by thenewgreen

This Bay Psalm Book will almost certainly be joining an individual, rather than institutional collection. “Every time one of these books has gone up for sale, the buyer has come out of left field—has not been someone anyone expected to be in rare books,” says Reese. For an institution, it doesn’t make sense to purchase outright an historic publication that it can visit instead. Record-breaking bids usually come from individual collectors, though they may later donate the pieces to universities or museums. Some of the most expensive past book and manuscript sales, like the $11.5 million edition of John Audubon’s The Birds of America and the $21.3 million Magna Carta were purchased by private buyers, in 2010 and 2007, respectively.