Rare first edition of Wuthering Heights to auction at Christie's for up to £600,000

A rare cloth-bound first edition of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, one of only a handful of surviving copies in original binding, will be auctioned at Christie's on 30 June with an estimate of up to £600,000. The 1847 edition, bound in two volumes with Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey, retains its original grey-green cloth binding—most other copies have been rebound. Christie's rare books specialist Mark Wiltshire notes that the last such copy appeared at auction in 1908, making this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for collectors. The book was published by Thomas Cautley Newby, who rushed it out to capitalize on the success of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The authors used pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. The first edition is full of printing errors, including misspellings like 'Heghts,' which collectors prize. The novel initially received harsh reviews but later gained admirers such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Swinburne, and Virginia Woolf. Wiltshire believes only six copies in original binding exist in public collections, three in the UK: British Library, Bodleian Library, and Brotherton Library. The copy comes from an undisclosed aristocratic private collection and will be displayed at Christie's London from 26 June before the sale.