Books & Periodicals

Bid to £1.35m at Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) this summer, as part of a ‘Classic Week’ evening sale of paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture and decorative arts of all ages, was a lavishly illustrated Book of Hours attributed to the Master of the Monypenny Breviary and associates.

An English translation of a Dutch 16th century sea atlas was among the standout sales at the recent online edition of Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair.

Inscribed copies of the works of Dodie Smith were among the attractions of a summer sale held by Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium) of Chichester.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 22-October 9, 2020.

Plenty of Dickensian lots were on offer in a sale held by US saleroom PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium).

Stand-out lot in a travel, map and natural history sale held by Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) was a grand and elaborately cased set of the monumental 'Description de l’Egypte' of 1809-22.

A cache of material related to the influential Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) and her family sold for close to £50,000 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 15-26, 2020.

Napoleon’s view after first meeting on St Helena did not improve on closer acquaintance

Always likely to produce one of the sale’s best results, a 1798 first of Thomas Malthus’ 'Essay on the Principle of Population' duly led the bidding in a recent German sale.

In 1916 around 500 copies of the historic ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’ were printed, of which today just 30 or so survivors are recorded.

Bid to €10,000 (£9100) in a timed online sale at Fonsie Mealy (25/20% buyers premium) this summer was a two-volume collection of medical and other receipts compiled by Mrs Mary Leadbeater (1758-1826).

On September 12 Brunk Auctions of Asheville, North Carolina, is holding a single-owner sale comprising the estate of William N Banks Junior from his Georgia property, Bankshaven.

Appropriately enough, the very first lot offered in a sale called Eureka! was one that focused on scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, was an autograph manuscript of seven pages of annotated design drawings by Thomas Edison relating to his work on light bulbs.

Manuscript was brought to Italy from Constantinople and later printed in Vicenza

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 8-19, 2020.

Robert Morrison, a protestant missionary, pioneer sinologist and author of several works on the Chinese language as well as a translator, has been called the ‘Father of Anglo-Chinese Literature’.

'Firsts, London’s Rare Book Fair' has announced a second digital staging to take place this month.