‘Miracle find’: rare Don Quixote and short stories could sell for €900k

Sotheby's describes 17th-century Cervantes editions as a once in a lifetime' opportunity for collectors

One day in the early 1930s, a young Bolivian diplomat named Jorge Ortiz Linares walked into the illustrious Maggs Bros bookshop in London to ask if they might have a particularly fine edition of Don Quixote for sale.

But even for Ortiz Linares - a dedicated bibliophile who also happened to be the son-in-law of Simon Patino, the Bolivian tin magnate nicknamed the Andean Rockefeller - the answer was a polite no. The man at Maggs did, however, put his name on a waiting list and promise to get in touch should such a copy ever materialise.