Important prewar era books were another key category in this signature sale. Highlights included:
- J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit or There and Back Again, estimated at $10,000-15,000 and sold for $25,200. First American edition, first state example with original dust jacket, printed in Boston and New York by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1938. This rarity included the “bowing hobbit” on the title-page, the color frontispiece inserted on a stub, and the endpapers bound opposite to the order of the List of Illustrations
- With a binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms made $19,200, a first edition, limited issue, one of 10 presentation copies signed by Hemingway and
- Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind scored $5,250, a first edition, first issue in its original dust jacket
- A first edition of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, estimated at $2,000-3,000 and traded hands at $5,040
Collections of century-spanning first and special edition publications were also well represented in this well curated book event. Lot #343, a large library of around 1,200 mostly first edition titles related to the science fiction and fantasy genre, was estimated at $1,000-2,000 and made $12,500. Meanwhile, a group of over 300 titles published in Norfolk by the Easton Press, was estimated at $600-800 and sold for $8,125. Lot #213, a collection 13 first editions of books illustrated by N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) was estimated at $400-600 and made $3,750. And a collection of group of 14 titles in 18 volumes from Charles Dickens which was estimated at $400-600 sold for $2,400.
This sale came full circle with postwar classics, religious books, and other noteworthy publications such as Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird which made $14,400 (first edition in its first issue dust jacket) and the first American edition of The Koran (estimate $600-800, sold for $3,600) based on the translation by the French orientalist André Du Ryer (c. 1580- d. 1660 or 1672) and published in Springfield by Henry Brewer for Isaiah Thomas in 1806.
"We are pleased with another strong showing of prices in this predominantly modern first sale," said Christopher Brink, Potter & Potter Auctions' Director of Fine Books and Manuscripts, "with record prices helping us soar past the overall high estimate. This is the first time that we have reached the nearly perfect sell-through rate of 98%."
