Rugby School To Sell ‘Rare’ Shakespeare, Dickens Books

A rare Shakespeare book being sold by Rugby School is estimated to fetch up to £50,000 at auction.

William Shakespeare’s Fourth Folio, from 1685, is one of about 300 books from the school’s library going under the hammer.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and titles from Daniel Defoe and Aristotle are also among volumes expected to fetch the most money. The school said it was committed to using resources to benefit students.

In 2018, Mail Online reported the private school had raised nearly £15m by selling a large selection of artwork, with one item fetching more than £11m.

The books due to be auctioned next week cover an impressively wide range of interests, the school said, including mountaineering, botany, sermons, military history, psalms and maps.