Collectables

In a major cooperative move, next summer’s series of London book and map fairs has been aligned to run in the same four-day stretch.

Heritage Auctions reported a string of high-value sales as part of its numismatic auctions held alongside Philadelphia’s 'World’s Fair of Money'.

Early British army uniforms were the highlight of an extensive single-owner militaria collection amassed by a long-standing Nottinghamshire family which was offered at Stroud Auctions.

Briefly noted in ATG No 2353 was a copy of Through the Looking Glass sold for £30,000 at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9%) on July 10, where it was part of the eighth and latest sale of books from ‘The Library of an English Bibliophile’.

Trade associations have defended the current firearms laws in the UK amid accusations on a BBC Panorama programme of a ‘loophole’ in gun control.

Pitched at £20-40, a small bisque doll with jointed limbs, below, topped Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) toys sale at Cockermouth on July 21.

Our round-up of British and Irish book sales coming up from August 28-September 9, 2018.

Fine or unusual bindings, ranging in date from the 15th century to very recent times indeed, are illustrated and briefly described here – all of them drawn from mid-summer UK auctions.

Briefly noted in ATG No 2353 was a copy of Through the Looking Glass sold for £30,000 at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9%) on July 10, where it was part of the eighth and latest sale of books from ‘The Library of an English Bibliophile’.

Outselling the usual favourite Bond movie posters, a British Quad for Get Carter starring Michael Caine topped the 69-lot specialist sale of movie posters at Ewbank’s (22.5% buyer’s premium).

For a Communist tyrant, Joseph Stalin remains remarkably popular in the capitalist world of UK auctions – the latest evidence provided by a rare cast bronze death mask offered at Canterbury Auction Galleries (24% buyer’s premium).

Kim Jeffery, who with husband George runs Etc Fairs, described by one exhibitor as “the Stock Exchange of bookselling”, is upbeat about her upcoming book fair in Bloomsbury.

A cartographic highlight of the summer came with the appearance in an 11-day, online US sale of a remarkably detailed early 18th century manuscript map of the American south-west.

The most important Greek printing project of the 15th century, and the greatest achievement of the great Venetian printer Aldus Manutius’ Greek publishing programme, was one of the landmark works seen at auction this summer.