LONDON.- Sotheby’s London announces that in a tense bidding battle yesterday, in its English Literature, History, Children’s Books & Illustrations sale, Charlotte Bront’s autograph manuscript, The Young Men’s Magazine, Number 2, was sold for 690,850 / $ 1,069,229, more than twice the pre-sale estimate of 200,000-300,000 - a record at auction for a manuscript by any of the Bront sisters. The manuscript, dated 1830, written by a fourteen-year-old Charlotte Bront, had never previously been seen by scholars. It was bought by La Muse des Lettres et Manuscrits, Paris, where it will be exhibited in January.
Peter Selley, Senior Director and Specialist in Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts Department, said: “The record price set today reflects the huge international interest in Charlotte Bront’s work and Sotheby’s was honoured to sell a manuscript of such importance and rarity. The tiny Young Men’s Magazine, written by Bront at the age of 14, provides a fascinating insight into the development of one of history’s great literary minds and reveals the preoccupations which would characterise some of the best known scenes in her adult writing.”
The sale realised an above estimate total of 1.7 million / $ 2.7 million and was 64% sold by lot, 86% sold by value.
Other highlights from today’s sale included:
• Emily Bront’s, Wuthering Heights, 1847, 3 volumes, presented to Ellen Nussey, which sold for 157,250 / $243,376, against an estimate of 70,000-100,000.
• Charles Darwin’s The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, 1868, which sold for 61,250/$94,797 against an estimate of 15,000-20,000.
•Aubrey Beardsley, A Self Portrait, which sold for 30,000/$46,000 double its pre-sale estimate of 10,000-15,000.
