RARE books by HG Wells fetched three times the price expected after they were auctioned off by a family to pay care home costs.
The two first edition volumes of The Outline of History, which are hand annotated in ink by the author, sold for £1,550 at Chiswick Auctions.
The books belonged to Peter Howell, 92, an actor who starred in the first medical television soap, Emergency Ward 10, in the 50s and 60s, and most recently appeared alongside Johnny Depp in The Libertine.
Mr Howell lived in Glebe Street, Chiswick, for many years and is now at a care home in Rickmansworth. His family found the books while organising his home and decided to sell them to pay for his care.
Polly Gutsell, 53, one Mr Howell’s four children, said: “The auction was so exciting because we thought the books would go for around £600, but the bids kept on rising until they stopped at £900 and then they suddenly shot up to £1,550.
“It’s great because all the money is going to fund the care for my father who has been in a care home for actors for the past two years.”
Books and manuscripts specialist at Chiswick Auctions, Nicholas Worskett, said: “We didn’t really know how much the volumes would go for because they’re completely unique but I was thrilled they fetched so much in the end.
“However, I was slightly disappointed that they went to a private bidder and not to the University of Illinois, who were very interested, because now they are out of the public domain, but the money is going to fund Mr Howell’s care home so that’s definitely a good thing.”
Mr Howell’s father, Owen Bulmer Howell, a pilot in the years before the First World War, left the two volumes and a collection of other HG Wells books to his son. Owen Howell met the author and was a member of the same left-wing think tank, the Fabian Society.
