Most expensive printed book in the world sells for £7.3m

Sotheby's sold a copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America for just over £7.3 million last night — a new world record for any printed book at auction.

The illustrated work by the renowned ornithologist, naturalist and painter (1785-1851) had been expected to fetch between £4 million and £6 million.

Dating from 1823-5, the book has 435 plates — including illustrations of blue cranes, pink flamingos, white pelicans and snowy owls — and was one of 11 copies left in private hands.

The book comes from the estate of the 2nd Baron Hesketh, who died in 1955. It was bought for £6,000 at Christie's in 1951 and is said to be in a better condition than a copy owned by the Queen at Windsor Castle.

The buyer last night was St James's picture dealer Michael Tollemache. However, the book seems unlikely to remain in Britain for long.

In a fine piece of saleroom theatre, Mr Tollemache left his seat to stand and bid from the back with a mobile phone held to his ear.

Pretending to take instruction from a client, he waved the phone periodically at the auctioneer. It was noticed, however, that in his five minutes' contact with his client, he spoke not a word.

It became clear that the real buyer was a silver-haired man in row G with whom he had arrived 20 minutes earlier and who smiled brilliantly as the Audubon was sold.

Asked if he was pleased with the price, this gentleman replied in a genial American accent: "I don't know anything about anything."

The sale of Lord Hesketh's library from Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, also saw £1,497,250 paid for a Shakespeare First Folio with the complete text of his plays.