These sums were well over estimate but what one might expect for Jane Austen in the original bindings, but while the bid of £11,000 on an 1814 first of Mansfield Park, the three volumes bound in 19th century half calf boards, made no more than a treble estimate £11,000 in selling to a collector, competition became even fiercer for copies of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. These, like Mansfield Park, bore the bookplates of the 14th Lord Grey, sometime Postmaster General and President of the Society of Antiquaries, and were bound in contemporary half calf gilt and marbled boards. A three vol. 1811 first edition of Janes Austen’s first book, Sense and Sensibility sold at £28,000 to a private buyer, while Pride and Prejudice of 1813 was bid up to £48,000.
Sotheby's, English Literature & History sale, December 14
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Emma
UK: IN THE original grey-brown paper boards with printed paper labels on the spines, these first edition copies of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, four vols. 1818, and Emma, three vols. 1816, sold at £19,000 and £22,000 respectively to an un-named US dealer.
