That same sum secured a 30-vol. Doubleday ‘Crowborough’ Edition (1930) of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one volume signed but with the three-quarter blue levant and cloth gilt bindings now faded to brown on the spines.
A 16-volume Constable edition of the works of Herman Melville, 1922-24, in three-quarter blue morocco gilt, made $14,000 (£9860) and one of just 90 sets of the 1929 ‘Memorial’ edition of Mark Twain, the 37 volumes bound in three-quarter morocco gilt, but lacking the leaf from the manuscript of The Innocents Abroad that should have been in the first volume – was sold at $15,000 (£10,565).
Sumptuously presented…
Luxury sets were a feature of the Pacific Book Auctions sale of February 7 and seen left are sample volumes of a 48-volume set of the works of Alexandre Dumas, one of 1000 ‘Editions de Medicis’ sets published in Boston c.1900 and here sumptuously bound in dark green morocco gilt with red inlays to the covers, which reached $13,000 (£9155).
