Books and Works on Paper

As co-publishers and editors of Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine established in 1991, Robin and Kathryn Smiley’s bookshelves were brimming with choice first editions from across the broad span of British and American literature.

One of two texts in a single volume revealed after eager bidding to be by Hungarian Jesuit

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper auctions being staged on thesaleroom.com

While the rare book trade is steadily becoming more diverse, challenges still exist, as four newer members of the Forum Auctions team in London tell ATG

A special selection of upcoming auction lots

Robert Weaver, a teacher and keeper of the Fellows’ Library at Dulwich College in south London, has collected medieval manuscript fragments for close to 50 years

The earliest book on the boy wizard continues to entrance collectors

“I get loads and loads of emails and calls all the time from people whose eyes have lit up when they see those words ‘first edition’…”

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions running on thesaleroom.com

A 19th century document referencing Elias Howe Jr’s patent for the first modern sewing machine sold for more than 100 times its estimate at Devin Moisan’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Epping, New Hampshire.

This medieval document with a royal seal attached amounts to a pardon granted by Henry IV (1367-1413) to John Barlawe of the manor of Barlow in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy (now suburban Manchester).

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

A previously unrecorded 18th century manuscript containing 75 pieces of traditional Scottish music sold for £5000 at Lyon & Turnbull (plus 26% buyer’s premium).

Extensive selection of the long-running cricket guides on offer at auction runs up a market test

Estimated at £300-500, a group of five hand-coloured prints of early 19th century Canada sold for £8500 at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Lewes.

Latest slice of a ‘magnificent library’ that covered the development of book illustrations

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

This handwritten volume bound in maroon calf boards with brass clasp is titled inside The Minute Book of The Auld Lang Syne Sketching Club.

'Theatre d’Agriculture et Mesnages des Champs' issued in 1600 is the first major work on French agronomy.

Refugees in Chelsea was written by Henry James (1843-1916) to help the local Chelsea Committee to raise funds in the US to start an industry for crippled Belgian soldiers.