The well-preserved jacket of the 1959 Lippincott first shown here prompted a bid of $400 (£305).
However, it was not condition that determined the price of $3250 (£2490) for a second copy of what had been the first of the writer’s works to appear in hardback form: it was the presence of the author’s signature.
The title is a reference to a line uttered by Hamlet to Horatio after he was visited by his father’s ghost.