Print Edition

Discoloured, stained and in a crudely restored old binding, a scarce hunting work of 1704 was sold for a much higher than expected £1400 at a recent Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) sale.

Billed as the first printed edition of the most authoritative medical text in the Islamic world, a 1593 copy of a work known in the English-speaking world as Avicenna’s ‘Canon of Medicine’ was part of a recent London sale.

A collection of rediscovered drawings by the 19th century artist Elizabeth Frances Batty (1791-1875) feature at Bloomsbury gallery Abbott and Holder this month.

In any ‘top 10’ list of 30th birthday party themes, a 1980s or ‘90s leitmotif ranks high.

Target of a London silver specialist, this pair of late Victorian silver fluted vases was the best-seller at East Sussex auction house Burstow & Hewett (20% buyer’s premium).

One of the more successful acts in a recent American magic and conjuring sale involved the appearance among the literary contributions of a doubly inscribed copy of Harry Kellar’s 'A Magician’s Tour' of 1886.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Cooper Events’ Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair at Westonbirt School has been moved earlier in the calendar.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Painted by Lt Gen Henry Hope Crealock (1831-91), this 6ft 8in (2m) wide pen and ink drawing is an eyewitness account of The Action of Bareilly – the battle of the last stronghold of Indian independence in 1858.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Scottish artist Alan Davie’s (1920- 2014) oil on canvas 'Jumpin’ at the Woodside' (1965), which is on offer at Richard Green Gallery, references a jazz number with the same title released by Count Basie in 1938.

Codes are there to be broken, as the Second World War British team at Bletchley Park proved by cracking the German Enigma machines.

Topped by an eight-times estimate £19,500 Momoyama ‘Namban’ cabinet (ATG No 2391), Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s (21% buyer’s premium) sale in Exeter on April 16 had other estimate-busting lots from abroad.

An oil in gilt frame by John Thomas Serres (1759-1825) of 'The Entrance to Plymouth Sound' offered at Charles Miller’s (24% buyer’s premium) April 30 auction represented a primitive but effective early sat nav for ships.

A classic oil on canvas of yacht racing by renowned British painter Montague Dawson (1890-1973) was top-seller of The Marine Sale at Bonhams Knightsbridge (27.5/25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) on May 1.

Sharon Blagrove of Bentleys Fairs will be heading to Hertfordshire this weekend to set up her fifth salvage and vintage fair in the leafy surroundings of Knebworth Park.

MADAM – David Southwell (Letters, ATG No 2392) makes a good point but there are reasons for auctioneers refusing credit cards.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 21-June 2, 2019.