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Unearthed in the UK, “unique” volumes of Don Quixote put up for auction

2022-12-04T09:20:54.806Z


It was in the famous London bookstore Maggs Bros that a bibliophile Bolivian diplomat bought, 170 years ago, the two copies of the great epic novel by Cervantes. They are put up for auction by Sotheby's in Paris on December 14 and should sell for between 400,000 to 600,000 euros.


In front of a huge shelf, Ed Maggs admires old books that have made his family bookstore in London famous for 170 years.

It was there that a Bolivian diplomat acquired two "

unique

" volumes of Don Quixote nearly a century ago, which are now up for auction.

Appointed Bolivian Ambassador to France in 1947, Jorge Ortiz Linares was the son-in-law of “

tin king

” Simon Patino, a Bolivian living in Paris who had made his fortune in the mining industry in the early 20th century.



Fervent collector, Jorge Ortiz was looking for an original edition of

Don Quixote

, the famous work by Miguel de Cervantes today considered the first modern novel.

The story of the poor book-mad gentleman who thinks he is a vindicating knight was a resounding success when it was published in 1605. In the 1930s, his research led Jorge Ortiz to the British capital,

"probably the most important place for the international trade in old books

,” Ed Maggs told AFP.

Read alsoA Don Quixote under the hammer of Sotheby's

The latter is the great-great-grandson of Uriah Maggs, who in 1853 founded his own small bookshop, which over the years became a recognized establishment of British kings and exiled monarchs such as Manuel II of Portugal and Alfonso XIII of Spain.

After five generations, the Maggs Bros bookstore has come to own 1,358 rare editions of Spanish-language books, collected in a catalog published in 1927

"still quoted by bibliographers today"

, says Jonathan Reilly, an expert at the Maggs bookstore. .

A passionate collector

It shows works that caught Jorge Ortiz's eye at the time: two original editions of Don Quixote, book I published in 1605 and book II published in 1615, on sale for 3,500 pounds,

"a real fortune for the time”

(the equivalent of 174,000 pounds, 201,000 euros today according to the Bank of England converter).

But when the collector enters the bookstore, the object of his desire has already been sold and he resigns himself to leaving his contact details while waiting for a new arrival of books.



Years later, in 1936, he got the long-awaited call from the bookseller and set off on a hasty trip to London.

Why did he take the first plane?

The book collector is sometimes enthusiastic and a bit obsessive

jokes Ed Maggs.

Jorge Ortiz ended up buying a third edition of Book I and a first edition of Book II, explains Anne Heilbronn, the manager of books and manuscripts at the Sotheby's auction house.



He paid then 100 pounds for the first and 750 for the second.

Since then, the books have remained out of public view, but can now be admired at Sotheby's headquarters in London, ahead of an auction on December 14 in Paris where the works are expected to sell for between 400,000 to 600,000 euros.

The first editions of Book I of Don Quixote are rare because, sent en masse to Latin America, many were lost in a shipwreck near Havana, recalls the auction house.



Published in 1608, the third edition was the last printed during the lifetime of Cervantes and corrected by him, underlines Ms. Heilbronn, who assures that

“all the translations that we have today come from this third edition”

.

But what makes these books "

unique

" is that they were bound in the 18th century for an English collector and it is very rare to find Don Quixote with such old bindings, she adds.



On December 21, 1936, Jorge Ortiz took advantage of his visit to Maggs Bros to acquire three other jewels: a first edition of the

Novelas ejemplares

(1613) by Cervantes,

La Florida del Inca

(1605) in which Garcilaso de la Vega recounts the conquest of America from the perspective of the natives and the

Hispania Victrix

(1553) on the conquest of Mexico, the first work in history to mention California.



On November 30, the five works returned to the mythical bookstore for a few hours before leaving for Paris where they will be auctioned on December 14 with the 83 other pieces from the Ortiz Linares collection, brought together with the help of expert Jean -Baptiste de Proyart.

Among them is a first edition of Goya's book of engravings

La Tauromaquia

(1816) and large original editions by French authors such as Molière, Montesquieu, Montaigne and Descartes.

Total sales are estimated at between 1.8 and 2.5 million euros.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-12-04

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