Original Library from Prince Charles's House for Sale at Bonhams

Written by Oliver Garvey Monday, 17 May 2010 21:02

LONDON.- Much of the original library from Highgrove House, now the home of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, is for sale at the Books, Maps and Manuscripts sale at Bonhams in London on 8 June. Prince Charles bought Highgrove House in 1980 – from MP Maurice Macmillan, son of former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, - shortly before his marriage to the Lady Diana Spencer. Under his stewardship the estate has become a beacon of conservation and biologically sustainable farming. Containing much that would be considered essential for an educated man of the time - for example, works by Shakespeare, Newton, Samuel Johnson and John Evelyn - the library has a particular leaning towards travel and natural history.

Among the most fascinating items are the complete set of ‘The Naturalists Miscellany’ with stunning illustrations of animals and birds including a guess at what a Dodo would have looked like; Volumes 1-60 of the lavishly illustrated Curtis Botanical magazine (£10,000 -15,000); and the first edition in English of Otto von Kotzebue classic account of his, unsuccessful, search for a North-East Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Highgrove was built at the very end of the 18th Century for John Paul Paul, a wealthy Huguenot, and many of the volumes carry his bookplate. Others, published in his life time and bound for him in nearby Tetbury, would certainly have formed part of his collection. The library continued to expand after John Paul Paul’s death in 1828 until the family sold the house in the mid 19th century following the death of his granddaughter when her gown caught fire in the ballroom.

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