Book

Bearing as its title ‘Certain Directions for the Sending of Men and Comodities, & Cattle to Virginia’, a 10pp secretarial manuscript thought to date from c.1609 proved a major attraction in a July 14 sale held by Forum (15/20/12.5% buyer’s premium).

Gastronomy-themed books spanning five centuries were offered in a London auction.

Offering a copy of the second of JK Rowling’s famous tales to be published, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets of 1998, a lot that featured in a July 16 sale held by Rogers Jones (24% buyer’s premium) was certainly an unusual one.

Bid to £16,000 in a sale held by Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester was a 1921 first of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious House at Styles.

Bid to £4000 – 10 times low estimate – in a May 18 sale held by Tennants (22% buyer’s premium) of Leyburn were two albums of what were defined as grotesque-style caricature portraits.

Two volumes of poetry offered in London auction were published by the Marvell Press.

Just one other example of Mary Shelley’s famous tale has made more at auction

A children’s book estimated at £20-40 in a May 14 sale held by Pippa Deeley (15% buyer’s premium) in Bodiam, East Sussex, was sold instead at £2200.

An inscribed copy of F Scott Fitzgerald’s 'The Great Gatsby' was the most expensive purchase in a held by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium).

Alchemical work is best-seller as Vishniac lots create a valuable mix in the saleroom

In what was the auction house’s most successful sale ever in financial terms, and one that boasted a 97% selling rate, a March 4 sale at Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) was led at $65,000 (£49,240) by a 'Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity from the Time of his Being Taken by the British, near Montreal… in 1775, to the Time of his Exchange…in May 1778'.

Though it is the pineapple that is most prominent, it is the assortment of creatures that flutter around, climb or emerge from its leaves that are the principal attraction of this coloured plate, below.

If social media makes you feel like Big Brother is watching you, and if truth occasionally feels stranger than fiction, then like many bibliophiles you might be exploring books that suggest models for society and the role of the individual.

The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA) is searching for a new fair manager for its London Antiquarian Book Fair.

Bearing a very modest estimate of just £20-30, this copy of The Angler in Ireland: or An Englishman’s Ramble through Connaught and Munster, during the Summer of 1833 was bid to £700 in a March 12 sale held by Rowley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) of Ely.

Extensive group of lots from well-known book dealer and his wife led London auction

Bid to £2800 in a recent Norfolk sale was a detailed and now rare Map of the Parish of St Mary Abbotts, Kensington… dating from 1879.

Harry Potter just keeps on doing well at auction, and Hansons (25% buyer’s premium), which has enjoyed a particularly close and profitable relationship with JK Rowling’s creation over the years, had more to offer in a March 9 sale.

Potter & Potter’s Fine Literature & Modern Firsts Sale on April 26 in Chicago includes a copy of Oscar Wilde’s (1854-1900) The Ballad of Reading Gaol.