Maria Edgeworth letters fetch £8,000 at auction

A small collection of letters signed by celebrated 18th century Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth sold for £8,000 sterling at a Shropshire fine art auction house on Wednesday last.

An Irish buyer edged out rivals bidder to secure the 14 letters which soon eclipsed their presale estimate of up to £1,200 at Halls Fine Art’s successful books, stamps and coins auction at the company’s Battlefield saleroom in Shrewsbury.

The Marie Edgeworth Centre based in Edgeworthstown were among the bidders and they expressed their disappointment after they missed out on buying the collection.

They posted on X (formerly Twitter), ''Unfortunately, we just failed in our attempt to purchase a collection of letters by Maria Edgeworth, which have just been sold at auction. They fetched 8000 sterling before fees. Hopefully they have been returned to Ireland.”

Chris Moore, Halls Fine Art’s books and manuscripts specialist, said: “The letters attracted huge pre-sale interest from across the UK and Ireland because Maria Edgeworth was a celebrated novelist of her time. There has been increasing interest in female writers and this is reflected in the price this lot sold for.”