Tennants Auctioneers of Leyburn have yet again broken a world record in their Rare Book Auction, held on Wednesday, 25th July. A first edition copy of Arthur Ransome’s children’s book ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in its very rare dust jacket and in excellent condition achieved an auction world record price of £6,500 smashing the previous world record of £5,000 held by a London auction house. Also in excellent condition, a first edition of ‘Swallowdale’ by the same author sold for £1,900, a result very close to the auction record.

Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and wrote ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in 1930.  This famous book is the first in a series of twelve by the author, all of which follow the same theme. It tells the story of children’s outdoor adventures in the Lake District – the Walker children, who sail a dinghy named ‘Swallow’, and the Blackett children, who sail a dinghy named ‘Amazon’. 

The sale also contained a large collection of very rare Irish books. Buyers from Ireland flocked to the sale and included one collector who arrived by helicopter.  A large number of these books sold for prices never seen at auction before, many trebling previous world records.

Other highlights of the sale included a volume of engravings of Raphael’s Vatican Frescos which made £5,000 and an album of original artwork by the artist Samuel Lucas which sold for £2,400.

Nick Lambert, Head of Tennants Book Department, was delighted with the results of the sale, saying “We have achieved record prices for our customers and yet again proved that our rural location is no disadvantage when competing with the auction houses of London and New York. We attract buyers from all over the world and even provide helicopter landing facilities”.

Less than one month ago, Tennants broke several world records for taxidermy sold in their Summer Catalogue Sale.

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A first edition copy of Arthur Ransome’s children’s book ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in its very rare dust jacket and in excellent condition achieved an auction world record price of £6,500

A first edition of Arthur Ransome’s book ‘Swallowdale’ sold for £1,900