(26 Nov 2013) A tiny book of psalms from 1640 - believed to be the first book ever printed in what is now the United States - is poised to set an auction record for a printed book on Tuesday.
The Bay Psalm Book going on the auction block at Sotheby's has a pre-sale estimate of 15 to 30 million (m) US dollars.
A copy of John James Audubon's "Birds of America," which currently holds the record, sold for 11.5 million US dollars at Sotheby's in 2010.
Only 11 copies of the Bay Psalm Book survive in varying degrees of completeness.
"The price will not be humble. It will be the most expensive printed book in the world when it sells," said Sotheby's David Redden.
The one being offered at Sotheby's is one of two owned by Boston's Old South Church, which voted to sell it to increase its grants and ministries.
Samuel Adams was a member and Benjamin Franklin was baptised at the church, which was established in 1669.
At one time, the church owned five copies of the 6-by-5-inch book.
One is now at the Library of Congress, another at Yale University and a third at Brown University.
"It's incredibly rare, there are only 11 copies of this, the last time one came up for sale was 1947, so two generations have gone by and now suddenly one is available," said Redden, who is Sotherby's longest serving auctioneer.
If bidding surpasses 30 million USD, the Bay Psalm Book could set an auction record for any book.
The Leonardo da Vinci Codex Hammer, a personal notebook of scientific writings and diagrams, sold for 30.8 million dollars at Christie's in 1994.
The book was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, just 20 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
The book was supposed to be a faithful translation into English of the original Hebrew psalms.
Puritans believed selected paraphrases would compromise their salvation.
The 1,700 copies were printed on a press shipped over from London.
A yellowed title page, adorned with decorative flourishes, reads: "The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Faithfully Translated into English Metre."
At the bottom, it says: "Imprinted 1640."
The last time a copy came on the auction block, in 1947, it sold for a record auction price of 151,000 US dollars.
At the time, it surpassed auction prices for the Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare's First Folio and Audubon's "Birds of America."
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