For this volume of Pushkin arranged 26 million rubles.
It’s no secret that book dealers make millions from old books. Rare copies, manuscripts, autographs, posters, photographs – all these printed products are still appreciated even in the Internet age. I remember that at a foreign auction, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin’s “History of the Pugachev Rebellion” with his autograph addressed to Vladimir Dahl sold for … a million dollars. He bought a Moscow collector who did not want to “shine”.
Four years ago, a copy of the life “Onegin” left Christie’s at a rate of 467,250 pounds, which at the then rate – 38,594,850 rubles.
At Russian auctions, a lot of money is also paid for unique second-hand books. Lifetime editions of Russian classics sell for millions, though not for dollars, but for rubles.
On July 27, rare editions by Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov were put up for auction.
The starting price of the rarest edition of the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” (St. Petersburg, 1826-1832) in luxurious Moroccan binding with gold stamping was 12 million rubles. But in the bidding process the rates were doubled. The book was bought for 26,000,000. The price of a good “three rubles” in the center of Moscow.
“The previous record of 18 million rubles for the lifetime edition of Velimir Khlebnikov’s poem Ladomir with the author’s autograph lasted six years on the Russian antiquities market and was surpassed by Pushkin,” said Sergey Burmistrov, director of the Literary Fund. .
All lifetime editions of the “sun” of Russian poetry are very expensive. “Eugene Onegin” was published three times. For the first time, the poet published his novel in verse just as he wrote it. He published it as separate chapters in notebooks for 7 years. Each chapter was sold for 5 rubles. There were eight of those notebooks. The first chapter of the novel was published in February 1825, and the last – in January 1832. Collecting the entire set is the cherished desire of the collector. But the price of the collection will be around a million dollars.
In 1833 the complete novel was first published, and this too is a rarity. The third edition had the largest circulation: 5,000 copies. At the time, that was a lot. After the death of the poet, the entire circulation was cleaned.
Any of these books in good condition is a rarity. Buying a copy in the original cover, with uncut pages (meaning you haven’t read the book) is a bibliophile’s dream. But there are only a few virgin Pushkins in the whole world. That’s why they are valued.
Mikhail Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time” was valued by an anonymous collector at 6 million rubles.
Also sold at the auction was the first separate edition of A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov (Saint Petersburg, 1840). “Hero …” was bought for 6 million rubles. The editing is weird, but not that much. In 1840, the novel was printed in an edition of 1,000 copies. So, in principle, there are chances to find another such booklet and get rich.
