France: Poor Don Quixote became very expensive after 400 years – Two copies 504,000 euros at auction

Two ‘unique’ copies of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote sold for 504,000 eurosincluding taxes, in an auction organized today in Paris by Sotheby’s.

The identity of the buyer of these rare works was not disclosed. One copy was the third edition of Book 1 which was printed in 1608 and the other the first edition of Book 2of 1615.

The story of the poor, good peasant who thinks he is a knight and wanders off to save his beloved, with his scaly horse and his servant, Sancho Panza, is considered the first modern novel. It met with great success from the first edition of the book, in 1605.

The copies, which went on public display in November in London, were bought about a century ago by a Bolivian diplomat. Jorge Ortiz Linares, a passionate collector, had been searching for the first edition of the novel for years. In 1930 he went to London, which was then perhaps the most important international center for buying and selling second-hand books, as Ed Maggs, bookseller and great-grandson of the founder of second-hand bookshop Maggs Bros, explained.

When he visited this bookstore he didn’t find what he was looking for, but he left his details, just in case luck smiled on him in the future. He was called six years later: on 21 December 1936 he bought the two copies, Book 1 for £100 and Book 2 for £750as Anne Heilborn, head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, said.

These copies are “unique” because they were bound in the 18th century on behalf of an English collector, and it is rare to find a “Don Quixote” with such old bindings, he explained.

RES-EMP

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