Books & Periodicals

Two very different lots helped Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) to boost its first major sale of the year.

The complete original artworks for two of Edward Ardizzone’s much-loved children’s books were sold for £30,000 apiece at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

As ever, the most recent sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) contained a great many maps and atlases and shown below is one of the highlights.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

Accounts of youthful travels in Britain and on a Grand Tour contain often blunt assessments

Rare book dealer Dr Jörn Günther of Switzerland specialises in manuscripts, miniatures, and rare early printed books from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

In ATG No 2427 we noted the sale at Sotheby’s on December 10, at a very much higher than expected £50,000, of a rare copy of the 1553 translation into ‘Scots English’ of Virgil’s Aeneid by Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld.

Extraordinarily high prices paid for the works of the Russian writer Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev were noted in ATG No 2425, and there were many more lots of interest in the sale held by Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) in which they were offered.

‘Masterpieces’ from the celebrated collections of Dr Martin Schøyen offered at a recent Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London included some real rarities.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Published anonymously in Boston in 1828, a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s youthful first book, 'Fanshawe', sold for $38,000 (£28,790) at Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9%).

Bible suggests confusion over ‘he’ or ‘she’ may not be purely a modern-day phenomenon.

Fifty or so lots from the library of the Earls of Haddington that were offered as part of London sale included their fair share of exceptional lots.

Two ‘Frost Fair’ broadsides printed at one of the many stalls set up on the Thames during a hard 18th century winter in which London’s river froze over were sold in a recent sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).

Book dealer Tom Lintern-Mole runs Antiquates in Corfe Castle, Dorset.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Two men have pleaded guilty in connection with the theft of rare books and manuscripts from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The fact that Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) regularly made use of a magnifying glass is noted by biographers and underlined by references found in his letters.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.