from the NY Daily News
‘Twist’ my arm! Dickens tome brings $229G
Thursday, April 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM
A first edition of Charles Dickens‘ “Oliver Twist” sold for a record $229,000 at Christie’s auction house in New York Wednesday.
An anonymous American collector bought the copy of the 19th century novel about a young orphan who falls in with a band of pickpockets and thieves.
First published in 1838, the copy at auction was inscribed by the author to a friend and fellow novelist, William Ainsworth.
A total of 208 lots went under the gavel, part of the William Self family collection.
The previous record for a Dickens item was held by a copy of “A Christmas Carol” that sold for $160,000 in 1996 at Sotheby’s in New York.