AN important private library of polar exploration, travel and local history books exceeded expectations when it was auctioned this week.

The sale, at Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn on Thursday, January 10, attracted both book collectors and Polar enthusiasts alike.

Bidders joined the sale from North America, Canada, Australia, India and Europe, and one buyer travelled all the way from Canada for the sale. The library achieved a total hammer price of £220,000.

Including many rare and important volumes, the Roger Casson Collection was put together over many years by the late Roger Casson, an architect from the North East. It was notable for the outstanding condition of much of the collection.

The focus of the library was Polar Exploration in the 19th and early 20th century, which accounted for more than 200 lots in the sale. Of particular note were a good collection of works recounting the ill-fated final expedition made by Sir John Franklin in 1845 to find the North-West Passage, and the numerous search missions that followed the disappearance of his ships and their crew.

One of the most valuable lots in the sale, selling for £14,000, was a limited-edition copy of The Heart of the Antarctic, Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909 by Ernest H. Shackleton.

Published by Heinemann in 1909, the two-volume set, which included two panoramas and three folding maps, is one of only three hundred sets that were produced bound in vellum. Also included in the lot was the accompanying The Antarctic Book, Winter Quarters, 1907-1909, which contained sixteen signatures of the Shore Party from the famous expedition.

The sale resulted in a total hammer price of £220,120 for 344 lots, with a 96 per cent sold rate.

Full results are available at www.tennants.co.uk.