Books and Manuscripts 

 

Chorley’s have handled sales from several important libraries and collections.

These include The F Alan Underwood ‘Kipling’ Collection 2011; Private Collection of Gloucestershire books 2015; Selected volumes from Ombersley Court 2019 and Selected volumes from Spetchley Park 2020. We have an unrivalled reputation for selling books relating to Gloucestershire including a world record price of £2,800 for a copy of Annalia Dubrensia (Mr Robert Dovers Olimpick Games upon Cotswold-Hills) and we regularly achieve top prices for Atkyn’s Glostershire and works by Samuel Lysons.

A recently discovered letter by the great literary genius Dr Johnson (1709-1784), who famously wrote the Dictionary of the English Language, sold at Chorley’s auctioneers to a British institution for £38,460 - over four times its pre-sale low estimate of £8,000.

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CHORLEY'S DISCOVERS LOST LETTER

Among a cache of letters discovered in a Gloucestershire country house is a lost letter written by the renowned English writer Samuel Johnson, (1709-1784), who compiled one of the most famous dictionaries in history: Dictionary of the English Language. The letter, which had been officially logged as ‘present location unknown’ for many years, was published in The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Oxford, 1994; Bruce Bedford, ed.) and was found on a routine valuation by Chorley’s auction specialists.

 

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