Immaculate first edition of George Orwell book sells for £86k

A RARE signed first edition of the first full-length work by author George Orwell has sold for £86,000.

The immaculate copy of Down And Out In Paris And London was bought by a private client yesterday. The book, complete with a near-perfect dust jacket, was sold by a private collector and had a guide price of between 2,500 and 3,500.

Inside the book, Orwell – whose real name was Eric Blair – wrote to his agent, Leonard Moore: "With the author's kind regards, to Mr LP Moore without whose kind assistance this book would never have been published. Eric Blair, 24.12.32."

Aaron Dean, book specialist for Gorringes auction house of Lewes, East Sussex, said he was trying to find out whether the sale, which, with buyer's premium included, totalled 101,050, sets a new record.

He said: "I would be shocked if it isn't a record. The two things that were rare about this were that it was personally inscribed by the author with a nice little ditty.

"Secondly, it had its dust jacket. No first editions of this book with dust jackets have been seen for 27 years.

"To put the significance of that in perspective, last year a copy which was not in great condition and didn't have a dust jacket sold for 13,200.

"This one was an absolutely brilliant copy. The dust jacket had a little bit of wear and tear, but when you took it off the book was in mint condition."

Mr Dean said there was strong bidding, with ten people on the telephone.

"They all fought it out, and in the end a chap at the back of the room bought it," he said.