Books & Periodicals

Material in this specialist market ranges from the early printed works of the Gutenberg Press and William Caxton right through to Modern First Editions and now up to signed copies of Harry Potter. Condition and rarity are the keys to this sector.


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The changes and challenges facing the organisers of book fairs

03 May 2018

It’s a big year for London’s leading light in the international rare books calendar, writes Kate Quill. This month’s 'The ABA Rare Book Fair London' on May 24-26 – the flagship of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) – is the 61st but the first year at Battersea Evolution, in south-west London.

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Sponsor’s message: Also in Battersea...

03 May 2018

As we approach the second anniversary of our inaugural 2016 auction, we are again delighted to be the sponsors of Antique Trade Gazette’s ‘Books, Maps & Prints’ supplement.

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How the private press movement created a collecting niche

03 May 2018

Night after night in the summer of 1916, the artist and bookbinder Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922) visited the Thames near Hammersmith Bridge under cover of darkness, each time laden down with a package wrapped in brown paper and string.

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Gothic genre captures the popular imagination

03 May 2018

In the bicentenery year of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Gothic genre continues to capture the popular imagination, writes Kate Quill.

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US book fairs from New York to California

03 May 2018

The 'California International Antiquarian Book Fair' and the 'New York International Antiquarian Book Fair' give dealers the chance to access the US east coast and west coast markets within the first few months of the year.

Rare Books London 2018 - Events Programme

03 May 2018

A list of the events taking place at this year's 'Rare Books London'.

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Photobooks: the original image-sharing platform

03 May 2018

The photobook genre is almost as old as photography itself and can be collected at all price points, as Bonhams’ Matthew Haley reports.

Books Fairs calendar: May 3-July 29, 2018

03 May 2018

A list of upcoming book fairs in the UK and overseas.

Lawes of ecclesiastical policy

Beautiful bindings at South Cerney auction

30 April 2018

A volume containing Richard Hooker’s sixth and eighth books dealing with The Lawes of Ecclesiastical Policy… is a 1651 re-issue of an edition first published three years earlier. The principal attraction, however, was the armorial binding.

Golf book

First golf book tees off in the US

30 April 2018

Published in 1895, Wright & Dixon’s Guide to American Golf… was one of the very first books on the game to appear in that country. A copy sold on April 12 in San Francisco for $42,500 (£29,930) was billed as “perhaps the only copy extant”.

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Celestial work lights up Glos sale

30 April 2018

First such pocket atlas published in England leads a look at highly diverse auction selection

Album

Russian album is crowning glory at US auction

30 April 2018

Printed for circulation only among members of the imperial family and those foreign dignitaries who had participated in the celebrations, an album recording the 1883 coronation in Moscow of Tsar Alexander III and the Empress Marie Feodorovna sold for $30,000 (£21,125) in a US sale.

British and Irish book auctions: May 1-12, 2018

30 April 2018

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 1-12, 2018.

Book

Complete 17th century work is a great rarity of Judaica

30 April 2018

Bound in recent times as six volumes in elaborately gilt crushed scarlet morocco, a 1614-17 Prague first of a major commentary on the Mishnah by Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1579-1654), was a highlight of a recent New York sale of Judaica.

Ina Kok

Dutch scholar awarded prestigious bookseller prize for work on woodcuts from incunabula in the Low Countries

27 April 2018

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) has announced the winner of the 17th Breslauer Prize for Bibliography.

DK

First edition of Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ available to the masses – for £100,000

26 April 2018

What would Karl Marx (1818-83) have made of the fact that Das Kapital, his foundational text on capitalism, is on the market for a six-figure price?

Titanic menu

Menu for first ever meal onboard the Titanic makes auction record

25 April 2018

A menu for the first ever meal on the Titanic, a steward’s badge and a letter written on board have all made top prices at auction in Wiltshire.

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British birds and natural history fly high in New York

23 April 2018

Sold for $300,000 (£214,185) apiece in a recent New York sale were three very well-known works from the worlds of cartography and natural history.

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Word on the street is of a Ravilious ‘record’

23 April 2018

Brought into a free valuation day held at Bishop’s Cleve, near Cheltenham, a copy of Eric Ravilious’ High Street sold on March 27 at what would appear to be a record sum in a Derbyshire sale.

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From Dickens to a dodgy bishop

23 April 2018

Running to 600 lots and achieving £560,000 hammer, a recent London sale incorporated a wide range of collecting fields, from Dickensian theatrical ephemera to children’s books and all things Irish.

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