Posts Tagged ‘Machiavelli’

First English Edition of ‘The Prince’ Fails to Sell

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
First English edition of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1640

First English edition of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1640 (image via Keys)

In July, I posted about a rare first English edition of Machiavelli’s The Prince (1640) that the head of British auction house Keys found during a collection evaluation. Needless to say, Keys considered it a “very exciting find” and expected to bring in between £25,000 to £30,000 ($30,992 to $46,488) at auction. Unfortunately, bidders were not as enthusiastic and the book failed to sell. As a result, the book will go back before bidders again on Thursday at a lower price, £15,000 to £20,000 ($24,358.50 to $32,478). So, if you’re interested in this item and missed out on bidding the first time, here’s a second chance!

Rare book goes back under the hammer at Aylsham- this time for just £15,000 to £20,000 [EDP 24]

First English Edition of Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ Goes to Auction Thursday

Monday, July 23rd, 2012
First English edition of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1640

First English edition of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1640 (image via Keys)

The first English edition of Niccolo Machiavelli’s seminal work The Prince, dated 1640, was recently discovered during a collection evaluation in Norfolk, UK. Andrew Bullock, the head of the book department at Keys auction house was combing through a late collector’s books when he was drawn to a particular shelf. “The Machiavelli was on a shelf hidden amongst a number of Common Prayer books, but some sort of sixth sense asserted itself, and I took it down to take a closer look,” Bullock said.

No matter what ‘sixth book sense’ brought Bullock to his discovery, he and many collectors are very happy that it did. Bullock called it an “extremely exciting find” as “it is very rare for an English first edition of such an important work to come to auction.” The book is 300 pages long and measures only 14.5cm x 9cm (5¾in x 3½in), but is expected to bring in £25,000 to £30,000 ($30,992 to $46,488) when it is auctioned this Thursday, July 26.

Extremely rare first edition of Machiavelli’s The Prince, found in Norfolk, to go under the hammer in Aylsham [EDP24]