Hanson has held valuation days at the property for the last three years.
Over 300 lots will be offered ’on the premises’ on October 13 and more as part of an attic clearance on October 16. Lots from other vendors will be offered across six days of selling.
Unearthed in a cupboard
A first-edition copy of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was unearthed in a cupboard during final preparations for the sale. It promises be comfortably the most valuable item on offer: the auction house expects the two-volume work, properly titled Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, to bring £30,000-£50,000. It will be included in the mixed-vendor sale of prints, maps and books titled The Library Auction on October 15.
When first published by London firm Strahan and Cadell in 1776, Smith’s masterpiece, the basis of modern economic thought, cost £1 16 shillings, with the first edition running to around 2000 copies. The Bishton copy retains its original, if defective, calf gilt binding.
Other highlights from the property include a Victorian Gothic Revival silver-gilt and enamel chalice and paten in the manner of William Burges with markers for JW, Birmingham and the date letters 1885 (chalice) and 1884 (paten). It is estimated at £7000-10,000.
