Collectables

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Original watercolours intended for pioneering, unpublished work are now highly valued

Bid to £32,000 in a Gloucestershire auction was a 1599, first Latin edition of the Dutch traveller and explorer, Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Navigatio ac itinerarium…

The huge and ongoing task of cataloguing thousands of cigarette cards and other ephemera from a deceased collector’s home – he had walls pasted with beer mats instead of wallpaper – paid off for Bristol auctioneer Gavin Aplin.

A group of “historically important” watercolour and pencil drawings of the London Blitz sparked a bidding war at Cirencester saleroom Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).

Work featuring the boy wizard Harry Potter is a familiar sight at the PBFA’s annual Christmas event

Two music-makers caught the eye, or rather ear, at Adam Partridge’s (20% buyer’s premium) Macclesfield sale.

Top-seller at the latest sale of Islamic and Indian Art and antiquities held at Roseberys (25% buyer’s premium) in West Norwood was a 19th century Sikh enamelled and diamond-set gold medal.

A selection of maps of US cities from recent auctions stateside.

A good-quality violin linked to the German maker Jacobus Stainer (1619-83) led a group of previously overlooked musical instruments in a Towcester auction.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

A rare work by William Lambarde, the antiquarian, writer on legal subjects and author of the first county history, A Perambulation of Kent of 1576, was another highlight from the library of the late Eric Stanley, professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford (see reports in previous ATGs).

While the binding, with Charles Ricketts’ familiar gilt design on the front cover, is not in the best of conditions, an inscription on the half-title of this example of one of the 250 large paper copies of Oscar Wilde’s 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' published by Ward Lock in 1891 ensured that it set an auction record.

The latest delay to Brexit was not a source of cheer for overseas vendors at the ABA’s Chelsea Rare Book Fair on November 1-2.

Hornby Dublo collectors fought spirited battles for clockwork rarities at Duggleby Stephenson’s (18.75% buyer’s premium) York sale.

Instruction from author Fleming was thankfully not followed and first issue survives.