London – There were impressive results at Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts sale which ended today after running online from 10-20 March on bonhams.com. The top lot was a first edition of The First Comprehensive Flora Of The East Indies by Henrik Van Rheede. During his tenure as a Dutch East India Company administrator in Malabar from 1636 to 1691, Van Rheede oversaw an extensive botanical survey, focusing particularly on plants with economic and medicinal value. The work sold for £165,500, against an estimate of £20,000-30,000.

The 229-lot sale made a total of £1,038,945, with 97% sold by lot and 100% sold by value.

There were also particularly impressive results for the selection of works offered by Oxfam. The second highest performing lot came from this selection, the first complete Bible in Chinese translated by John Lassar and Joshua Marshman, which was published serially in Serampore, starting in 1817. It achieved £56,280, against an estimate of £600-800.

Matthew Haley, Managing Director of Bonhams Knightsbridge and Head of Bonhams UK Books & Manuscripts commented: "We are delighted with the results of the sale with many highly desirable and rare works soaring past pre-sale estimates to achieve terrific results. We are particularly thrilled that the selection of works offered by Oxfam performed so well, helping to raise indispensable funds for a worthy cause."

Ian Falkingham, Oxfam's Donated Goods Strategy Lead, said: "We are enormously grateful to be donated an incredible array of books across Oxfam's shops every day, which often include some remarkably rare and unique finds. All of these books help make a big difference - just as those sold at Bonhams' auction have today. The money raised will provide vital funds for Oxfam and our partners to tackle poverty and inequality across the globe, at a time when it is needed most."

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Highlights of the selection offered by Oxfam included:

• Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, first edition, Smith's first issue, second state, Chapman & Hall, 1843. Sold for £16,640.

• A Seventeenth century manuscript prayer book ('A Collection of Prayers', 'Prayers of the Lady Pakington'), R. Hodgkinson, 1641; and 2 others, manuscript poetry and prayers. Sold for £10,880.

• First Authorized English Translation of Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1888. Sold for £7,040.

• Oliver Byrne, The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid, 1847. Sold for £5,376.

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Other highlights of the sale included:

• The Whole Works of Homer; Prince of Poetts, In His Iliads, and Odysses, translated by George Chapman, 5 vol.,1930-1931. Sold for £33,280.

• Julia Margaret Cameron, Illustrations to Tennyson's Idylls of the King, presentation copy inscribed by Cameron to Henry Irving, 1875. Sold for £30,720.

• Francisco Manuel Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, Deluxe Edition Limited To 500 Copies, Manila, Establecimiento Tipografico de Plana y Ca, 1877-1880. Sold for £28,160.

• Group relating to Churchill and Eisenhower's secret train, Alive, including a signed menu, letters and photographs. Sold for £19,200.

• A pair of seventeenth century embroidered gauntlet gloves, reputedly "given by King Charles the Second to Miss Jenny Lane... after the battle of Worcester, on the seventh day of October 1651", [seventeenth century]. Sold for £15,360.

• Five important sketches of private theatricals performed by Charles Dickens and his friends at Tavistock House, by his neighbour Nathaniel Powell, [1857]; and associated material. Sold for £9,600.

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(Press Release)