After Napoleon died in May 1821, Sotheby’s auctioned off the books he had taken with him to St Helena. [1]
Sotheby’s is the world’s second-oldest international auction house in continuous operation and was established with the sale of a library collection.
Samuel Baker was an entrepreneur, occasional publisher, and successful bookseller who held his first auction under his own name on 11 March 1744 when he auctioned off the library collection of the recently deceased British politician Sir John Stanley. Described as “several Hundred scarce and valuable Books in all branches of Polite Literature”, the auction featured nearly 500 publications which sold for a total of ₤826.
After this success, Baker quickly became the leading auctioneer of British libraries, specialising in rare and valuable books and manuscripts, including collections belonging to Prince Talleyrand, the Marquess of Landsdowne, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Buckingham.
In 1767, Baker formed a business partnership with auctioneer George Leigh, who was known for conducting business with an ivory gavel. After Baker’s death in 1778, his estate was divided between Leigh and Baker’s nephew, John Sotheby. The company’s reputation was solidified in 1856 when they auctioned off the library of the Duke of Roxburghe, which included the Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed with movable type. The sale set a record price for a book at the time and cemented Sotheby’s position as the go-to auction house for rare books.
Under Sotheby, the auction house expanded to include the sale of prints, medals, coins, and rare antiques in addition to literary collections, and in 1864 took the official name of Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge after additional partners were acquired.
Today, the company is one of the world’s leading auction houses, and it continues to hold regular sales of rare and important books, manuscripts, and other works on paper.