Collectables

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) has scrapped its sponsorship deal with Amazon-owned AbeBooks after the online book portal chose to quit selling in four countries.

Harold Hardman’s journey from amateur footballer and solicitor to chairman of Manchester United in the era of the Busby Babes is a fascinating story in itself. But a medal coming up for auction in Oxford adds even more appeal.

The very first lot offered as part of a Harry Houdini collection in an October 20 sale held by US magic specialist Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) was a 50 cent, 1898 copy of Magic Made Easy…

“The chances of finding one that had been bought in a £90 box lot was probably one in a million; the chances of finding two more on the same day are incalculable.” Scientific instruments expert Hugo Marsh was talking about specialist camera lenses he was shown in September, first by a south-coast vendor, then by a West Country enthusiast, which sold at Special Auction Services (17.5% buyer’s premium) at Newbury on October 23.

The last-minute discovery of a 1776 first edition of Adam Smith’s '…Wealth of Nations' was a magical, unforgettable moment for a Derbyshire saleroom’s book specialist.

MADAM – Responding to your article in ATG No 2365 ('UK salerooms 'not aware' of new laws on deactivated firearms'), I felt compelled to write in.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from November 6-17, 2018.

The sale to held by Blackwell auctions in Florida on November 10 will include a selection of books from the library of Dromoland Castle, the Irish castle in County Clare where the historic ‘Armada table’ sold last month by Adam’s in Drogheda, Ireland, for €360,000 was housed for 300 years (ATG No 2364).

Prices for the best British automobilia are slowly catching up with the huge sums regularly paid for advertising and promotional material in the US.

On June 13, 1913, just five days after the infamous death of Emily Wilding Davison under the king’s horse at the Derby, two Suffragettes set fire to the Hurst Park grandstand in Surrey.

Illustrated below is a spread from a 1488 edition of a popular account of travels to various parts of the world that is generally referred to as a compilation by Sir John Mandeville.

The National Ballistics and Intelligence Service (NABIS) has warned of a rise in defectively deactivated firearms offered at auction since the law changed this summer.

Two secular icons of pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia provided the highlights at Lockdales (18% buyer’ s premium) of Ipswich.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from October 30-November 9, 2018.

Published in 1962, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was the first book in a popular series of lupine tales by Joan Aiken (1924-2004), a prolific and prize-winning author whose specialities included the supernatural and children’s books that involved an elaborate, alternative history of Britain.

All rather slim – one in fact a single sheet broadside – the three items noted here were all part of a Bonhams New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of September 25 and, spanning some 80 years, all bear Boston imprints.

One of the highlights of the upcoming International Antique Doll, Teddy Bear and Toy Fair: 200 Years of Childhood at Kensington Town Hall will be an exhibition of toys to commemorate the centenary on November 11 of the end of the First World War.