Dickens’ toothpick sold for $9,150

New York: An ivory and gold toothpick once owned by Charles Dickens has sold at a New York City auction for USD 9,150.
It was being offered by heirs to the Barnes & Noble family and was up for sale Tuesday at Bonhams New York. The pre-sale estimate was USD 3,000 to USD 5,000. The auction house says the buyer did not want to be identified.

The toothpick is engraved with the author`s initials and has a retracting mechanism.

An authentication letter from sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth says the British writer of “A Christmas Carol” and “Oliver Twist” used the toothpick "when travelling and on his last visit to America.”

Dickens died in 1870.

Bureau Report