Books & Periodicals

Now handsomely bound in full red morocco and contained in slipcases, a set of first-edition copies of what are collectively known as ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ of CS Lewis led a Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) sale of October 7 with a bid of £3400 from a buyer on thesaleroom.com.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Sold for £16,000 in a September 23 sale was an album of 41 watercolour studies of birds produced by William Weston Young (1776-1847).

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Distinguished naval officer admired by Nelson was also a talented watercolour painter

Top lot in a sale held by Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) of Oxford was a 1719-20, first edition set of 'The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe…', 'The Farther Adventures…' and 'The Serious Reflections…' in later but very smart bindings of red morocco gilt by Francis Bedford of London.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Relating to perhaps the most famous of all compositions for the lute, a version of John Dowland’s 'Lachrimae pavane' proved a major attraction in a music sale held by Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

For just a few short days in October, the white-walled contemporary space of the Saatchi Gallery was transformed into a veritable feast of rare and sought-after first-edition books, prints and posters.

A great many of the lots that brought prices in the £1000-10,000 range in a recent Cheltenham sale were multiples of varying size – some running to as many as a hundred volumes – but noted here are a couple with that same Spetchley Park provenance that can be more precisely defined.

Copies of the 1900, first edition of Winston Churchill’s novel Savrola have made as much as £3500 at auction.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

A couple of surprise results emerged in a sale held in Armadale, Victoria, by Australian Book Auctions (19.8% buyer’s premium).

I understand that the Battersea antiques fair had to be ticketed this time to recoup monies lost to previous cancellations.

I wonder if it could be explained to me why, in the currently fashionable world of ‘modern first editions’, there is a trend to link the words ‘first edition’ and ‘impression’ in the same sentence.

Letter from cryptology expert describes his analysis of a Monte Carlo betting system

Though the matching bindings were much later ones commissioned by London dealer Sotherans, a set of Charles Dickens’ five famous Christmas Books offered on August 28 by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) of Chicago were all firsts of 1843-48, and in some instances first issue or first state copies.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.