Portrait of Samuel Coleridge by Charles Robert Leslie
Pencil, charcoal and chalk on paper
Sold for £31,200
7.
Portrait of Ted Hughes by Silvia Plath
Pen and ink
Sold for £27,600
8.
Portrait of John Keats by Joseph Severn
Oil on canvas
Sold for £21,600
9.
John Keats
Autograph Manuscript of his poem 'I Stood Tiptoe upon a Little Hill'
Estimate £40,000-45,000
10.
Charlotte Brontë
Autograph Manuscript of a poem
Estimate £40,000-45,000
11.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Autograph Drafts of his poem 'Binsey Poplars'
Estimate £40,000-45,000
12.
A.E. Housman
Autograph Drafts of two poems
Estimate £20,000-25,000
13.
Samuel Coleridge
Autograph Manuscript of his poem 'The Dark Ladie'
Estimate £15,000-20,000
14.
Robert Burns
Autograph Revised Manuscript of his poem 'Afton Braes'
Estimate £15,000-20,000
15.
Thomas Hardy
Autograph Revised Manuscript of his poem 'A Singer Asleep'
Estimate £12,000-16,000
Net-net the sale should do well but this a different world than even twenty years ago and it is unclear how many true believers in the power of words will raise their paddles in these uncertain times. They should. Shakespeare when he wrote, “love is not with the eyes but with the mind” might have been thinking into the future about this sale.
These days we make money faster than we think and collect the obvious, too often collecting for reaction more than personal satisfaction. This material is for the self, possibly your self. We know that baseball cards bring big money. Now we’ll see if the same continues to be true for important poetry. It should.
