Collectables

Sports stars are always looking for small incremental improvements in performance that can prove crucial to the result.

Published between 1750-73, Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortis curiosorum (‘A selection of plants from natural specimens nurtured in London’s curious gardens’) is considered the most important botanical work ever printed in Germany.

A football programme for for the Estudiantes de la Plata v Manchester United Intercontinental Cup final on September 25, 1968, hammered down at a top-estimate £10,000 in Shropshire.

Owen Simmons was a bit of a bread fan, it is fair to say. A lecturer at the National Bakery School in London, he produced the lavish book shown here.

The Science, Medicine & Early Technology auction at Flints (25% buyer’s premium) in Thatcham, Berkshire on May 1 was led by a complete seven-volume set of The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain by James Sowerby (1757-1822).

Archive sold in Somerset and bugle offered in Dorset reflect the first organised cycling clubs

Original printings of two of the most familiar automotive posters sold for £15,000 each at Lyon & Turnbull (26% buyer’s premium).

Cryptoryptomentyces et Cryptographiae has been described as ‘arguably the most complete tome on esoteric cryptography ever published’, an esoteric claim to fame in itself.

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

Antique arms and armour dealers and auctioneers have come together to lobby against couriers restricting delivery of antique examples.

This miniature 17th century psalter in a contemporary pierced and engraved openwork silver binding is priced at £15,000 by Bernard Quaritch at Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair.

Remarkably, although a very successful and popular artist, no accounts of the work of the Georgian caricaturist James Gillray (1756-1815) were published in England during his lifetime.

A letter from Ernest Shackleton to a supporter, written from South Georgia on the eve of his final departure on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, was offered at Charles Miller’s (24% buyer’s premium) latest Maritime and Scientific Models, Instruments & Art sale.

Rupert Powell of Forum Auctions reflects on a busy year in the ‘stage-play’ of rare books

A wide range of dealers are set to offer a variety of items at upcoming fairs