Literary treasures at one of greatest ever sales in Paris

As your Saturday breakfast is comfortably consigned, one of the greatest sales ever held is continuing à toute vitesse at the Drouot auction house in Paris.

This is the massive sale of the private stock from the bankrupt firm Aristophil, which included manuscripts of novels by Honoré de Balzac and Alexandre Dumas, a 41-page account of the sinking of the Titanic, music manuscripts by Mozart and Strauss and historic letters signed by Napoleon, Einstein and Dostoyevsky.

The dispersal will take more than 300 sales over at least six years to liquidate the collections of the French company, which purchased some 135,000 pieces over 12 years before going bust.

The firm went bankrupt in 2015 after its founder, the dealer Gérard Lhéritier, accused of running a Ponzi scheme, was charged with fraud and money laundering. It is reported 18,000 clients invested around £700 million to buy a share of his collections. Lhéritier denies the charges and a criminal investigation is ongoing.

The first sale at Paris auctioneer Quinte Aguttes last December was equally eventful. The French culture ministry withheld the export of the top multi-million lots – the 120 Days of Sodom that Sade wrote from behind the bars of the Bastille prison, and André Breton’s Surrealist Manifestos. Both were withdrawn.

The second tranche, dispersed in June, featured the c1500 Petau Book of Hours, which took a four-times estimate £4 million.

This weekend brings treasures such as a first of Jane Eyre.

In three parts, and carrying the London imprint for Smith, Elder and Co, 1847, this was Charlotte Bronte’s first novel and was formerly in the library of the English novelist Hugh Walpole.

A fine first edition, it is expected to sell for upwards of £25,000.

Picture: Jane Eyre first edition (Drouot Auction House).