The first hundred or so lots offered as part of a November 19 London sale comprised a splendid collection of railway books and ephemera compiled by the late Sir William McAlpine (1936-2018) of the famous building and engineering firm.
An introduction to this part of the catalogue of a Forum (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale was provided by Ed Maggs and Hugh Bett of the London bookseller Maggs Brothers.
The engine driver, fireman and the chap sitting on a truck loaded with sheep seem very relaxed in one of the three litho plates by Louis Hague after WW Young from a very rare copy of the c.1835, first and only published part of the latter’s Illustrations of the Great Western & Bristol & Exeter Railways. An uncoloured example, but in the original buff wrappers, it made £4000 at Forum.
They observed that while they were not in the habit of offering books at auction, this specialist section of McAlpine’s library was one they felt would benefit from a more public dispersal.
“He had a good dose of the family’s powerful collecting gene and filled his house with books, and his garden with trains, stations, lines, bridges and all the other wonderful hardware associated with the genre…” they wrote, adding: “His railway line was not long, but it importantly had a gradient of 1 in 13, which means that ascending engines can get up a really big head of steam.”
Sold for £6500 at Forum was an exceptional complete copy of Thomas Talbot Bury’s Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. A second (first combined) edition of 1832-33, its 13 coloured aquatint illustrations include three folding or double-page plates after I Shaw that are often lacking as they were sold separately to the main work. A copy of the 1837, first and only published part of Bury’s Six Coloured Views of the London & Birmingham Railway made £4800.
What they termed McAlpine’s ‘last’ book collection covered “…the engineering, commercial and cultural aspects of the history of the railways.
“There are rare colour plate books from the incunabulum days of rail; manuscript material from Huskisson and the Stephenson family; legal and commercial records of some of the greatest commercial enterprises of the industrial revolution; photographs and literature on thousands of engines.”
All that material is exemplified by a modest selection here of just eight of the more successful and higher-priced lots that offer a fair impression of the overall appeal of such a collection.
In excellent condition, this rare concertina-style peepshow in five sectional plates of the first German railway, published in 1835 in Nuremburg by GW Faber, made £2400 at Forum. The title/cover illustration features the maiden run of the Eagle, a Stephenson engine, and its carriages.
Worldwide network
As well as those illustrated, the sale’s highlights included, at £22,000, an album of some 150 items of manuscript and printed ephemera relating to ‘The Building of the World’s Railways’. Another album of some 200 prints relating to the early days of railways across the globe made £17,000.
While the McAlpine collection was primarily focused on British railways, one of its other notable successes was Brasil Estrada de Ferro de D.Pedro II: Vistas dos pontos mas importantes…
A copy in chromolitho wrappers of a work by C Linde, it was published in Rio de Janeiro in 1865 but with titles and the captions to the 29 litho plates, half of them tinted, provided in Spanish, English, French and German. It sold at £9000.
