At Bloomsbury Book Auctions on November 22 the chest, a good example of its type, duly sold for £14,000, but the real excitement was caused by the papers, especially Harvey’s will (right) which provoked enough competition to sell for £110,000 (plus buyer’s premium) to the American manuscript dealer Stodolski, bidding on the telephone.
Though the three-page testament makes no reference to the discovery of the circulation of the blood for which Harvey is famous, it is largely in his own hand, making it more interesting than the probate copy in a clerical hand which is already in the Wellcome Library.
Wrought iron Armada chest
This 17th century wrought iron Armada chest had stood unopened in the attic of an English country house for 180 years until it was finally unsealed earlier this year and found to contain a mass of papers relating to Dr William Harvey and his brother Eliab which had been deposited there by his descendants in 1821.
