£5,800 BIBLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1332, 9 January 1912, Page 6

£5,800 BIBLE.

OVER £10,000 PAID FOR THREE BOOKS.

In tho space of ten minutes the sum of .£10,750 was given for three ra.ro editions of the Bible by Mr. Quaritch at tho Huth sale at Messrs. Sotheby's rooms in London on November 20. The pick of the three was a copy of tho MazarinBible printed in H53-55, and, in tho opinion of the late Mr. Bernard Quaritch, "the finest copy I ever beheld or anybody else." In 18-12, at the Sykes sale, this work realised ,£199 10s.; fifty years later Mr. Huth acquired it for JU2715, and on November 20 it sold for .£SBOO. Tho bidding was opened by Mr. Quaritch with an offer of .£2OOO. soon to be increased by an offer of .£3OOO from Mr. Maggs. Then ensued an exciting contest, the lattor's bids being increased with unfailing regularity by his opponent. At .£5500 Mr. Quaritch had the call. No blandishments by the auctioneer, however, could induce Mr. Maggs to increase his final bid, but Mr. Sabin entered the field, only to retire defeated whon his offer of .£57/10 was nonchalantly capped by one of JEiiSOO from Mr. Quaritch. Scarcely less exciting was tho contest for a copy of the 1462 edition of tho Latin Bible on vellum, which Mr. Huth liad acquired in ISM for .£660. Again Mr. Quaritch repulsed all comers and was declared victor at .£3950. The third Bible, one of tho same edition as the latter, but on paper, acquired in 1863 for £225, fell at JEI9OO.

A remarkable profit was shown by the pale of a seventeenth-century Dutch work on Virginia, which realised ,£350, as against a purchase Drico of JEIS 15s. in 1864. The afternoon's total amounted to over .£17,000, making nearly .£40,000 for the first four days of the sale.

Tho sale of the first portion of tho famous library came to a close on November 23. the total realised being i:50,8'21.