Rare book could sell for $9.4m
Created: Dec 08, 2010 10:00 AM
Sotheby's employee Mary Engleheart poses for photographs with a volume of a copy of Audubon's 'Birds of America' showing a flamingo at the auction house's premises in London, Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. The book, in the 'double elephant folio' size of 97 x 65cm, portrays all the birds life-size and is estimated to fetch 4 to 6 million pounds ($6,271,558 to 9,407,337) in the sale of 'Magnificent Books, Manuscripts and Drawings'
LONDON (AP) Sotheby’s is auctioning a rare copy of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America,” billed as the world’s most expensive book a treasure that could sell for $9.5 million.
One of only 100 or so remaining copies of “Birds of America,” the tome will be on the block Tuesday in London alongside a first edition of Shakespeare’s plays expected to fetch at least $1.6 million.
The books come from the estate of the 2nd Baron Hesketh, an aristocratic book collector who died in 1955. Another complete copy of “Birds of America” was sold by Christie’s for $8.8 million in 2000, a record for a printed book at auction.
The collection of 435 hand-colored prints is made from engravings of Audubon’s illustrations.
