Birds of America

A complete four-volume set of John James Audubon's Birds of America, which was published from 1827 to 1838, fetched more than £7m at Sotheby's auction in London. It was bought by London book dealer Michael Tollemache, who described his purchase as "priceless".
This monumental work contains 1,000 life-sized illustrations of about 500 breeds of birds and took Audubon 12 years to complete. The larger birds, such as this American Flamingo, fold out for viewing (CLICK). Of the 119 copies known to exist, 108 are owned by museums and libraries; so it a rare event for one to come up for auction.