In red motttled boards and bearing a presentation inscription from Traquair, it sold at £420. The Dante book was something the auctioneer had never seen before, but while he must have seen any number of copies of John Kay’s Series of Original Portraits and Caricatures.. of 1837, the one in this Carlisle sale was a particularly fine example, the two volumes bound in maroon morocco gilt, and it sold at £470.
Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per cent
Familiar but uncommon fine
ONE of the top lots in the Thomson Roddick & Medcalf sale of July 18 was a privately printed volume of 1890 containing works by Dante, illustrated by Phoebe Traquair and supplied with notes by J.S. Black.
