The May 25th sale included our usual varied collection of material, ranging from early maps and protest posters, to antiquarian books and modern firsts. The sale room was full, as well as a huge number of online bidders actively clicking the ‘Bid Now’ button on Invaluable. It made for a fast auction, with over 700 lots going under the hammer in around 4 hours.
Highlights from the sale included ‘A Mother’s Offering to her Children’ first edition, which sold for $15,000, ‘My Brilliant Career’ first edition ($2,500), ‘1790 Surgeon General White First Fleet Journal’ ($3,000) and a set of ‘Art in Australia’ ($2,500). There were also some rather interesting items that sold well, such as a Peace Loan poster that reached $525, a pamphlet titled ‘Bookplates Becoming Popular’ by P Neville Barnett ($350) and a small collection of late 1800’s photos of Flinders Island ($550).
The sale achieved a clearance rate of approximately 85%, with many unsold lots being traded in the hours that followed. The buyers were predominantly from Australia, however about 20% of sales went to international bidders from across the globe, including the US, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, China and England. The above observations indicates that the market for rare and antique books, maps and ephemera is quite strong.
Our next sale is scheduled for late June, and our intention is to increase the numbers of auctions we hold in the year ahead.