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Period Styles by Anna Jackson with Morna Hinton, published by V&A Publications. ISBN l851774328 £25

WILLIAM Wood’s New Englands Prospect..., first published in London in 1634, was intended to “enrich the knowledge of the mind-travelling Reader, or benefit the future Voyager”.

PORTRAIT MINIATURES: A substantial selection of silhouettes and a collection of wax portraits boosted the content of a 311-lot middle ranking sale of portrait miniatures held by Bonhams on March 12.

A high spot of the Sotheby’s sale of December 12 was a group of Jane Austen firsts in the original boards. Illustrated above right is the former Lady Shelley/Earl Spencer/Jerome Kern copy of her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility of 1811, the blue boards with cream paper spines, which made $70,000 (£49,295).

Collectors looking for glamour in the north-eastern seaside town of Scarborough almost found it when they saw that the possessions of Josephine Baker were to be sold by local auctioneer David Duggleby.

Elegant Eating, edited by Philippa Glanville and Hilary Young, published by V&A Publications. ISBN 1851773371. £30hb

DENMARK: Given the continuing vogue for Scandinavian interiors, it comes as no surprise that the first modern art and design auction to be held by Danish auctioneers Bruun Rasmussen (25% buyer’s premium including VAT) in Århus last month on February 12, met with very favourable results.