The Genii Forum

It did seem a crazy price for the Erdnase but then desirability does that if you have two people who want something badly enough! I have to disagree with the first edition Scot being a beautiful copy. It had been restored well but with many facsimile pages, including the entire section on conjuring,...

Hi Edwin. Yes, Troublewit is in the first edition too.

The first edition Dean is interesting in that it contains a number of tricks that do not appear in later editions. Anyone who has any of the previous facsimiles (e.g. the Graham reprint of the sixth edition) will find the first edition of interest too. Of course the facsimile, although of great inte...

Sold a few minutes ago for $5,625, including buyers premium. I bid but was out quite a bit before that! This copy had a really nice (although relatively modern) binding but did have a few leaves missing. Otherwise fairly clean. Another copy I bid on recently sold for only $1,700 (exc. buyer's premiu...

Hi Joe,

My "strange experiences" are starting to mount up which is why I'm usually on a whinge after an auction!

So...to get back to the auction itself, an open question to everyone. What were your favourite lots? (it doesn't matter whether you bid and / or won, or not)

James

Hi Joe, Thanks for that. My issue is that if an auction is in the middle of a weekday (which they usually are!) I can't bid live. I have no choice but to leave my bid before-hand, so can only choose the minimum or upwards. The biggest issue with this sale was that minimums were only one or two bid i...

Marco,

Do you remember lot 583 (the 1674 Leurechon), was it described as defective by the auctioneer?

Thanks,

James

Richard, If you mean lot 537 then, yes, it did sell. But this is a good example of the point in hand; the estimate was 1,500-2,000 with a starting bid of 1,300 online. That means that if you were an online bidder, the minimum you could bid was 1,300 yet it ultimately sold for 1,200. The lot I referr...

Thanks for the summary, Marco. I understand that online bidders will always come off worse than people physically there as physical attendees are a more sure bet for the auction house (i.e. more likely to pay and remove the items there and then). I'm interested in your comment about online bidders p...

Glad to hear you won what you wanted, Andrew. I think I may have won one lot but as I had left bids online it hasn't been confirmed yet. Everything else I was beaten on! One item I wanted did annoy me as I spotted an imperfection with it when I viewed it last night, which hadn't been catalogued . Th...

Did anyone go to the auction today who would be willing to write a quick report? I went to the viewing last night and there was certainly some good stuff (although it was quite difficult to find some of the lots as it appeared a little disorganised). From a quick look through prices nothing much see...

I agree that the 24% buyers premium is steep. Bloomsbury's bibliophile sales are usually 22% but maybe that's because they're in Godalming whereas this is in London. They have to pay for their Mayfair HQ somehow! VAT is not applicable to goods exported outside of the EU. In the UK and the EU VAT is ...