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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WG Grace bowls over bidders

26 September 2022

Two albums of photographs taken by fellow cricketer and friend pitch in at four-figure sum.

Parchment roundels

UK buyer sought for Elizabeth I roundels 

20 September 2022

A conjoined roundel manuscript given by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Queen Elizabeth I has been temporarily blocked from export in the hope a UK institution can raise the funds.

Dubliners

Big sales as Firsts and Tribal Art Fair open in London

19 September 2022

Major sales marked the opening days of two London fairs, Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair and Tribal Art London.

Books and works on paper auction calendar, September 20 to October 12, 2022

19 September 2022

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

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Mapping America in Gloucestershire

19 September 2022

Doubling its mid-estimate to sell at £50,000, one of the top lots in a sale of September 7 was Paulo Forlani’s Il Disegno del discoperto della nova Franza…

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‘Well, I think we’re just out of Waldorfs’

19 September 2022

This camera script produced for the ‘Waldorf Salad’ episode from the second series of Fawlty Towers was offered by East Bristol Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) in a timed online sale that ended on August 23,

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Booker T Washington came Up from Slavery

19 September 2022

In 1902 the author Booker T Washington sent a typed and handwritten letter to the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie regarding his recently published work.

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Make a wicked £9500 bonus

19 September 2022

Bid to £9500 rather than the suggested £150-200 was a copy of the first, and possibly only edition ever seen at auction of William Knight’s A Concordance Axiomaticall…

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Expand an interest in Beatrix Potter

12 September 2022

The ‘property of a lady’, this concertina-style wallet book by Beatrix Potter, 'The Story of Miss Moppet', is a first edition published by Frederick Warne & Co, London & New York, 1906.

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American early rarities and a Shakepeare First Folio achieve seven-figure sums

12 September 2022

The principal portion of a two-part sale conducted by Sotheby’s New York included not one, but three lots that brought seven-figure bids.

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The perilious life of Thomas Dangerfield

12 September 2022

Thomas Dangerfield (c.1650-85) was a notorious thief, counterfeiter, highwayman and conspirator who is chiefly remembered for his role in falsely accusing British Roman Catholics as part of the ‘Popish Plot’ of 1678.

Beyond the wizard: Baum’s Oz makes a record

12 September 2022

Sold online for a record $20,000 (£16,340) at the former Butterfields, now Bonhams Los Angeles (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) salerooms as part of the David Lloyd collection of modern literature was a 1909 first edition of Frank L Baum’s 'The Road to Oz'.

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Reginald was not bewitched by magic claims

12 September 2022

Sold at Bonhams Skinner (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) was a 1584 first edition of Reginald Scot’s 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft….'

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Rapoport collection part two on offer at Swann

12 September 2022

The October 13 sale of Early Printed Books at Swann Auction Galleries in New York will feature part two of the library of Ken Rapoport: English literature, tales of chivalry from the Renaissance, and more Shakespeare, Chaucer, Cervantes, Donne, and others.

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Fairytales, fantasies and fables

12 September 2022

This copy of 'Hansel and Gretel', 1925, with 12 tipped-in colour plates by the Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886-1957), is one of 600 numbered copies (numbered 16) signed by the artist, in the original publisher’s pictorial cloth.

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Harvard College makes print debut mention

12 September 2022

Freeman’s September 21 Books and Manuscripts auction, in Pennsylvania is led by an ‘extremely rare’ first edition of 'New Englands First Fruits' (estimate $20,000-30,000), a 1643 account of Puritan evangelisation in New England.

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Picasso and Hockney highlights at Dominic Winter

12 September 2022

On October 12 Gloucestershire saleroom Dominic Winter is offering a first English edition of Picasso: Toreros by Jaime Sabartés, London & Monte Carlo: Anton Zwemmer & André Sauret, 1961, estimated at £1000-1500.

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London sale offers accounts of Polar exploration

12 September 2022

Books related to Polar explorers are among the highlights of Bonhams’ Travel & Exploration sale on September 20.

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Atomic bomber’s secret logbook made headlines

12 September 2022

Sold at $440,000 (£371,000), the most expensive lot in a three-day auction at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) was a logbook kept on the B29 Superfortress bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.

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Fair Preview: Banned books is the theme of this year’s Firsts

12 September 2022

A copy of 'Howl' signed by leading lights of the Beat literature scene in New York is on offer at 'Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair', where this year the theme is banned books.

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