[Book Sip] Books Loved by Auction House 'Sotheby'

Editor's NoteSome sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly resonate with readers, creating a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from books.

This article traces stories related to books and manuscripts traded at Sotheby’s, one of the leading global auction houses. Famous for jewelry auctions, Sotheby’s originally started in 1744 with book auctions. It is true that most renowned auctions of books and manuscripts have been Sotheby’s domain. Within this history, we uncover and introduce fascinating stories related to book and manuscript auctions. These include the story of a British man who entered an auction searching for Emperor Napoleon’s notes, the pride battle between Britain and Germany over Botticelli’s illustrations in Dante’s Divine Comedy, the “Prayer Book of Jeanne de Navarre” which shows how a scandalous adultery case influenced a woman who nearly became the Queen of France, and the American Constitution copy that set a world record at Sotheby’s 2021 auction with a winning bid of $43,173,000 (about 50 billion KRW), among eleven auction stories in total.

The reason this book, which was not difficult to obtain at the time, sold for a high price was because it contained Napoleon’s handwritten notes. Napoleon often scribbled his impressions or critiques in books he read, and in the Count of Volney’s book, he even hand-corrected almost the entire page 299 of volume 1. Having personally participated in the Egyptian expedition, Napoleon apparently thought there were many errors in the Count of Volney’s book. Napoleon’s notes were the secret to the tremendous added value. When we sell used books at secondhand bookstores, even a single underline can lower the already cheap price of used books. _〈In Search of the Last Trace of Emperor Napoleon〉

This book was not the first edition personally issued by Dante. Since The Divine Comedy was a bestseller, if it was not a first edition, its rarity was not significant. Moreover, the copy of The Divine Comedy found in the library was an incomplete book with many pages missing. Nevertheless, this edition of The Divine Comedy attracted attention because it contained illustrations personally drawn by Sandro Botticelli (1445?1510), a representative painter of the Florentine Renaissance. _〈The ‘Culture War’ Triggered by Dante’s Writing and Botticelli’s Illustrations in The Divine Comedy〉

When news spread that Alice’s Adventures Underground was appearing at auction again, an unexpected bidder blocked Rosenbach. The protagonist was the Library of Congress. At the time, Luther Evans (1902?1981), the director of the Library of Congress, expressed his intention to purchase it with $50,000 raised from book collectors across the United States. The Library of Congress’s participation in the auction was a strong warning message to other competitors, meaning “Stay out of this auction.” _〈The One and Only Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland〉

Books Loved by Sotheby’s | Written by Kim Yu-seok | Tteumsae Bookstore | 352 pages | 21,000 KRW