Books and Works on Paper

Presentation copies and private press books were a key feature of a Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale.

Three very different lots brought six-figure bids at a Christie’s (25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale – and they were not the only ones to reach such impressive heights.

Author’s works were well represented in London auction that included a £24,000 surprise

Highlights of Chiswick Auctions earlier this summer

One of the more unusual lots that I have encountered in recent times is a piece of card bearing the only known example of Mahatma Gandhi’s fingerprints.

Many of the lots in a June 16 sale of books, maps and pictures held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) in Carlisle came from the collections of the late Dr George Kozikowski of Skye, a microbiologist, archaeologist and antiquarian of Polish descent.

Collection now up for sale was owned by soldier killed in Korea but kept safe by his brother

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Having secured his prize for a notably higher than estimate sum, the buyer of a ‘Fireball XLV’ artwork told Malcolm Phillips of Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) that very few artworks by its creator, Mike Noble, ever come to auction.

New York sale maintains run of high JK Rowling prices while Dr Seuss surfaces also in UK

Estimated at €50,000 but sold for €405,000 (£346,275) in a sale held in Turin by was a 1482 edition of Ptolemy’s Cosmographia.

A recent sale in New York was led at $65,000 (£47,100) by a disbound but rare example of the work of Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-95).

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

George Eliot’s much-admired novel 'Middlemarch…' made its first appearance in a parts issue in 1871.

Morris works and Sangorski & Sutcliffe bindings stand out in single-owner collection

Two unpublished diaries sold in Sweden related to Salomon August Andrée’s ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

In terms of improvement on expectations, the most successful lot at a Ketterer Kunst (25% buyer’s premium) sales earlier this year comprised early 19th century paper-cuts.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.