Extraordinary Find: 1655 Shakespeare "King Lear" 3rd Quarto Edition
HOST: And now, from a ring to a king. When rare books expert Devon Eastland discovered a tattered old copy of Shakespeare's King Lear in Vermont in 2022, she could hardly believe her eyes. And thankfully, what happened after the show was no tragedy.
APPRAISER (voiceover): It was later in the afternoon. A box of books shows up and, and the guest started taking the books out. The first one was not very interesting. And then he had a very, uh, worn, skinny, small, unimportant looking book that was also browned with a bad title page. But it was a Shakespeare.
GUEST: I brought a book that was part of a collection that my grandfather amassed, and it's just been coming down through the family. A very eclectic collection. But this is one that I thought was-was more interesting; it's a-- an edition of William Shakespeare's King Lear. I first remember the-the books in my grandfather's house. In his den, he had a shelf about two feet long of old books.
APPRAISER: What you brought is the third quarto edition of King Lear by William Shakespeare, uh, printed by Jane Bell in 1655. When I was looking it up, I found that the last copy of the 1655 Jane Bell quarto, King Lear, that sold at auction sold in 1946.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: And nothing since. Nothing since…
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: and before that, there was a dealer's catalog, maybe from the '20s, nothing else. So then I looked it up in a bibliography to see how many copies there are in libraries. And there are only ten copies in the U.S.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: And seven in England, which is also really rare.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: There are definitely plays that there are 50 copies from the same period, you know, or 30 copies. And when you look in the auction record, you'll see them, even if it's every ten years or so, one or two come up. At auction, I would conservatively say $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Yes.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: For this dirty little book.
GUEST: Well, I knew it was unusual, but I had no idea.
GUEST (voiceover): That was certainly more than we had ever expected. My wife and I went home and we talked about this. And it was our conclusion that that was such a rare book, that it shouldn't be sitting on our dining room shelf, that it should be part of a collection or part of a library or part of a museum or something like that. I contacted Devon and told her what we wanted to do and she said that the best way to do that would be to put it up for auction in an auction that specialized in ancient books. And she was having one coming up. So we consigned the book to... to, uh, Swann Galleries and we watched the auction.
AUCTIONEER: I can open the bidding on this one at......$10,000, $11,000, $12,000. $12,000 is bid. $12,000 with order bidders-- $13,000.
APPRAISER: It was $10,000 to 15,000, we were off and running.
GUEST: It wasn't very exciting at the beginning.
APPRAISER: We moved up into like, you know, $20,000. We're doing $2,000 increments, so it's $20,000, $22,000.
GUEST: At that point I started rooting for it.
APPRAISER: $24,000, $26,000.
GUEST: Come on, you can make $20,000! You can make $25,000.
APPRAISER: I mean, at the end, it was just these two phones and it went for $46,000. And then the way auctions work, because we are middle people, we charge the buyer 25% premium on top. So the person who bought it ended up paying $57,500.
GUEST: I was just absolutely flabbergasted, just blown away. Nev-never could have anticipated that at all. And, uh, just didn't know what to say. (stammering) And-and still don't.
APPRAISER: I would have been thrilled just to have had that first experience in Vermont. But it makes it really special to have been able to contribute something to the book and to its journey along the way. So it's definitely my favorite appraisal and my favorite object that I've, that I've had a chance to, uh, to film on ROADSHOW, for sure.
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episode
Extraordinary Finds 3
Revisit remarkable ROADSHOW finds whose stories didn’t stop even after we yelled "Cut!"
Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
