28/03/2026 General News
Six times a year Keys plays host to one of the biggest and most important Book and Ephemera Sales outside of London, and our April Sale is no exception. Amongst its 1,189 lots is a huge selection of antique, vintage and modern books, as well as antique maps, historical papers and a whole host of other ephemera, writes Emily Turner.
Keys has one of the longest-standing Book departments of any provincial auction house, and it is one of the reasons that the attention of dealers, collectors and enthusiasts will be focussed on Norfolk on the 15th and 16th April for the latest two-day sale.
With so many lots, it is impossible in just one page of the EDP to give anything like a full run-down of what is on offer, so here are just a few highlights that I have picked out; if you are interested in seeing the whole catalogue for yourself, it is available now on the Keys website.
First editions are always in demand at such sales, whether rare examples of famous volumes from the past, or more recent – and often more accessible in terms of price – books from the modern era.
Some examples in our April sale include a 1942 first edition, second impression of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, which despite not being in pristine condition nevertheless has a pre-sale estimate of £150-£200; a first edition of Beatrix Potter’s ‘The Pie and The Patty-Pan’ dating from 1905 (estimate £100-£200); and a first edition, ninth impression of C.S.Lewis’ ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ dating from 1966 (estimate £100-£200).
Probably the rarest – and therefore most sought-after – first edition in the sale is a pair of titles from the Charlie Chan series by Earl Derr Biggers. ‘Behind That Curtain’ dates from 1928 and ‘Keeper of the Keys’ from 1932. Despite the latter missing its dust jacket, our pre-sale estimate for this duo is £560-£840.
‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ is the autobiographical account of the experiences of the British army Colonel T.E.Lawrence (better known as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’) while serving as military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire from 1916-1918. Lawrence was immortalised in the 1962 movie starring Peter O’Toole.
In 1997 Castle Hill Press reissued the book in a limited edition of 752, in the form of two volumes each bound in full goatskin. A set of these is in the sale and is already causing excitement amongst collectors; the pre-sale estimate is £700-£1,000.
Another volume related to faraway lands is Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s ‘The Worst Journey in the World’, a 1922 memoir of the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole in 1910-1913. The work is in two volumes; we have a first edition of volume one in the sale, which includes fascinating photographs and maps, but not, of course, the climactic passage describing how Cherry-Garrad discovered the remains of Scott and two of his companions in their tent nearly a year after they froze to death. Nevertheless, the book has a pre-sale estimate of £700-£1,400.
At a more affordable level, and always popular, are books published by the Folio Society, which since 1947 has published illustrated hardback editions of both fiction and non-fiction titles, often in boxed sets. There are 13 such sets in our April Sale, featuring authors such as J.R.R.Tolkien, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Roald Dahl, Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope and Robert Louis Stevenson. With estimates generally in the £30-£60 range, these represent exceptional value for collectors.