The range of material as well as sheer numbers of books within those 221 lots was impressive. It stretched from job lots of posters relating to the Irish troubles to a large conchology section among the natural history books.
However, the item shown above is a two-volume official report of the notorious XIth Olympic Games, held under Hitler’s gaze in Berlin in 1936.
This set, showing some unsightly discolouration to the gilt decorated bindings, sold for £200 in Cockermouth, but these official reports were produced in small numbers and aimed principally at institutions. In 1995, at Christie’s South Kensington, a set was bid to £1400 but no other copy seems to have been offered at auction since then.