In a May 10 dispersal by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) of the collections of Harold and Mary Wilson, the book section included copies of John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money of 1936 and A Treatise on Money of 1933.
Copies that Britain’s future prime minister had been awarded as a brilliant young student at Jesus College, Cambridge, they were both inscribed “J. H. Wilson, Jesus, 1936” and sold together at £2400.
Signed and inscribed “To Harold and Mary, this is the best I can do”, a 1964 first of Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography made £1700 and a 1985 copy of The Rattle Bag, a selection of favourite poems co-edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes – inscribed by the latter for Wilson – realised £450.