Historic Dr Johnson letter sells for £38k at auction

A Chorley House Auctions spokesperson said the current owner of the house was "unaware" of the letter's historical importance

A recently discovered letter by 18th Century writer Dr Samuel Johnson sold at auction for £38,460, over four times its estimate of £8,000.

The letter was found by auctioneer Chorley's on a routine valuation in a Gloucestershire country house.

It was stashed amongst a cache of other historic letters in a cupboard.

Dr Johnson (1709-1784) is best known for compiling his famous dictionary - the Dictionary of the English Language.

The letter had been officially logged as lost for many years.

It caused much excitement, and there was competitive bidding on the phones and internet from both UK and US museums, with a UK institution finally winning out.

At the time of the discovery, Werner Freundel, director at Chorley's auction house said: "Initially, I was asked to value a collection of books and rugs for a family who had recently taken over their ancestral family home.

"Finally, a letter from and signed by the famous Dr Johnson appeared.

The letters were found alongside others that had been kept in the cupboard

"We were thrilled to discover that it was a missing letter written by Dr Johnson himself to Sophia Lynch Thrale, which was listed in official records as "current location unknown".

"We felt honoured to handle such a historic document by one of the greatest contributors to the history of English."

The lost letter was written to a Sophia Thrale, the daughter of Hester Lynch Thrale, a British author and patron of the arts, who Dr Johnson corresponded with so regularly and in so much detail, that her letters later became historically important published resources into 18th Century society and the mind of Dr Johnson.

Commenting on the sale of the letter, Mr Freundel said: "We are thrilled to have brought the Hester Thrale correspondence to light and are pleased that the historical importance of the letters has been recognised.

"Samuel Johnson's charming letter to a young Sophia Thrale will remain in the UK and we hope it will be displayed to the UK public in time."