Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
Ferns book makes first auction appearance
29 April 2019Offered as a part of the natural history section of a May 14 book sale at Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) is an extremely rare photobook on New Zealand ferns by Herbert Boucher Dobbie issued c.1880 – no copy of which, it seems, has previously been seen at auction.
A good hair day in the saleroom
29 April 2019A 1782 first of James Stewart’s 'Plocacosmos: or, the Whole Art of Hair Dressing' illustrated with 10 plates showing hairstyles was offered as part of a Forum Auctions sale.
Gould birds volume rises high
29 April 2019Some 150 lots of books formed part of a recent Irish auction held at Fortgranite, Baltinglass, in Co Wicklow, the home for over 200 years of the Dennis family.
Taking a view beyond the £90,000 London panorama
29 April 2019A very rare panorama of London that made £90,000 in a recent West Sussex sale was the Pick of the week in ATG No 2387, but many other things among the 200 lots offered in that April 5 auction caught the eye.
Lot offers something of the night
29 April 2019Guide to the prostitutes and brothels of London tempts bidders at Staffordshire sale.
Works show how to stay sharp at cards
29 April 2019Tightly bound, clean and crisp, and “about the nicest copy we have seen” was the assessment by a specialist US saleroom of the biggest winner in its auction of a single-owner gambling memorabilia collection.
Signed Oscar Wilde first edition of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' makes £19,700... but inscribed copies can make more
19 April 2019Bid to £19,700 in a recent sale was one of 100 signed, large paper firsts of Oscar Wilde’s 'The Importance of Being Earnest' published by Leonard Smithers in 1899.
First part of Hayhurst library sale is a huge 1139 lots
19 April 2019Given that the sale ran to a huge 1139 lots, the April 2-4 dispersal in Harrogate of the first part of the library of Robert James Hayhurst may be considered to have done well in achieving a selling rate of 85% at that gathering of Elzevir and other early printed works.
Tracts and pamphlets make a whole £23,500
19 April 2019A bound volume of early works on a famous automaton chess player, featured in ATG No 2387, was not the only lot in a recent Cumbrian sale to produce a handsome return.
British and Irish book auctions: April 23-May 4, 2019
19 April 2019British and Irish book auctions: April 16-27, 2019
Guide to travel in the shocking age of segregation
19 April 2019First published in 1936, The Negro Travellers’ Green Book was a once indispensable guide for African-Americans in the age of segregation.
Wigan Pier on the road to saleroom courtesy of a Wigan consigner
15 April 2019Two first-edition versions of George Orwell’s 'The Road to Wigan Pier', the first part of which is an investigation into the working-class living conditions in Lancashire, Yorkshire and the industrial north, were published in 1937.
Volumes from voyage on HMS Challenger sold at Dominic Winter
15 April 2019Running to 50 volumes in all, the official report on 'The Scientific Results of the Voyage of HMS Challenger during the years 1873-76 in Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic seas' took some 23 years to complete.
British and Irish book auctions: April 16-27, 2019
15 April 2019ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from April 16-27, 2019.
Single-owner collection devoted to modern first editions includes 1937 copy of The Hobbit
15 April 2019Devoted wholly to modern firsts, a recent online sale presented the first selection of a single-owner collection – the second portion of which will be sold later in the year.
William Lewin's extraordinary birds guide leads Leyburn auction
15 April 2019An incomplete set of that remarkable ornithological work, William Lewin’s 'Birds of Great Britain', was the most expensive lot in a recent Yorkshire sale.
Books keep Bonhams busy in New York
15 April 2019The early weeks of March proved a particularly busy time for one saleroom in the US. As well as sales featuring the medical and scientific collections of W Bruce Fye, reported in ATG No 2386, Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9%) also sold the seventh instalment of Eric Caren’s How History Unfolds on Paper collection online, and in itsMadison Avenue rooms offered Extraordinary Books & Manuscripts.
Hayek and the road to saleroom
08 April 2019Collection from family of Nobel Prize winner generates many surprising auction results.
British and Irish book auctions: April 9-18, 2019
08 April 2019ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from April 9-18, 2019.
Binding made of wood from Roman bridge
08 April 2019A most unusual book binding brought a bid of £5500 in a recent Bonhams sale.