Complete with slightly frayed and browned but rarely seen jacket, a 1933 copy of George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London was bid to £46,000 by James Hall of Lucius Books in York at a Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium) sale of December 15.
In doing so, it made one Yorkshire cricket lover a very happy man.
The vendor had thought it might add another £50 to the box of books he had sent to the Gloucestershire saleroom to help fund his Wisden purchases. It certainly did – and the rest of his books made around £600.