Books and Works on Paper

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

Accounts of youthful travels in Britain and on a Grand Tour contain often blunt assessments

In ATG No 2427 we noted the sale at Sotheby’s on December 10, at a very much higher than expected £50,000, of a rare copy of the 1553 translation into ‘Scots English’ of Virgil’s Aeneid by Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld.

Extraordinarily high prices paid for the works of the Russian writer Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev were noted in ATG No 2425, and there were many more lots of interest in the sale held by Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) in which they were offered.

‘Masterpieces’ from the celebrated collections of Dr Martin Schøyen offered at a recent Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London included some real rarities.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Published anonymously in Boston in 1828, a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s youthful first book, 'Fanshawe', sold for $38,000 (£28,790) at Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9%).

Bible suggests confusion over ‘he’ or ‘she’ may not be purely a modern-day phenomenon.

Fifty or so lots from the library of the Earls of Haddington that were offered as part of London sale included their fair share of exceptional lots.

Two ‘Frost Fair’ broadsides printed at one of the many stalls set up on the Thames during a hard 18th century winter in which London’s river froze over were sold in a recent sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

The fact that Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) regularly made use of a magnifying glass is noted by biographers and underlined by references found in his letters.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Pocket guide to pleasure stimulates in Staffs and saucy memoir excites bidders in Yorks.

This watercolour drawing by Charles Addams was one of the more successful lots in a December 10 Illustration Art sale held by Swann Galleries (25/20/10% buyer’s premium) in New York.

Among the very earliest printed works sold at auction at the end of last year was a beautifully illuminated Biblia Latina printed in August 1462, just seven years after the great Gutenberg Bible.

Among the more inspired catalogue cover illustrations featured in the end-of-year book auctions was one produced by Bonhams (27.5/25/20/13.9%) for a December 4 sale.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book sales.

Games manifesto from 1892 and Audubon’s classic head a selection of money-spinners.

A superb copy of Henry Hexham’s 'Principles of the Art Militarie' of 1637 was last seen at Sotheby’s in April 1919, as part of the library of the Earl of Chesterfield.