First Editions Re-covered: an exhibition at Sotheby's

Artists include Peter Blake, Raymond Pettibon, Maggie Hambling, Paula Rego, Rob Ryan, Gerald Scarfe, Richard Wentworth and Quentin Blake.

This December Sotheby’s will display First Editions: Re-covered, an exhibition of 33 unique first editions of classic books with beautiful original dust-jackets specially created and generously donated to House of Illustration by leading contemporary artists and designers.

Artists chose a book they felt a strong connection to and then created a new jacket, or artwork, in response to it: Maggie Hambling has created a cover for The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch; Peter Blake responds to Alice Through the Looking Glass; Richard Wentworth has created a sculpture out of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and Quentin Blake has created a cover for The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.

After four days of public display the books and their wonderful dust-jackets will be auctioned to benefit House of Illustration at 7.30pm on Monday 11 December - click here to view the auction lots on the Sotheby's website. The evening auction is held in partnership with Winsor & Newton.

The exhibition will be open Friday 8 December 9-4.30pm; Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December 12-5pm and Monday 11 December 9-4.30pm.