Packed with job lots in many categories, the book section of a three-day antiques auction held at Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium) in the Cumbrian market town of Cockermouth heralded an intent to make such sales a regular feature.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Terence Ryle

The range of material as well as sheer numbers of books within those 221 lots was impressive. It stretched from job lots of posters relating to the Irish troubles to a large conchology section among the natural history books.

However, the item shown above is a two-volume official report of the notorious XIth Olympic Games, held under Hitler’s gaze in Berlin in 1936.

This set, showing some unsightly discolouration to the gilt decorated bindings, sold for £200 in Cockermouth, but these official reports were produced in small numbers and aimed principally at institutions. In 1995, at Christie’s South Kensington, a set was bid to £1400 but no other copy seems to have been offered at auction since then.