Donor gives charity shop surprise bonanza
Published: September 17, 2005
A rare 400-year book worth thousands of pounds was given anonymously to a British charity shop more used to handling hum-drum donations like unwanted presents and second-hand clothes.
“A Treatise of Commerce” by John Wheeler, which could raise as much as 30,000 pounds when it is sold at auction next week, features a personal dedication from the author to a future Lord Mayor of London.
“We have been training our shop staff to be on the look-out for rare, valuable books so that the charity can benefit as much as possible from donations,” Oxfam’s Katie Abbotts told Reuters Friday.
The book, a rare first edition published in 1601 and believed to be the only one of its kind in existence, was handed in to one of the charity’s shops in Northampton, central England, in March and spotted by the manager.
Auction house Bonham’s initial estimate of 3-4,000 pounds was raised after experts saw the inscription and investigated the books provenance.
Oxfam’s Abbott said it was not known whether the kindly donor of the book, described as a riposte from the Company of Merchant Adventurers to claims of trade route monopolization made by a rival merchant group, knew its real worth.
The book will be auctioned on Sept 20.
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