Almost 30 years ago, a proof copy of Clare Leighton’s The Farmer’s Year of 1933, effectively a cased set of 12 of her wood engravings, all captioned, signed and inscribed in her hand, sold for £2800 at Sotheby’s.
Firsts of the oblong folio book itself, according to auction records, have not made more than £200 – though are offered at much higher sums online. However, in a Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) sale of July 12, a copy was bid to £1200.
The jacket was damaged and frayed, the pictorial green cloth binding faded at the spine and edges, but it bore a New Years Day (1934) inscription by Leighton to a friend, HM Swanwick, “…hoping that it might prove a temporary escape for her from this wicked world”.