The World’s most expensive printed book sells for $14.2m
New York (AFP) – The first book written in what is today the United
States of America fetched $14.2 million in New York, becoming the
world’s most expensive printed book sold at auction.
The translation of Biblical psalms “The Bay Psalm Book” was printed by
Puritan settlers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640 and sold at a
one-lot auction in just minutes by Sotheby’s Tuesday.
Bidding opened at $6 million and closed swiftly at a hammer price of
$12.5 million, rising to $14.165 million once the buyer’s premium was
incorporated.
The book, with its browning pages and gilt edges, was displayed in a
glass case behind the auctioneer to a relatively small crowd which
attended the less than five-minute auction in person.
The settlers, who came to America to seek religious freedom, had set
about making their own preferred translation from the Hebrew original
of the Old Testament book after arriving from Europe.
Sotheby’s named the buyer as David Rubenstein, the billionaire
American financier and philanthropist. He was in Australia and his bid
was conducted by telephone.
Auctioneer David Redden is pictured during the sale of the translation
of Biblical psalms
Sotheby’s had valued the book at $15-30 million, but denied any
disappointment in the sale price reached Tuesday.
The world’s most expensive manuscript, the handwritten Codex
Leicester, 72 pages of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci,
was bought by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30.8 million.
Sotheby’s said it was delighted to have set a new world record for
any printed book at auction with the $14.165 million price tag.
The previous record was $11.5 million, reached when a copy of John
James Audubon’s “Birds of America” sold at Sotheby’s in December
2010.
“We’re very, very pleased about this purchase,” said David Redden,
auctioneer and head of Sotheby’s books.
A Sotheby’s employee handles a copy of the “Bay Psalm Book during a
preview at Sotheby’s in New York …
Rubenstein plans to share the psalm book with the American public by
loaning it to a number of libraries around the country and placing it on
long-time loan to one of them, Redden said.
“If you recall David Rubenstein also brought the Magna Carta from us
back in 2007 for the same reason, to make sure Americans would
understand the significance of their heritage,” he added.
The Magna Carta sold for $21.3 million in New York. It was one of only
17 existing copies of the 800-year-old English royal manuscript
setting out the rights of man.
Redden said “The Bay Psalm Book” was a “great rarity” and that only
two of 11 surviving copies had come to sale in 100 years.
He described the price as “very strong and hefty.”
“It’s very important because of its story. It’s the first book printed in
America and the first book written in America,” Redden told
reporters.
Before the sale, Redden said the volume had even greater significance
as a precursor to Lexington and Concord, and, ultimately, to US political
independence.
“With it, New England declared its independence from the Church of
England,” he said.
There were 1,700 copies of the original 1640 edition. The eleven that
have survived are in collections such as The Library of Congress and
Harvard College Library.
No copy had previously been auctioned since 1947, when a different
copy fetched $151,000 — a record at the time for any book,
including the Gutenberg Bible or Shakespeare’s First Folio.
The book was sold by the Old South Church in Boston to benefit its
work in the historic city. The same church possesses another copy of
the “Bay Psalm Book.”
Selby Kiffer, from Sotheby’s special projects department, called it
“not simply one of the great icons of book history, it is one of the
greatest artifacts of American history.”
The World’s most expensive printed book sells for $14.2m
New York (AFP) – The first book written in what is today the United
States of America fetched $14.2 million in New York, becoming the
world’s most expensive printed book sold at auction.
The translation of Biblical psalms “The Bay Psalm Book” was printed by
Puritan settlers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640 and sold at a
one-lot auction in just minutes by Sotheby’s Tuesday.
Bidding opened at $6 million and closed swiftly at a hammer price of
$12.5 million, rising to $14.165 million once the buyer’s premium was
incorporated.
The book, with its browning pages and gilt edges, was displayed in a
glass case behind the auctioneer to a relatively small crowd which
attended the less than five-minute auction in person.
The settlers, who came to America to seek religious freedom, had set
about making their own preferred translation from the Hebrew original
of the Old Testament book after arriving from Europe.
Sotheby’s named the buyer as David Rubenstein, the billionaire
American financier and philanthropist. He was in Australia and his bid
was conducted by telephone.
Auctioneer David Redden is pictured during the sale of the translation
of Biblical psalms
Sotheby’s had valued the book at $15-30 million, but denied any
disappointment in the sale price reached Tuesday.
The world’s most expensive manuscript, the handwritten Codex
Leicester, 72 pages of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci,
was bought by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30.8 million.
Sotheby’s said it was delighted to have set a new world record for
any printed book at auction with the $14.165 million price tag.
The previous record was $11.5 million, reached when a copy of John
James Audubon’s “Birds of America” sold at Sotheby’s in December
2010.
“We’re very, very pleased about this purchase,” said David Redden,
auctioneer and head of Sotheby’s books.
A Sotheby’s employee handles a copy of the “Bay Psalm Book during a
preview at Sotheby’s in New York …
Rubenstein plans to share the psalm book with the American public by
loaning it to a number of libraries around the country and placing it on
long-time loan to one of them, Redden said.
“If you recall David Rubenstein also brought the Magna Carta from us
back in 2007 for the same reason, to make sure Americans would
understand the significance of their heritage,” he added.
The Magna Carta sold for $21.3 million in New York. It was one of only
17 existing copies of the 800-year-old English royal manuscript
setting out the rights of man.
Redden said “The Bay Psalm Book” was a “great rarity” and that only
two of 11 surviving copies had come to sale in 100 years.
He described the price as “very strong and hefty.”
“It’s very important because of its story. It’s the first book printed in
America and the first book written in America,” Redden told
reporters.
Before the sale, Redden said the volume had even greater significance
as a precursor to Lexington and Concord, and, ultimately, to US political
independence.
“With it, New England declared its independence from the Church of
England,” he said.
There were 1,700 copies of the original 1640 edition. The eleven that
have survived are in collections such as The Library of Congress and
Harvard College Library.
No copy had previously been auctioned since 1947, when a different
copy fetched $151,000 — a record at the time for any book,
including the Gutenberg Bible or Shakespeare’s First Folio.
The book was sold by the Old South Church in Boston to benefit its
work in the historic city. The same church possesses another copy of
the “Bay Psalm Book.”
Selby Kiffer, from Sotheby’s special projects department, called it
“not simply one of the great icons of book history, it is one of the
greatest artifacts of American history.”
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