The recent Collective Sale at Lincoln on the 15th and 16th July contained yet another lot that highlights the importance of having things checked before sale or disposal by an accredited firm like Golding Young.
The lot was early on in the proceedings and contained three extremely important books, by one of the greatest names in twentieth century literature.
The Lord Of The Rings trilogy comprising The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King made up lot three. Such works can sometimes be overlooked, discarded or seen as too good to be true and are sometimes seen thus: there is no way one of the most famous authors and well known trilogy of works would turn up in my loft and be of any value: there must be hundreds of millions of these and every home will have a set …. Off to the tip you go!! It is key to get any work checked as you may be sitting on a fortune!
The value on these came from them being early editions; The Return of the King was a first edition the other two were early editions from the first publication, turning a £50 lot into one that made £1200.
£1200 you say? That isn’t much for a first edition!? The other golden rule with this lot is the importance of condition: these looked like they had fought in a few battles as ably illustrated by their great author; there were tears, issues with the dust jackets, some foxing, marks, wear and some clever person had written FIRST EDITION in red biro across the front of one: these issues all changed a valuation from the high thousands to the low thousands.
The two words; rarity and condition crop up yet again in assessing the success of this lot; the other point to make is the importance of advertising these works to a worldwide audience to garner the best price.
Again we guarantee the right viewers, this is crucial to get the good result that was achieved and we guarantee a worldwide following for every lot we sell.
Books are an interesting section in the world of fine art and antiques and it is always good practice to allow a firm like ours to see what you have before discarding any work. There are so many aspects that change a value dramatically, values change alarmingly with the smallest of things.
There is no hard and fast rule for what is valuable but usually famous authors are a good start, early editions and condition with the addition of inscriptions and dust jackets all bonuses. Spelling mistakes in early works often highlight value, but there are a raft of things that determine the value of books and we have the expertise to help with anything you may have.
The best piece of advice is don’t be blasé about any work, that Harry Potter on your shelf may just be a first edition, inscribed by J K Rowling and worth many thousands of pounds, let us help with any works you may have in literacy attribution and sale, it only takes a second to send an image or bring an item in and we are always here to help.
