Dominic Winter Auctioneers to auction Christopher Foley Library from Beeleigh Abbey
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
10,000 books and other items from theLibrary of the late Christopher Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey in Essex will be auctioned by Dominic Winter Auctioneers of Cirencester in two sales in September 2023 and January 2024. The collection includes items of national and international significance which were not part of the famous Christie's Sale of The Library of William Foyle held in July 2000.
Christopher Foyle, entrepreneur, philanthropist and moderniser of Foyle's famous bookshop in London's Charing Cross Road, died in August 2022. He was the grandson of William Foyle, the bookshop's founder. When his aunt Christina died in 1999 and left instructions that her grandfather's Library should be sold, Christopher and his wife Cathy took the decision to buy back as much of the Library as they could before it went up for sale. Christopher was particularly keen to recover items which had a close association with his beloved grandfather.
The items now offered for sale from Beeleigh Abbey comprise:
The thousands of books, manuscripts and other items which Christopher bought back from his aunt's estate
Books from Beeleigh Abbey Books, Foyle's Bookshop rare and antiquarian book business, which was managed from the Abbey
Books added to the collection by Christopher in his lifetime particularly reflecting his interests in aviation, travel and archaeology
Items which have been rediscovered at Beeleigh since Christopher's death. Including a collection of early twentieth century books, signed by their authors and dedicated to William Foyle
The majority of the items offered for sale will be books, most beautifully bound with the bookplate of William Foyle, including hundreds of early editions of English literature, history, topography and travel. The Collection also includes miniature books, illuminated medieval and rare Tudor manuscripts, seals, and authors' letters, as well as significant paintings and drawings.
For further information please contact Nathan Winter (nathan@dominicwinter.co.uk) or Chris Albury (chris@dominicwinter.co.uk) at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, tel: 01285-860006.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
