Unrecorded Shakespeare Fourth Folio Tops Freeman's Two Day Books Sale
Mr. William Shakespear's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true Original Copies. Unto which is added, SEVEN PLAYS, Never before Printed in Folio (London: Printed [by Robert Roberts, Robert Everingham, and John Macock] for H[enry]. Herringman, and are to be sold by Joseph Knight and Francis Saunders, at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange, 1685). Sold for $140,800
Leading the latest Freeman’s Books and Manuscripts sales was The Library of Stephen J. Farber featuring works by William Shakespeare, George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Edgar Allan Poe, which went for a total of $1,052,544.
Topping this section of the auctions was As You Like It and The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, two complete plays extracted from The First Folio (London: Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount, 1623). The 46-page folio was sold for $70,400, doubling its low estimate.
Other highlights included:
- George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (London, Secker & Warburg, 1949), a first edition which went for $48,000, six times its low estimate
- J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy (All London, Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1954 and 1955), featuring folding maps tipped into each volume and printed in red and black by Christopher Tolkien ($48,000)
- Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven in The American Review (Volume I, number II, New York, Edward O. Jenkins for Wiley and Putnam, February 1845, $35,200)
- Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (Bradbury and Evans for Chapman & Hall, 1843, $25,600)
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (Westminster, Archibald Constable & Company, 1897, $25,600)
On day two the top lot was an unrecorded Fourth Folio by William Shakespeare that was sold for $140,800, more than double its low estimate. Among the other top lots were:
- History of the Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall (Philadelphia, Edward C. Biddle, 1836; Frederick W. Greenough, 1838; Daniel Rice and James G. Clark, 1844) which was sold for $44,800
- A significant archive of works on communications theory, comprising foundational texts by leading mathematicians ($25,600)
- Albert Einstein autograph letter signed "A. Einstein" to President Herbert Hoover, Berlin, May 6, 1929 ($25,600)
![Mr. William Shakespear's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true Original Copies. Unto which is added, SEVEN PLAYS, Never before Printed in Folio (London: Printed [by Robert Roberts, Robert Everingham, and John Macock] for H[enry]. Herringman, and are to be sold by Joseph Knight and Francis Saunders, at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange, 1685). Sold for $140,800](/sites/default/files/styles/category_card/public/media-images/2026-05/shakespeare.jpg?itok=La5syD9Y)
