Books & Periodicals

In 1793, well in advance of the Slave Trade Act (1807) and the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), 275 British men, women and children attempted to settle an uninhabited island off the coast of Sierra Leone.

Principal attraction in a Crewkerne book sale at Lawrences (25% buyers premium) was the Browning family archive that featured as Pick of the Week in ATG No 2459, but three other items from that 370 lot sale are noted here.

Estimated at £200-300 in a Kent sale, a military commission that bears the signature of King George III and is additionally signed and endorsed by William Pitt the Elder, Britain’s prime minister at the time of the Seven Years War, sold online instead for £7500.

An 1859 first of Darwin’s seminal work shrugs off condition issues to be a best-seller

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions. While care has been taken in compiling these previews, we strongly advise that you also check with the saleroom concerned in case of cancellations or postponements because of the latest Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions.

Two very different lots were bid to $22,000 (£17,325) each in a sale of printed and manuscript Americana held in New York.

An early 19th century royal manuscript produced for the Nawab of Sachin, c.1830, was given the Antiques Trade Gazette prize for Outstanding Indian or Islamic Work of Art from an Auction House when the annual Asian Art in London awards were announced last week.

Richard Sheaf, 44, is a collector and daily blogger on British comics.

Highlights from wide-ranging auctions held on consecutive days

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

As referenced in an inscription to the opening folio, this early 19th century manuscript – offered at Roseberys in south London – was produced for the Nawab of Sachin, Ibrahim Muhammed Yakut Khan I Bahadur (r.1802-53).

One of two near identical artworks that Frank Frazetta made in 1970 for the dust jacket of a Doubleday re-issue of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars has sold in a Dallas auction for $1m (£781,250).

Printed volumes and manuscripts contain many rare works and unusual material

Over 50 lots, many of them multiples, offered in a sale held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) featured the works of Bram Stoker.

A 1776 first of Adam Smith’s '…Wealth of Nations' sold in a New York summer sale bore an understandably irritated inscription by the man to whom it had been gifted by its author.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

One of two book sales held by Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) presented a single-owner collection billed as The Library of Greek Bibliophile.

Tim Bryars’ enthusiasm for the “democratisation of travel” extends well beyond the railways.