Books & Periodicals

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Numerous works by Henry Williamson including fascinating inscriptions and annotations were offered in Chichester saleroom

Published by John Newbery c.1770, 'A Little Pretty Pocket Book…' and its companion 'Little Song Book' is a very small work indeed at little more than 3in (7.5cm) tall, but the latter includes some 54 woodcut illustrations and accompanying verses related to children’s games and pastimes.

The visit of ‘Revolutionary Wars’ hero Gilbert du Motler, the Marquis of Lafayette, to the US in 1824 spawned a large number of commemoratives.

Right at the top of the price lists for a London sale of a second portion of the library of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Earl Fairhaven, was a lot that presented a handsomely bound collection of 15 very fine watercolour on vellum drawings of flowers.

The auction at Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) on December 15 included two presentation first editions by Sylvia Plath.

An inscription bearing Winston Churchill’s signature and dated 1948 found in a single volume of his famous history of the Second World War that came to auction in Cumbria was believed to be authentic.

Easter Rising republic proclamation and Wolfe Tone’s revolutionary tract are sold on home turf.

A December 6 auction in Exeter was dominated by a lot estimated at just £40-60 but sold instead at £24,000.

Having featured prominently on television in a specially made part of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Paddington Bear hardly needs any more publicity.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Thought by the auction house to be an early copy, a letter that details the horrors of the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ in 1756 was sold for £2900.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Les Portes Fermées ou Les Doubles Surprises, a rare and tiny French work of c.1820, sold for £1600 at a Newcastle auction.

Highlights from London auction also include art historian’s collection and extraordinary Orwell oddity

Two Herschel family-related historic items – a Royal Society King’s medal and a manuscript memoir – have changed hands at auction and in a private sale.

Highlights including signed opera score from a varied auction held in North Yorkshire

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Running to over 150pp in all, an archive of 42 love letters sent by Bob Dylan to a high school sweetheart, Barbara Ann Hewitt, featured in a November 17 Marvels of Modern Music sale held by RR Auctions of Amherst, New Hampshire.