Appointed Bolivian Ambassador to France in 1947, Jorge Ortiz Linares was the son-in-law of "tin king" Simon Patino, a Bolivian living in Paris who had made his fortune in the mining industry in the early 20th century.

An avid collector, Mr. Ortiz was looking for an original edition of "Don Quixote", the famous work by Miguel de Cervantes today considered the first modern novel.

Two volumes of Don Quixote by Cervantes exhibited at Sotheby's before an auction on November 25, 2022 in London Daniel LEAL AFP

The story of the poor gentleman mad about reading who thinks he is a vindicating knight was a resounding success as soon as it was published in 1605.

In the 1930s, his research led Mr. Ortiz to the British capital, "probably the most important place for the international trade in old books", explains Ed Maggs to AFP.

The latter is the great-great-grandson of Uriah Maggs, who in 1853 founded his own small bookshop, which over the years became a recognized establishment of British kings and exiled monarchs such as Manuel II of Portugal and Alfonso XIII of Spain.

An old catalog of books from the Maggs Bros bookshop, November 24, 2022 in London JUSTIN TALLIS AFP

After five generations, Maggs Bros. has come to own 1,358 rare editions of Spanish-language books, collected in a catalog published in 1927 "still quoted by bibliographers today," says Jonathan Reilly, an expert at Maggs. .

"Obsessive" Quest

It shows works that caught Mr. Ortiz's eye at the time: two original editions of Don Quixote, Book I published in 1605 and Book II published in 1615, on sale for 3,500 pounds, "a real fortune for the time" (the equivalent of 174,000 pounds -201,000 euros- today according to the Bank of England converter).

But when the collector enters the bookstore, the object of his desire has already been sold and he resigns himself to leaving his contact details while waiting for a new arrival of books.

One of the two volumes of Don Quixote by Cervantes exhibited at Sotheby's before an auction on November 25, 2022 in London Daniel LEAL AFP

Years later, in 1936, he received the long-awaited call from the bookseller and embarked on a hasty trip to London.

"Why did he take the first plane? The book collector is sometimes enthusiastic and a little obsessive", jokes Ed Maggs.

Mr. Ortiz ended up buying a third edition of Book I and a first edition of Book II, says Anne Heilbronn, the manager of books and manuscripts at Sotheby's auction house.

He paid then 100 pounds for the first and 750 for the second.

Since then, the books have remained out of public view, but can now be admired at Sotheby's headquarters in London, ahead of an auction on December 14 in Paris where the works are expected to sell for between 400,000 and 600,000 euros.

The first editions of Book I of Don Quixote are rare because, sent en masse to Latin America, many were lost in a shipwreck near Havana, recalls the auction house.

Ed Maggs looks at a 1930 poster of the Maggs Bros bookshop, on November 24, 2022 in London JUSTIN TALLIS AFP

Published in 1608, the third edition was the last printed during Cervantes' lifetime and corrected by him, underlines Mrs. Heilbronn, who assures that "all the translations that we have today come from this third edition".

But what makes these books "unique" is that they were bound in the 18th century for an English collector and it is very rare to find Don Quixote with such old bindings, she adds.

On December 21, 1936, Mr. Ortiz took advantage of his visit to Maggs Bros to acquire three other jewels: a first edition of Cervantes' "Novelas ejemplares" (1613), "La Florida del Inca" (1605) in which Garcilaso de la Vega recounts the conquest of America from the perspective of the natives and the "Hispania Victrix" (1553) on the conquest of Mexico, the first work in history to mention California.

On Wednesday, the five books will find the mythical bookstore for a few hours before leaving for Paris where they will be auctioned with the 83 other pieces from the Ortiz Linares collection, gathered with the help of the expert Jean-Baptiste de Proyart.

Shelves of old books at the Maggs Bros bookstore on November 24, 2022 in London JUSTIN TALLIS AFP

Among them is a first edition of Goya's book of engravings "La Tauromaquía" (1816) and large original editions by French authors such as Molière, Montesquieu, Montaigne and Descartes.

Total sales are estimated at between 1.8 and 2.5 million euros.

© 2022 AFP