On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY.com! in 1766, James Christie, the founder of the famous Christie auctioneers, held his first sale in London, England. It went a little something like this:
“Who’ll give me a ten pounds?
Ten pounds bid, now twenty?
Now twenty, maybe thirty?
Thirty pounds to the dandy in red,
Forty, who’ll drop forty on this manuscript?
On this fine manuscript written in Greek?
Who’ll give me forty?
Forty to the Lord at the end,
Fifty? Fifty to the dandy in red.
Who’ll give me Sixty? Sixty pounds?
Anyone for Sixty? No one?
Going once, twice, an original transcript of the Margites by Homer sold to the Dandy in Red for Sixty pounds.
Next up is the original Hamlet written by Thomas Kyd.”