AUCTION FOCUS
Vintage books, like this rare copy of Casino Royale, are a sound investment making great presents
As the library of Richard Adams, author of the bestselling Watership Down, comes up for sale at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, we reveal the highlights of this extra- special collection
Despite e-readers and the digisphere, physical books remain as popular as ever. They make wonderful gifts, especially at Christmas when chunky hardbacks can be wrapped up and placed under the tree, or slim paperbacks tucked into a stocking for an unexpected treat. It’s no surprise then that the auction market for vintage and antique books is flourishing too with prices starting at under £100 up to £50,000-plus. Just this September, a first- edition copy of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, published in 1997 by Bloomsbury, smashed the world record for a Potter book, selling for $81,200 (£61,563) at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, USA.
While the currency of JK Rowling is unique among ultra-modern first editions, rare works by the great authors and playwrights of yesteryear command five-figure prices, with first- edition books by Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Beatrix Potter and Shakespeare avidly collected.
‘ We’re finding 20th- century modern first editions buoyant too, including authors such as Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier and Ian Fleming, and good copies can fetch from several thousand pounds upwards,’ says Susanna Winters, a specialist at Dominic Winter Auctioneers. Based in Gloucestershire, the auction house is dedicated to books, historic documents and prints. She adds that early 20th- century illustrated children’s books are also riding high – fairy tales, albums and classic storybooks with illustrations by artists such as Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Willy
Pogany and Mabel Lucie Attwell still have that magic.
With this in mind, when Susanna was contacted by phone late last year about selling a set of rare, early 19th- century Jane Austen first editions with matching bindings, her ears pricked up. ‘ Whole matching sets of Jane Austen just don’t come up, so I was intrigued,’ she recalls. ‘ Then the client mentioned in passing the possibility of selling a Shakespeare Second Folio that was a bit tatty too.’ At this she sat up, as the 1632 Second Folio, published 16 years after the playwright’s death and containing all of his plays, is even scarcer than the 1623 First Folio and something very special indeed, commanding a five-figure price. When the seller went on to ask whether provenance of books made any di erence to value, Susanna knew that this was an out- of-
the- ordinary enquiry. The caller turned out to be Juliet Johnson, the daughter of Richard Adams, best- selling author of Watership Down and owner of a marvellously well- stocked library.
At the time of Susanna and Juliet’s initial conversation, Richard was still alive though living in a nursing home, and the family was thinking of selling just a few things. But on Christmas Eve 2016, aged 96, the much-loved author died, and things moved on. Susanna was invited to view and assess the whole library at the Adams home, Benwells in Hampshire, with a view to putting the contents up for sale this December. She’ll never forget the first day she spent there, recalling: ‘ The library was an enormous, square room with really high ceilings and it had a higgledy-piggledy feel as though Richard had just stepped out. There were shelves full of books covering everything from natural history to chess, and little rabbit figurines everywhere. All day I clambered up and down the library steps looking at things.’
Richard Adams collected books all his life. ‘He was immersed in literature from childhood, and a number of his books are well documented in his autobiography, The Day Gone By, as inspirations,’ says Susanna. He was still re-reading his favourites such as Emma by Jane Austen and works by Walter de la Mare towards the end of his life, as well as writing every day. As you’d expect, the family decided to keep books that held special memories, such as a set of the ‘little books’ by Beatrix Potter that Richard loved, and a copy of Moonfleet by J Meade Falkner that figured large in family life, but everything else was consigned for sale.
Along with familiar works by Rudyard Kipling, AA Milne, Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame, the library contained novels that Adams had swapped with other authors, such as Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, both bearing personal inscriptions. ‘An author inscription will at least double the price you can expect to get at auction,’ comments Susanna. There were several shelves devoted to foreign-language editions of Watership Down too – since it was published in 1972, the award-winning tale of a rabbit community has sold over 50 million copies worldwide and a first edition with original dust jacket can fetch £1,000–£1,500.
Serendipitously, it was his own success as an author – he became a full-time writer in 1974 – that allowed Adams to build up such a wonderful cache of books. ‘Once he was earning considerably more as an author than he had been as a civil servant, Richard found it a thrill to buy some of his favourite books as first editions.’ After much cataloguing, the library will be sold as approximately 300 lots – some single items and other ‘parcel’ lots made up of multiple items. Susanna believes that the sale will appeal not only to collectors of first editions, but also to fans of the author, maybe first-time bidders, who simply want to own something that the creator of the most famous rabbits in the world – Hazel, Fiver and Bigwig – leafed through and read. And with estimates starting at £70, it’s totally feasible that a book that delighted Richard Adams can also delight you or the person you give it to. Imagine untying the ribbon and tearing the wrapping paper to discover such a gift. It would be Christmas Day like no other.