In the age of the kindle and the iPad, it would seem the printed page is under threat. However, according to Peter Selley, Senior Director in the Books and Manuscripts department at Sotheby’s in London, books will always maintain an enduring appeal: “Collecting is a tactile thing. The feel of a book, combined with the power of the text in the imagination, will always lead some to acquire rare books.”
Selley’s 17 years at Sotheby’s have allowed him to handle some of the most fascinating works in the field, including a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, which sold for £2.5 million.
He has also made some memorable discoveries: “a client declared he had some interesting manuscripts. We went into the street and in the back of his car were unpublished notebooks for James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. We subsequently sold the archive to the Irish State for £8 million.”
Libraries assembled by individuals always afford the opportunity for discoveries, and this October sees the first sale in a series from one of the finest collections of first editions ever assembled. Worth £8–10 million in its entirety, the 3,000 books in the library are being auctioned over the next few years in New York and London, where the inaugural sale will take place. It is studded with jewels of the book-collecting world, including the presentation copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, which is thought to have had only two previous owners since publication in 1843.
So how does one predict the collectable books of the future? Which modern first editions have the potential to set record prices? Gauging the market’s development is extremely hard: “It is impossible to predict with any certainty who will be a good long-term bet. Each of us must make up our own mind about contemporary authors,” says Selley. While books should always be in the best possible original condition, and interest-ing presentation copies will always be collectible, Selley says the investment in collecting should be emotional, rather than financial. “Go for works by authors you passionately believe in, who are saying something important, and saying it in a new way. Collect authors you enjoy reading: collect, as they say, ‘from the heart’.”