Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
British and Irish book auctions: September 1-16, 2020
31 August 2020ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 1-16, 2020.
Scottish play opens in NY
24 August 2020Edition of Macbeth that once belonged to actor Charlton Heston.
Thomson takes pride
24 August 2020Firsts of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice have made as much as £115,000* at auction.
Golden oldies: abbey archive and penitential work for preachers
24 August 2020Sold at £140,000 in the first of two early manuscript sales held by Bloomsbury Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on July 8 was a lot featured in the front page story in ATG No 2447.
Through the Glasgow looking glass
24 August 2020Featured in Previews, ATG No 2449, was an amusing illustration of the Vacuum Tube, a proposed new means of mass transport from the pages of the Glasgow Looking Glass, a publication that has come to be widely regarded as the world’s first comic.
Comic effect
24 August 2020The two ink drawings reproduced here both made substantial sums in a June 27 sale of comic strip artwork held in Paris by Artcurial.
British and Irish book auctions, August 25-September 12, 2020
24 August 2020Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.
Signed Oscar Wilde work is among literary highlights of a mixed auction
17 August 2020Spread over two days and running to 600 lots, a very mixed sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) included Oscar Wilde’s 'The Importance of being Earnest' as one of the literary high spots.
Chase is on for hunting accounts
17 August 2020Arnold ‘Jake’ Johnson’s library of thousands of volumes covering travel, big game hunting – the focus of the three lots featured here – sporting and other fields is being dispersed by Doyle (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) in various live and online auctions in New York.
Kelmscott Press copy tempts bidders at Hindman
17 August 2020A number of higher-priced lots featured in a sale held by Hindman (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of Chicago this summer, where fine binding was very much in evidence on both individual volumes and sets.
British and Irish book auctions: August 18-September 3, 2020
17 August 2020Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions, August 18-September 3, 2020.
Seeing stars for the first time
10 August 2020Copy of newspaper containing what became the US national anthem makes sale appearance
Glasgow comes to the aid of Greece
10 August 2020Each bearing estimates of £300-400, two lots in a summer online auction held by Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) brought substantially higher rewards.
Savvy caddy makes a happy golfer
10 August 2020One of the specialist golfing sales held by PBA Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) of San Francisco included the work of a Scottish-born designer of golf courses who is said to have laid out some 400 of them.
British and Irish book auctions: August 11-30, 2020
10 August 2020ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from August 11-30, 2020.
British and Irish book auctions: August 4-20, 2020
03 August 2020ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from August 4-20, 2020.
Letters feature prominently in exceptionally varied Edinburgh auction
03 August 2020An exceptionally varied and very successful recent Scottish sale contained a great many letters and plenty of fascinating manuscript material.
Copy of Viscount Kingsborough’s 'Antiquities of Mexico' sells at Christie's in New York
03 August 2020Christie’s New York (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) recently staged two important book sales online that between them raised almost $3.38m, including premiums.
Copy of David Roberts' The Holy Land owned by its creator
20 July 2020Unusual proof example of mid-19th century work was a copy which belonged to David Roberts.
Last and lawless Just William makes appearance at Keys
20 July 2020Published in 1970, 'William the Lawless' marked the last appearance in full book form of Richmal Crompton’s much-loved schoolboy hero – almost 50 years on from the publication of the first, 'Just William' of 1922.