A rare Tudor manuscript designed to help with swan-keeping in Norfolk and Suffolk in the 16th century has gone under the hammer for more than £70,000.
A favourite delicacy for the banqueting table, the mute swan has been deemed a royal bird from the Middle Ages.
The two-volume document, which was used from the 16th to the 19th century, describes how all swans flying free on open and common waters were deemed the property of the crown, and it outlined what rules landowners should observe in their dealings with the birds.
Only the monarch could grant the privilege of owning a 'game' of swans, to individuals or institutions.
All such birds had to be marked and pinioned to help with any dispute over ownership, or for swan upping - the annual overseeing of the marking of the new cygnets.
The manuscript, which references the 'Hundred of Wisbech', includes some 600 such marks, made up of swans’ heads drawn in black, with most of the beaks painted in red, a swan's foot to the right of each and in many cases the name of the mark's owner above it.
The names start with the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, on to the Bishop of Ely and the Dean of York and finish with wealthy landowners.
A second volume is dated 1834 and includes notes on swan marks followed by 84 pages of swan marks and an index of owners.
The manuscript was auctioned last week at Sworders' auction of books and maps at Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex.
It had a guide price of £8,000 to £16,000, but sold to a Canadian Institute for £70,200, including buyer's premium.
Another lot at the auction with Norfolk links was a rare book about cricket.
The 434-page The Noble Game of Cricket, was authored by Sir Jeremiah Colman, a former chairman of Colman's Mustard.
The book included paintings, drawings and prints documenting the history of the game in the 18th and 19th centuries. It sold for £850.
Only 150 copies of the 1941 book, complete with 100 illustration plates, were published, with many made as presentation copies.
The book was owned by Sir Timothy Colman, who died at his home at Bixley Manor, near Norwich, in September last year at the age of 91.
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