Two-volume official report of the 1936 XIth Olympic Games – £200 at Mitchells.
The range of material as well as sheer numbers of books within those 221 lots was impressive. It stretched from job lots of posters relating to the Irish troubles to a large conchology section among the natural history books.
However, the item shown above is a two-volume official report of the notorious XIth Olympic Games, held under Hitler’s gaze in Berlin in 1936.
This set, showing some unsightly discolouration to the gilt decorated bindings, sold for £200 in Cockermouth, but these official reports were produced in small numbers and aimed principally at institutions. In 1995, at Christie’s South Kensington, a set was bid to £1400 but no other copy seems to have been offered at auction since then.
