Barry Humphries' Personal Library to Auction
Barry Humphries in his library.
The Library of Barry Humphries live auction will feature a wide array of books, manuscripts, works on paper and objets from the extensive library of the legendary comedian, actor, author, and satirist.
Best known as Dame Edna Everage or Sir Les Patterson, Humphries was also a keen book collector from an early age and became one of Australia’s foremost collectors. One of the 40 members of the Roxburghe Club, his house in south Hampstead, London, contained 7,000 books, many of them first editions from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Highlights from the sale at Forum Auctions on March 26 include gothic novels in first edition, and rarities by writers and artists of the Decadent movement, many of which are housed in fine Morocco-bound boxes and slipcases designed by Barry Humphries himself. Of particular note is one of 25 copies of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, one of 25 copies on Japanese vellum (estimate: £4,000 - £6,000). Published by Leonard Smithers in 1896, this edition includes some of Beardsley’s finest illustrations.
Other highlights include:
- Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall, Viles Bodies, A Handful of Dust, and Black Mischief, together in four volumes, each number 3 of 12 large-paper copies signed and numbered by the author, 1937 (estimate: £10,000 - £15,000)
- Eight original book illustrations by Hans Pellar for Der verliebte Flamingo, c.1923 (estimate: £6,000 - £8,000)
- James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, first edition, original boards, the John Sparrow copy, 1824 (estimate: £4,000 - £6,000)
- Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal, first edition containing the six suppressed poems, first issue, Paris, 1857 (estimate: £4,000 - £6,000)
“The sale will be a celebration of Barry’s life-long passion for beautifully illustrated works and rare editions and I hope these volumes will find new homes where they will be treasured by other collectors,” said Lizzie Spender, widow of Barry Humphries.
