The £3.4m total was boosted by sales of £1.1m for June alone, including their main sale of manuscripts, literature and modern first editions, which was extended to run over two days, taking more than £470,000 – a record for the auction house for a single sale.
Other results included more than £300,000 for their recent modern and contemporary prints sale, up from £180,000 last year.
The firm also declared themselves pleased with the performance of their coins and medals operation as well as with the introduction of live internet bidding, which they reported had brought them between 50 and 100 new customers registering for every auction, and an increase in bidding of some eight to ten per cent.
Bloomsbury ‘turnover up 60 per cent’
Bloomsbury Auctions report that their new departments have helped them achieve a 60 per cent rise in turnover year on year for the first half of 2005.
