Bidder from Texa snaps up historic auctograph albumd for £16,000 at Bury St Edmunds auction.
There was international interest, and brisk telephone bidding, at the Lacy Scott & Knight auction rooms in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday September 9 when a historic autograph album, and a variety of other letters from important British historical figures, went under the hammer.
There was tremendous interest from the USA in the lots which featured the likes of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott and George, the Prince Regent.
Top price of £16,000 was paid for the album, including autographs and letter fragments; by a buyer from Texas, after fierce bidding on the telephone.
It included signatures from George VI, Queen Victoria, the Duke of Wellington and many more.
The album also included George Washington, Victor Hugo and Kaiser Wilhelm.
Elsewhere a Charles Dickens letter lamenting Hans Christian Andersen’s visit here sold for £4,600.
A letter from George, the Prince Regent cancelling a dinner date with Beau Brummell sold for £500.
Before the sale there was tremendous interest in a fragment of a letter from Jane Austen. The fragment is a snippet of domestic life and mentions going through a linen inventory with Mde B, who may have been a family servant.
A series of letters between members of the Royal Geographical Society discussing Dr Livingstone’s disastrous Zambesi expedition went for £2,500.
There was also strong interest in art and antiques at the sale.
An ornate French console table, which may once have stood in Marie Antionette’s bedroom, sold for £21,000.
The late 18th Century silvered table is reputed to have originally stood in the `silver room’ of the Chateau de Fontainebleau which was the favoured residence and hunting lodge of the Kings of France from the Middle Ages through to Napoleon III.
The silver room may refer to Boudoir del Reine, which was Marie Antoinette’s bedroom and which lavishly decorated with silvered panels and furniture in 1786.
During the French Revolution, the chateau was not damaged, but the furniture was sold off at auction.
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