In the event only half the lots sold and while the trade were able to pick up some of the later and larger lots, reserves on the earlier items seem to have been set a level that required a level of determined collector bidding that was not always forthcoming.
Seen top right is copy of the first ever Biggles title, The Camels are Coming, which in a jacket showing some expert restoration, particularly to the spine ends and the top edge, brought £3000. The book was first issued in 1932, but this copy was catalogued as c.1934. It was not one of the 'Ace' reprints, but its blue cloth binding may indicate a later issue, as was the case with the copy of Biggles Flies Again seen bottom right, again with some restoration, including painstaking re-colouring and lettering to the jacket - which shows a seaplane bombing a giant octopus! Dated c.1936, not 1934, it sold for £2100.
