Sixteen lots of books signed by members of the expedition were offered, and that same sum was paid for a copy of Sir John Hunt’s well known Ascent of Everest of 1953, while copies of Wilfrid Noyce’s South Col: One Man’s Adventure on the Ascent of Everest (1954) and Showell Styles’ Mallory of Everest (1967) sold at $950 (£595) apiece.
Among the less familiar items seen in this sale were works published in Danish and Russian. Sold at $2800 (£1750) was a 1760, Copenhagen first edition of Tilforladelig Efterretning om Kysten Guinea... a contemporary account of Danish settlements on the Gold Coast of Guinea by Ludvig Rømer that includes a lengthy discussion of Danish slave trading activities in West Africa. Illustrated with three views of Christianborg and Freedensborg and containing a folding map of the Guinea coasts, this copy was well bound in contemporary mottled sheep gilt with morocco lettering pieces.
With text and 70 small illustrations engraved throughout and printed to one side of the leaves only, Opisani a[via]tago b[o]zhiia grada Ier[us]lima is an illustrated guide to churches and religious sites of Jerusalem and Palestine compiled by Simeon Simonovich, Archimandrite of Jerusalem, for the use of Eastern Orthodox pilgrims, and printed in Moscow in 1771. Dampstained to the lower margins and close trimmed in a 19th century binding of quarter morocco, this copy sold at $1500 (£940).
Everyone on Everest, the Danes in West Africa and the Russians in Jerusalem
Signed by Hillary and other members of the 1953 Everest expedition (though not by Tensing, whose right to be known as the true conqueror of the mountain is still being fervently pressed by his compatriots), a deluxe copy of Alfred Gregory’s The Picture of Everest, illustrated with 42 full-colour reproductions of photographs and here specially bound in vellum, sold at $1200 (£750) in a special Himalayas section of a February 13 travel sale held by Swanns.
