Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
Beautifully preserved Hobbit makes £35,000 at Forum Auctions
11 June 2018A beautifully preserved 1937 first state copy of Tolkien’s 'The Hobbit' sold for £35,000 at Forum Auctions.
Plates from Goethe's work on Roman carnivals sell at German auction
11 June 2018Shown below is one of 20 hand-coloured plates from 'Masken des Römischen Carnevals'. This was a rare and separate 1790 Weimar issue of the plates that illustrated a work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Roman carnivals published the previous year – an item that is itself a great rarity*.
Goulds lead sale of Dutch zoo library
11 June 2018The Wassenaar Zoo in Den Haag opened its doors in 1937 and closed in 1985, but its wonderful library, essentially untouched since the 1970s, has only now come to auction in London.
Saleroom heads out to sea
04 June 2018Dutch maritime charts feature in wide-ranging auction strong in travel and exploration.
Carry on camping in Gloucestershire
04 June 2018Old hangars and even older tents provided two of the more successful categories in a recent three-day, 1600-lot sales week in South Cerney.
British and Irish book auctions: June 4-16, 2018
04 June 2018ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from June 4-16, 2018.
Lady Caroline’s Byron kiss-and-tell account
04 June 2018A hundred and eighty lots in a recent West Sussex sale that offered great variety and some real rarities came from the library at West Horsley Place in Surrey.
Masses of Marvel at Golding Young & Mawer
28 May 2018Marvel comics in considerable numbers were a feature of a May 10 sale held by Golding Young & Mawer (20% buyer’s premium).
Tintin escapes to Paris saleroom
28 May 2018An ink and watercolour drawing from one of Hergé’s finest works achieved a stand-out result at a recent auction in France.
Postal worker delivers top sums
28 May 2018Science fiction and fantasy were among the lifelong principal collecting interests of the late Stanley Simon, a postal worker from Queens. In a recent 19th and 20th century literature sale held in his home city of New York a number of his books brought record bids.
Frank Frazetta fantasy art bid is deadly serious
28 May 2018Bid to $1.5m (£1.11m) in a record-breaking comic and comic art sale in Chicago was a Frank Frazetta artwork.
'Peanuts strip' by Charles Schulz offered at Swann
28 May 2018Comic strip artworks to be offered as part of the June 5 ‘Illustration Art’ sale at Swann Auction Galleries will include a 1970 'Peanuts strip' by Charles Schulz estimated at $20,000-30,000.
Bidders keep eyes on the prize
21 May 2018Bearing a title that translates as ‘The Book of Correction of Optics for those who have Sight and Mind’, an early 14th century Arabic manuscript made a much higher than expected £450,000 during the recent Islamic week of sales in London.
Scarce Dun Cow does well second time around
21 May 2018Offered as part of a recent online sale, a scarce work by Walter Savage Landor that had remained unsold in a New Bond Street auction only last July finally achieved, on April 25 of this year, the high-estimate sum of £2400 that both salerooms had been looking for.
British and Irish book auctions: May 21-June 2, 2018
21 May 2018ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 21-June 2, 2018.
Sherlock Holmes and the mystery of stickmen
21 May 2018Arthur Conan Doyle’s autograph manuscript of one of the 13 short stories that in 1905 were gathered together in book form as The Return of Sherlock Holmes was offered in New York recently.
Houdini on Conan Doyle
21 May 2018Once again it was Harry Houdini who topped the bill in the most recent magic memorabilia auction held by US specialist Potter & Potter Auctions (20% buyer’s premium).
Rare Wycliffe takes £10,000 at Mellors & Kirk
21 May 2018A 1731, first printed edition of Wycliffe’s 14th century English version of the New Testament was bid to a record £10,000 against an estimate of £200-300 in a recent Nottingham auction.
Darwin letters to Bonn botanist sell in Cologne
14 May 2018Bid to €60,000 (£53,100) in a March 16 sale held by Venator & Hanstein (23% buyer’s premium) was a group of letters sent by Charles Darwin in the 1860s and ‘70s to a German botanist, Friedrich Hildebrand.
Bird books flock to auctions
14 May 2018The coming weeks will offer some special, if sometimes very costly, opportunities for bird lovers.