I spent three months working in the Books and Manuscripts department at Christie’s auction house in London, where I assisted with three sales: a various-owners auction of valuable books and manuscripts, an online Science Fiction and Fantasy sale, and the auction of three dinosaurs. Having completed a summer school at the London Rare Books School and the York Antiquarian Book Seminar earlier this year, I was excited to gain some experience putting my learning into practice. While my CDA with the National Trust means that I have the privilege of handling lots of historic and rare books in my doctoral research, the commercial – and in particular, auction – side of rare books was new to me.
From my first day at Christie’s it was clear that the work is fast-paced and requires a dynamic approach, because the variety of objects coming in and out is vast and even with a specialism under your belt it is unlikely you could be an expert in everything that comes into your hands. I learnt the art of efficient research in areas previously unfamiliar to you, particularly as I was primarily assisting with the cataloguing and sale of music manuscripts, and other autograph material that was outside of my knowledge. This involved trips to the British Library to compare published Wagner letters with the manuscripts going to auction, revisiting my Year 9 Spanish knowledge for the cataloguing of Pablo Neruda poetry manuscripts, and getting to grips with the (sometimes challenging!) collation of early printed books. Variety is certainly the word that most comes to mind thinking about the work placement, especially as alongside the books and manuscripts I also assisted with multiple insurance valuations for museum collections of historical scientific instruments and the cataloguing of dinosaurs which were sold at auction during my last week – unexpected but very exciting opportunities!
Commuting to London from Oxfordshire was undoubtedly quite tiring but the opportunity to take a step back from my doctoral research during the placement has rejuvenated my energy and motivation for my return to it, and I hope that the lessons in efficient, 9-5 working transfer to a healthy and balanced schedule for the next year of my DPhil. I am really grateful for the generous guidance and teaching from the specialists at Christie’s, and the OOC-DTP for this chance to gain experience in an international company. I look forward to my next steps in the rare book world and know that my time at Christie’s will continue to enrich my journey within it.