'Remarkable' Dorset book collection sold at auction

A "remarkable" collection of English literature has sold at auction for £346,000.

Books by TE Lawrence, JRR Tolkien, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen, which belonged to a Dorset collector, went under the hammer in Dorchester on Friday.

A first edition of Lawrence's The Seven Pillars of Wisdom sold for £65,000.

Bids came from libraries, private collectors and dealers across the world, Duke's auction house said.

The 49 books were from the library of a "remarkable local collector" of English and, most particularly, Dorset literature, a spokeswoman added.

The auction house said the owner's father, who had a garage close to TE Lawrence's house Clouds Hill near Wareham, knew him well and worked on his famous motorbike.

The sale included many works from renowned Dorset author Thomas Hardy, with whom the collector had family connections.

But the prized lots were from TE Lawrence and JRR Tolkien.

The Cranwell edition of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by the Lawrence of Arabia author was subject to much bidding before being sold for £65,000.

A copy of JRR Tolkien's famous novel The Hobbit was sold for £37,500.

Work by female authors also featured, with a first edition of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park selling for £27,500.

Other titles by the author included Emma and Northanger Abbey, while Charlotte Bronte's Villette and The Professor also sold.

Agatha Christie's first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles was sold, including a presentation letter to her brother-in-law, along with first editions inscribed to her long-term private secretary Daphne Honeybone.

The spokeswoman for the auction house said the book collection was the "most significant it had ever had."

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