We’re delighted to welcome Forum Auctions to the Cultural Comms family.

A specialist in Fine Books, Manuscripts, and Works on Paper, we also supported Forum’s recent sale which featured some truly remarkable lots, including a prayer book gifted by Queen Catherine Parr, signed first editions of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and a first edition of Alan Turing’s essay Mind.

Catherine Parr (Queen of England and Ireland, sixth consort of Henry VIII), Prayers or meditations: sold for £17,780 (inc. BP). One of several copies of her own Prayers or meditations that Parr gifted to her ladies-in-waiting. This particular example is one of four bound in crimson velvet.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (First Editions, later impressions): This bright, fully-signed set of Tolkien’s foundational fantasy work, with The Return of the King additionally signed in Elvish Tengwar script, sold for £30,480 (inc. BP). The set comes with provenance from Oxford undergraduates who befriended Tolkien, who gifted it to them as a memento of their time together.

Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence: A first edition of Turing’s seminal essay in Mind, in which he introduces the “imitation game” that became known as the Turing Test, sold for £10,795 (inc. BP). This work laid the foundations of modern AI and computer science.

We look forward to working closely with the Forum team to highlight more of the auction house's incredible sales and stories.

Find out more: forumauctions.co.uk