Collectables

A recent online sale that ran to just 35 lots and closed on October 25 offered a single-owner collection of works by the Victorian explorer and writer, Sir Richard Burton.

The Scottish gun-making workshop of Doune in Perthshire produced pistols that were a firearm of choice for highland clansmen but were also favoured by wealthy socialites.

Sold for £1900 in a recent London sale was an 1892 first of Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency – a record for this particular work.

The very Penguin copy of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover used by Sir Laurence Byrne, the presiding judge in the famous 1960 obscenity trial, has sold for £45,000.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from November 13-23, 2018.

One of the busiest of Naomi Knight’s monthly markets at the Listed Green Park Station in Bath is her Christmas Vintage and Antiques Market.

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).