truro library trustees, made more from their commission and fees alone in selling just a few of the books for another client than the Bishop Philpotts library made on the whole transaction. |
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