Manuscript

An 18th century letter of marque pertaining to the privateer vessel Corbet, of Jersey, with wax seal attached, came up for sale at Channel Islands firm Martel Maides (20% buyer’s premium) on September 17.

Arch Rare Books & Antique Prints offers a command notebook chronicling Admiral Nelson’s command of the HMS Bellerophon in 1799.

Two late 17th century recipe books sold for a surprise £15,000 (estimate £400-600) at Dawsons (27.5% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead on August 26.

For the Bed at Kelmscott was written by William Morris in 1891 as an ode to the oak four-poster at his country home in the Thames Valley.

A week after Christie’s (27/22% buyer’s premium) sold a first edition of Wuthering Heights for a record £950,000 hammer (see ATG No 2751), the King Street auction house’s sale of Valuable Books and Manuscripts including Cartography set a new record for a UK various-owner book sale at £10m hammer.

Two medieval illuminated manuscripts identified as being late 19th century or early 20th century fakes attributed to The Spanish Forger are being sold in Dorset on June 25 estimated at £500-1000.

London books, prints and wine specialist Forum Auctions was founded in July 2016 with the ambition of combining the best of the digital and the analogue worlds. A decade later, with all but one of the original team still on board, the company is preparing for two special anniversary sales. Founder and executive chairman Stephan Ludwig shares his views with ATG.

Personal stories grab the attention of militaria collectors, transforming dry histories of dates and names, facts and figures into real-life flesh and blood tales.

Tom Ayling is an antiquarian book dealer based in Wallingford, south Oxfordshire, and is also a very successful social media star. Boasting over one million followers across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, he sat down with ATG to tell us all about his business and online presence.

Two choice British documents emerged across two different sales at Amherst, New Hampshire firm RR Auction (25% buyer’s premium).

Royal costumes and fashion have long been a source of fascination.

Fresh batch of material related to artist Anne and husband Hezekiah brings extra family detail

Pairing old with new has become a familiar tactic in the art market.

In February in New York, Sotheby’s will offer for sale one of the most important illustrated Hebrew Prayerbooks to come to market: The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor.

An ‘exceptional and newly discovered’ Mamluk manuscript copy of an Arabic text on hippiatry (equine medicine) was the highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s latest Islamic and Indian art sale in London.

These two pages of working lyrics for the Jimi Hendrix song Room Full of Mirrors (which later appeared on his 1971 album Rainbow Bridge) are handwritten on Londonderry Hotel, Park Lane, stationery.