First Edition Curious George Fetches $21850 at PBA Galleries Auction
The first edition copy of Curious George we described in our May 2007 blog post sold for $21,850 at the July 12, 2007 PBA Galleries children’s book auction.
The first edition Curious George is quite rare, the PBA copy being the first to surface at auction in over a decade. Pre-auction estimates were over $10,000, however few thought the children’s book would bring over $20,000.
Having never been out of print, and with over 25 million Curious George franchise books sold, this auction garnered quite a bit of interest from book collectors and book sellers.
The PBA Curious George Auction
From the PBA Auction description:
Item # : 182763
Description:
Illustrated in color by the author. 10¼x8¼, orange cloth pictorially stamped and lettered in brown, color pictorial yellow dust jacket. First Edition.
Rare first edition in dust jacket of the beloved children’s tale featuring inquisitive ape Curious George and his captor/protector The Man in the Yellow Hat. Curious George made his literary debut in the French children’s book titled Rafy and the Nine Monkeys. Before H.A. Rey and his wife Margret could submit to a publisher the sequel featuring George, the Nazis captured Paris, and the Jewish couple fled on bicycles to Lisbon with five manuscripts, among them Curious George. Following a brief sojourn in Brazil, the Reys made it to the United States, where they were able to find a publisher for the eventual classic. Besides influencing the consciousness of countless post-war children, the work is the basis for the recent movie, and the ongoing PBS television show. The book itself is quite rare in the first edition, but the jacket is virtually unobtainable. The present example of the jacket is unclipped, with the price of $1.75 present the top of the front flap; at the top of the rear flap is affixed the sticker of Bullock’s Wilshire, with the detachable price (also $1.75) still present. No copies of Curious George are listed by American Book Prices Current as having been sold at auction since 1975, further evidence of the book’s scarcity.
Condition:
Light dust-soiling to jacket, a few short tears (1¼" or smaller), small chips at spine ends; a few faint scratches to covers, else near fine in very good or better jacket.
See here for actual auction description and results.
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