LONDON.- Moments ago, in a crowded saleroom in Sotheby’s New Bond Street galleries in London, a magnificent, rare, copy of John James Audubon’s Birds of America sold for £7,321,250, establishing a new world record price for any printed book sold at auction. The 4-volume, “double elephant folio” work was estimated at £4,000,000-6,000,000*, but fiery enthusiasm from collectors bidding on the phones and in the room drove the price rapidly beyond pre-sale expectations. The book was bought by London dealer Michael Tollemache, who was bidding in the room and who described the work after the sale as “priceless”. (The previous record for any printed book sold at auction was $8,802,500 / £5,565,110 – for a different copy of Audubon’s Birds of America, sold in New York in March 2000.) The Audubon was part of the sale of Magnificent Books, Manuscripts and Drawings from the Collection of Frederick,