Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Hayek on Fire!!



Austrian school economist and Noble Prize winner Friedrich Hayek’s typewriter was expected to sell at a Sotheby's auction for less than $2,000. It sold for $24,937.

And then it got really crazy.











His copy of the Wealth of Nations with underlining and marginalia was expected to sell for under $6,650. It sold for $199,500.

And then...

His collection of “desktop ephemera” was expected to sell at auction for less than $400 — it sold for $114,546.




From Sotheby's:

Lot Details


Description

F.A. HAYEK
DESKTOP EPHEMERA AND PERSONAL EFFECTS

1976 Smythson Diary with ownership signature and loose photograph inserted (showing a billboard advertising a lecture); 1946-1951 British Passport; 1949-1954 British Passport; 1957-1962 British Passport; Driver's Licence; Churchill Toby Jug, Royal Doulton, c. 1940s, with stamp and serial number 8360; wood powder horn; pocket compass; wooden desk compass with Chinese characters; desktop Adam Smith bust; Adam Smith profile in round wooden frame; small desktop clock Christian Bernard in folding leather case; small ceramic pot of trinkets (tie clips, cufflinks pins etc.); three small trinket boxes
Hayek became a naturalised British citizen in 1938 and citizenship for the rest of his life, although he lived mostly outside the UK after 1950retained citizenship for the rest of his life, although he lived mostly outside the UK after 1950.
Condition Report:Wear to items. Passports cancelled with corners cut. 
-RW


2 comments:

  1. "His copy of the Wealth of Nations with underlining and marginalia was expected to sell for under $6,650. It sold for $199,500."

    I wonder if the owner could have it scanned and make it publishable for a nominal cost. That's something I would do and Adam Smith way out of the range of copyright expiration I would guess.

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