However, in selling at £1100 in an online Forum (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of July 2, a copy of the 1894 George Allen edition containing some 160 line drawings as well as head and tailpieces, initials and other decorations by Hugh Thomson also set a record.
Some of the 250 large paper copies of that edition acquired special bindings and in 2003 Christie’s South Kensington took £1100 for a copy in a morocco gilt binding by Bayntun & Rivière that bore an onlaid design featuring Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.
The Forum copy of the ‘ordinary’ version was in the publisher’s binding bearing a peacock design that has featured before on these pages, but is surely worthy of another outing.
* The ex Hogan-Doheny copy of that 1816 edition, in repaired and cracked but rarely found original boards, was sold by Sotheby’s in 2010.
