Holy moly what a first edition find!

YOUR WEEKLY ROUND-UP OF THE REGION'S LEADING AUCTIONEERS

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FAMILY Bible that a Yorkshire pensioner took along to Duggleby Stephenson's York saleroom for advice triggered an international bidding battle before selling for £23,000 in an auction of maps and antiquarian books.

Astonished valuers found that not only had he brought in a first edition of the 1611 King James Bible but it was an early printing of the first edition.

Duggleby Stephenson's Coralie Thomson said: "This translation of the Bible was commissioned by King James in 1604 and after the work of almost 50 of the country's leading scholars, it was finally published seven years later.

"However, the very first copies to come off the presses contained printing mistakes, one of which came to be the marker for an early printing.