Hymnal that dates to 1640 could fetch $30M

[cali]

A tiny hymnal from 1640 believed to be the first book ever printed in what is now the United States is going up for auction, and it could sell for as much as $30 million.

Only 11 copies of the Bay Psalm Book survive in varying degrees of completeness. Members of Boston's Old South Church have authorized the sale of one of its two copies at Sotheby's Nov. 26.

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Taylor says the church voted to sell one of its two remaining copies— both in "excellent condition" — to increase its grants, ministries and "strengthen our voice in general as a progressive Christian church."

The book was published in Cambridge, Mass., by the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It came just 20 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

<snip>

The last time a copy came on the auction block in 1947, it sold for a record auction price of $151,000. At the time, it surpassed auction prices for the Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare's First Folio and John James Audubon's "Birds of America."

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/12/hymnal-auction-1640/2076749/

[Niceguy1]

1. cool.

I love old books. One could only dream of having something like that. The oldest I have been ae to lay my hands on is about 100 years old.

[RevStPatrick]

2. Ooooo... I LOVE things like that!!!

I've got 19 dollars in my pocket.
That's my bid!