Collectables

Letters and postcard written by Antarctic expedition members were sent to New Zealand host family

Small books have long been objects of wonder. The history of tiny type can be traced back to the smallest cuneiform clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia or the diminutive papyrus codices treasured by Christians in Roman Egypt.

The first ‘Thumb Bibles’, paraphrased or abridged versions of the good book, were published in the early 17th century – the London printer John Weever offering his 128- page An Agnus Dei, measuring just over 1in, in 1601.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Georgian period carried not only prayer books and bibles, but also books of poems and the annual miniature almanacs containing practical information on everything from the phases of the moon to the currency exchange rates of Europe.

Shapero Rare Books has given a vote of confidence to London’s West End by moving to even larger premises within Mayfair.

This rare 1880s Jean Roullet ‘Le Berger Watteau’ shepherdess with lamb automaton starred when the second part of one of the largest doll collections on offer in recent times went under the hammer.

Dealer Sky Duthie brings an Arts & Crafts movement binding of The Ingoldsby Legends to this year’s PBFA London Summer Book Fair.

Theme of Firsts fair centres on works not being seen just as reading material but things of beauty

A vesta case decorated with a campaigning Suffragette is among the highlights at the Buxton Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair.

It has often been said that no other work of art encompasses the spirit of the Bauhaus more perfectly than Marianne Brandt’s tea-infuser or Teeextraktkännchen MT49, as it was officially called.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales