Every book has a different story and a value added to itself. But the price tag on it may vary due to various reasons. PEAKLIFE has listed down here the world’s most expensive and rarest books.
Be it a monetary value or some rare history attached to each piece of book, every book has its own unique quality. Here is a list of the top 5 most expensive and rarest books of all the time in the world.
Birds of America by John James Audubon
Attention to fine details that are unique, John James used arduous technique of hand color etching and aquatint plates. Making this book a rare one, he used wires to prop up his subjects into their natural positions and this meant that Audubon could draw life size birds across the double elephant paper which was probably the largest sized paper of that time, producing 200 complete sets. A bound-book of the vast collection of the paintings was sold at an auction at US $8.8 Million.
Gutenberg’s Bible By Johan Gutenberg
Speaking about the rarity of the Gutenberg’s Bible, this was the first book ever printed using a printing press. On predominantly paper, the copies were printed with the rest on vellum and calfskin. With its exceptional quality, the book holds more value than it has. With the use of fine crafted paper and vellum, and in the folio form or loose pages, Guttenberg produced bibles, allowing the owner to bind them as they wished. In museums, libraries and universities, majority of the remaining copies of Gutenberg’s bible are found here.Costing around US$70,000 single leaf, the value of the
complete book increases to ten millions of dollars.
The codex of Leicester by Leonardo Da Vinci
The most famous of all the scientific journals, the codex of Leicester is one its kind named after one of the original towers. It is one book handwritten with well illustrated images telling about the relationship between science and art. This book holds the record for the most expensive book sold at US$ 30.8 million.
The Declaration of Independence
The original declaration of Independence was signed by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams making the book to be one of the rarest of all the time. Out of 200 copies that were printed, only 26 of them survive till today, and each sheet is worth as much as $1,000000 where as the document has valued at about $9 million, which is quite the steal.
The Tales of Beedle The bard by J.K. Rowling
With the seven limited edition copies, each handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling. Handmade and bound in brown Morocco leather with hand-chased silver ornamentation, makes this book rare and valuable. The book followed the release of the final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter, and the Deathly Hallows, and is based on the fictional book featured in Deathly Hallows story.First six given to the individuals as a mean to say thanks who assisted Rowling as the author of Harry Potter. Carved and decorated with moonstone jewelry makes the seventh edition the most unique one and it sold for at an auction at US $3.98 million.
