NRC #7 -

First NRC Auction of Books and Prints

Books, Maps & Manuscripts

The sale of books, maps & manuscripts, selected from more than 2000 consignments by readers of the leading Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, was a great success. Bidding for some of the lots resulted in a fierce battle. For example, a score of 10-year-old Mozart went 60 times higher than the starting bid, from € 100 to € 6.000 (€ 7.632 incl. fees).

Bidding for a calendar leaf from a Book of Hours started at € 400 and ended at € 2.289. The first world atlas by Ortelius (1572) was sold for € 25.440, Blaeu’s famous 'Town-Atlas' for € 63.600, and two city plans of Amsterdam brought € 7.632 (starting big € 1.000) and € 10.812 respectively. Two stunning Indonesian photo albums escalated to € 14.882 and a unique ship's log with beautiful watercolours from a trip to the Indies was sold for € 8.268 op (starting bid € 1.250).

A good result was also achieved for the first editions. Lolita brought € 1.526 with a starting bid of € 500, the pulp fiction by W.F. Hermans - € 3.561 (starting bid € 1.000), Moritz Schlick's copy of Einstein's theory of relativity - € 5.600 (starting bid € 1.000), and the first edition of Het Achterhuis went from € 100 to € 1.400 in spite of the condition. You can see the sale results on the auction page when you are logged in.