Collectables

This splendid image depicts Horace Brown, a former president of the Piscatorial Society.

Peter Harrington Rare Books presents a selection of British treasures fit to delight a US audience at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.

The global market for natural history books is alive and well as demonstrated by the 326-lot sale dubbed Natural History: the remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk 1899-2026 at Forum Auctions (27/26% buyer’s premium).

Flightless bird walks away with a new owner as silver novelty rarities catch the eye at Kinghams

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

What to buy the auctioneer who has it all?

A letter written by Florence Nightingale in which she discusses the creation of the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention is being sold by Sworders.

The Red Barn Murder of 1827, which occurred in the tiny rural village of Polstead, Suffolk was the biggest crime story of the era.

Henry VIII, King of England 1509-47 was not a happy man on July 14, 1539, it seems.

Arch Books of Richmond, southwest London, recently sold the personal expedition copy of Fridtjof Nansen’s Fram over Polhavet [Farthest North] (1897), owned and signed by fellow Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928).

A Queen Anne olivewood oyster, holly and walnut cabinet on stand offered by Dreweatts (27/26% buyer’s premium) in Newbury was among a number of lots sold recently showing the commercial boost that royal provenance can provide.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

With only one key, the Diskret, which was offered at a recent sale at Auction Team Breker (21.8% buyer’s premium), did not conform to the conventional layout of a typewriter.

This copy of The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha (Cambridge: at the University Press, 1961) is signed in ink by Queen Elizabeth II on a mounted presentation plate, dated Christmas 1961.

Royal costumes and fashion have long been a source of fascination.