CHURCHILL AUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 24331, 21 October 1942, Page 3

CHURCHILL AUCTION

BOONS SOLD THIS MORNING

ERRATIC IDEAS OF VALUES

The Churchill Auction, to which the publie has been contributing literary and artistic treasures for many weeks past, was commenced this morning in the Otago Art Society’s rooms, and will continue until everything is sold. Books only,"including many rare copies of first and early editions of works dealing with New Zealand and Australia, were offered, and there was a fair attendance of collectors, librarians, and dealers. In a few cases values were realised, ■ but in the majority of instances a singular lack of appreciation of the worth of certain works was evident, and the auctioneer had a struggle to obtain bids. This applied particularly to volumes of a general nature, and where classics were offered they met with little fesponse. For instance, a first edition of Dickens’* ' Sketches by Boz ’ did not attract a single bid, and finally it was offered with W. H. Drummond’s * The Battle of Trafalgar,’ first edition, and the two brought 7s. An 1861 edition of Eliot’s ‘ Silas Marner* realised. Is. A genuine curio, a first edition (1730), of ‘ The Compleat Housewife,’ was sold, after an effort, at only 2s. . An American standard edition of the complete works of Shakespeare, published 1878, made 2s 6d t and two large volumes of his works, published in the Imperial edition in 1870,- sold at 7s 6d. Two Kipling first editions, ‘Stalky and Co.,’ and ‘The Light That Failed,’ made 5s each. Longfellow, Masefield, Buskin, and kindred writers were apparently unwanted. Twenty volumes of the international library of famous literature, in excellent condition, were sold at £2 the lot, after a timid opening bid of ss. Nor can it be said that in the New Zealand section was value in any way always obtained, and certain contemporary writers were given the “ cold shoulder.” The best bids of the morning came for Sir W. L. Buller’s ‘ History of the Birds of New Zealand.’ An 1873 edition brought £7, and two volumes of the 1888 edition finally went for £2O. His two-volume supplement to the ‘ Birds of New Zealand,’ published 1905, sold at £7.

Among the best prices were: —‘ Australian Men of Mark, 1887,’ £1; Baker’s EnglishTongan and Tongan-English Dictionary, 27* 6d; Cook’s ‘ Voyages to the Pacific Ocean,’ £3 10s; Dittmer’s ‘ Te Tohunga,' 275; Hamilton’s ‘ Art Workmanship of the Maori Race in New Zealand,’ published in Dunedin in 1896, £7 7s; Hochstetter’s * New Zealand,’ first edition, 1867, £4 10s and £2 respectively for two volumes; Hudson’s ‘ Butterflies and Moths of New Zealand,’ £2 10s; Macdonald’s ‘Highlanders of Waipu,’ £3 15s; McKay’s ‘ History of Printing in New Zealand,’ £2 10; Skinner’s ‘ Morioris of the Chatham Islands,’ £s' 5s ; Wyld’s Map of New; Zealand, from original surveys, probably published in 1846, £3; two Forsyth interludes by Galsworthy, £1; Hogarth’s works, with original plates, £3j works of Rabelais, four volumes, £1 ss.