24 Nov 2010

Mansfield manuscript fails to reach auction reserve

7:40 pm on 24 November 2010

The owner of a manuscript by New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield says he is considering lending it out after it did not reach an auction reserve.

The work describes what Mansfield saw on a train travelling from London to Cornwall in the early 1900s. It was expected to fetch up to $100,000 at an auction by Dunbar Sloane in Wellington on Wednesday, but reached only $35,000.

Owner Des Schollum, a book collector, says he was not surprised it failed to reach reserve because of tough economic times.

Earlier, Dunbar Sloane said the work was likely to be of greater interest to institutional bidders than private collectors.