Rare book of birds expected to sell for £6m

A rare copy of the world's most expensive book, a huge 19th century digest of birds painted to life-size, is to be auctioned for up to £6m.

The volume of John James Audubon’s Birds Of America forms part of a collection of literary treasures which could fetch as much as 10m.

London auction house Sotheby’s will sell the works - including a 1623 collection of Shakespeare plays – which belonged to the late Lord Hesketh, in December.

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Another copy of Audubon’s book set a world record price at auction a decade ago. The latest copy has an estimated value of between 4m and 6m.

Only 119 copies of naturalist and artist Audubon’s book are known to survive, with just a handful owned privately.

He would shoot the birds during his travels and then paint them to full scale.