Your chance to snap up rare books fit for an museum

Now collectors have the chance to get their hands on a trio of books inscribed by their authors or subjects, including The Beatles and American poet Sylvia Plath, thanks to a York specialist.

Lucius Books has been trading for 24 years, specialising in first editions, signed and inscribed copies and manuscripts. It exhibits at antique and book fairs around the world, including in Hong Kong and the United States.

Next weekend, it will take the books – worth more than £22,000 – to the Antiques For Everyone summer fair in Birmingham for sale, and they have attracted the attention of collectors around the world.

Disaster struck when Lucis Books’ shop on Fossgate was engulfed with water in the Boxing Day floods, with the ground floor manuscripts cabinet badly affected. Important political papers were lost forever, original illustrations and watercolours were washed away and letters were destroyed.

The effect on the shop’s insurance bill meant it is not possible for them to return to Fossgate, but they have remained trading and are now based at a business park on the outskirts of the city. This month’s Antiques for Everyone Summer Fair is the second for the business, which has selected the three pieces especially for the event.

Lucius Books’ owner, James Hallgate, said: “We’re very much focused on unique items or pieces with a real story to them – things you are not going to see elsewhere, but also those that are instantly recognisable, like something signed by the Beatles or Andy Warhol.”

The three pieces certainly fit the bill. The recent announcement that the BBC series Poldark is set to return is good timing for the sale of a first edition of Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall 1783-1787, signed by both the author, Winston Graham, and cast members from the original 1975 series.

But Mr Hallgate said the book, valued at £1,250, would have remained valuable despite the huge popularity of the recent re-make starring Aidan Turner.

“As a first edition it is a scarce and valuable book, but being signed by the original cast as well as Graham take it to another level,” Mr Hallgate said. “While the popularity of the recent series may not have necessarily affect its price, it does affect its saleability. The interest in it has been much greater.”

It almost goes without saying that interest in Beatles memorabilia was never waned, but the “quirky” concertina bound photographic book signed by John Lennon and George Harrison has received great interest, and is valued at £3,750.

“The concern with items signed by people like rock ’n’ roll stars is always provenance – but in this case, we know a great deal about the piece,” Mr Hallgate.

“We wouldn’t offer anything we didn’t know the full story behind, as with some stars in the past there has been a tendency for roadies to sign items for them. But we know with this piece both who it was signed for and where, at the stage door of Nottingham’s Odeon Cinema on December 12, 1963.”

The most impressive of the three pieces however, is a first edition of Sylvia Plath’s first collection of poetry, The Colossus, which came out in 1960.

Dedicated to her friend and midwife, Winifred Davis, who lived just three houses away from her in Devon, it was inscribed in 1962, the year before she sadly took her own life.

Plath, who is buried at St Thomas’s Churchyard in Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, did not experience real success in her lifetime, and therefore few signed editions exist, and the £17,500 valuation reflects its rarity.

“The fact that she died so young meant that her opportunity to sign anything was very, very limited,” he said. “When this was inscribed it was the most important time of her life, she had just finished The Belljar and released Colossus shortly before.” Mr Hallgate said. “Americans are the main buyers for Plath but items like this, at the height of their genre, are stand out pieces for any collectors. It is a museum-quality piece and a historical document.”

THE first editions will go on sale alongside art, furniture and collectables at the Antiques for Everyone summer fair in Birmingham, which starts next Thursday.

Also among the highlights will be a set of ten lithographs by French artist Henri Matisse. The pristine condition cut-outs were one of just 200 editions printed in the late 1950s and signed by the artist.

A rare pair of original Boris Tabacoff designed ‘Sphere’ chairs made in France in 1971 and featuring their original gold and brown seat cushions will also be on sale.

Fair director Mary Claire Boyd: “We are justly proud of the amazing diversity of antiques and art on sale at the fair. There is always something new to discover.”