A Wisden collection, once owned by cricket legend W G Grace, was
sold for $ 124,000 at an auction in London on Thursday, July 11.
The set of 30 Wisdens, regarded as the ultimate cricket reference book, spanned the years 1864, when the almanac was first published, to 1915, the year of Grace's death.
Grace, whose career and captaincy of England and Gloucestershire was traced in the Wisdens, had signed 19 of the books.
The collection was the most sought after of 116 items of cricket memorabilia going under the hammer and bidding started at $ 31,000 and rose dramatically to its final figure, bid by private collector and publisher Nigel Bance of Berkshire.
Bance, 46, said he would have bid higher for the set, which he described as unique, the ``Holy Grail'' of cricket.