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The Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes Bonhams Auction

Like you, maybe, I am still fascinated and a bit mystified by the auction last week in London of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: The Property of Frieda Hughes. I am still overly curious as to which items might end up in libraries and archives; which lots went to private collectors; and which will be seen, temporarily and with a mark up, via book or artifact dealers.

I went through and made a spreadsheet of the lots with the estimates, the hammer prices and the final price including the buyer's premium. Lastly I filled in a column in Excel to denote if the item was
  • withdrawn (1 lot);
  • did not sell (8 lots);
  • was under estimate (17 lots);
  • in estimate (17 lots); or 
  • over estimate (65 lots)

The large majority went for over the high estimate, even if just barely. The in estimate could be further broken down by whether it was low, mid, or high within that estimate price range but I frankly did not want to go that far... Well, I do, but indexing the second volume of The Letters of Sylvia Plath has kind of taken priority as you might imagine! I also really wanted to give more detail or a keyword about the lot, or provide hyperlinks to them, but just did not. Sorry.



Hope you all find this interesting or useful.

All links accessed: 27 March 2018

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  1. Unknown28 March, 2018 18:23

    I am also completely fascinated by this auction. I watched it while standing at the reference desk at work. From your experience, do you think we will find out who won what lots? The thought of all these materials (especially the typewriter & two Bell Jar texts) being hidden away by a private collector breaks my heart.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter K Steinberg30 March, 2018 09:08

    Just an update as the final sales results are now available from Bonhams. Some of the lots that did not sell during the auction were since sold. These include:

    Lot 302 £9750 (In estimate)
    Lot 303 £3750 (Under)
    Lot 328 £875 (Under)
    Lot 394 £3500 (Under)

    Prices above include buyer's premium.

    Lots 322, 345, 395, and 398 still did not sell; Lot 350 is still 'withdrawn'.

    ReplyDelete
  3. suki16 April, 2018 11:11

    Interesting that the heart covered chair didn't sell. Such a shame I don't have a spare $6000 ....

    ReplyDelete

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