The world’s most expensive book, John James Audubon’s Birds of America, is going to be sold yet again through the shelves of Sotheby. The most coveted book of all times belongs to the 19th century and only 119 complete copies are known to exists, out of which 108 are owned by museums and libraries.
The copy that would be sold off through the auction desk comes from the collection of late Lord Hesketh. It took the wildlife artist John James Audubon as much as 12 years to complete his study and dole out this work which consists of an impressive 1,000 life-sized illustrations of almost 500 breeds. This feat was achieved by the artists by travelling across America, shooting birds and hanging them on bits of wire to paint them. He then went to Britain to print volumes and aimed it at the privileged masses.
Along with Birds of America, Lord Hesketh’s collection also included a rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio which is touted to be the most important book in all of English Literature. This one too would be up for grabs through Sotheby’s auction hammer. The copy on sale dates back to 1623, has an estimated price of upto 1.5 million pounds and only has three pages missing.
Via: BBC
