Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
No language barrier to sales of Nuremburg Chronicle at auction
07 January 2019German and Latin versions of ‘Nuremburg Chronicle’ impress in separate sales.
Book that forms a work of art
07 January 2019At the very end of the 15th century, in Venice in December 1499, there emerged from the presses of that city’s most famous printer, Aldus Manutius, what is traditionally described as the most beautiful illustrated printed book of the Italian Renaissance.
Blaeu townbook with wind in its sails
07 January 2019Bound as two volumes in contemporary red morocco gilt, its plates and plans finely coloured and gilt heightened throughout, an exceptional example of Joan Blaeu’s celebrated 17th century townbook of the Netherlands was offered in a recent American sale.
Library laws laid down at auction
07 January 2019Dated April 5, 1768, the simple printed broadside shown below lays down the ‘Rules…’ that apply to those wishing to use the Circulating Library in Ashbo[u]rne in Derbyshire.
Box bears the magic name of Churchill
07 January 2019While £90,000 is an awful lot of money for an empty metal box, this old black painted and gold lettered deed box does bear the magic name of Winston Churchill.
Eloise rescued from the garbage
07 January 2019Painted as a birthday gift, a portrait of one of the more popular characters in the annals of American children’s literature, Eloise, sold for $80,000 (£62,675) at Bonhams New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on December 5.
British and Irish book auctions: January 8-31, 2019
07 January 2019ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from January 8-31, 2019.
Wanderings in the Irish market
21 December 2018A copy of WB Yeats’ The Wanderings of Oisin… offered in a recent Irish sale was an example of Fisher Unwin’s 1892 second issue. That is rare enough, but this copy bore an inscription that made it very special indeed.
Remarkable Donne poems discovery
21 December 2018A notable feature of the end-of-year book sales in 2018 was the number of online auctions held by the major salerooms.
Modern firsts make high prices in a packed sale
21 December 2018Packed with a varied selection of precisely 1000 lots, a very thick catalogue rounded off one saleroom’s year in a December 11-12 sale.
Harry Potter: two lots demonstrate the value of a signature and the difference between pristine and scruffy copies
21 December 2018Showing hardly any signs of wear and signed by JK Rowling – and originally acquired at a special signing at Harrods, as revealed by a laid-in ticket – a near pristine first issue copy of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' of 1997, appeared at auction earlier this month.
Anglo-Saxon binding cornerpiece is full of value
21 December 2018Illuminated manuscript sales of recent times will be the subject of a future review, but seen here is something a little different in that line offered as the very first lot in a December 1 sale of such material held by Bloomsbury Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).
British and Irish book auctions: January 4-31, 2019
21 December 2018ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from January 4-31, 2019.
Detective fiction trailblazer equals Edgar Allan Poe record
17 December 2018‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of the Marie Roget’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’ are among now famous works that are to be found in the newly discovered first issue copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales shown below.
Toulouse-Lautrec litho tribute
17 December 2018Featuring 17 lithographed illustrations by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, one of 100 special copies of Gustave Geoffroy’s 1894 homage to the celebrated singer, actress and, in later years, writer, Yvette Guilbert – all of which were signed by the chanteuse – is shown here.
British and Irish book auctions: December 18-January 17, 2018
17 December 2018ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from December 18-January 17, 2018.
Lawyer’s love of Russian works shines through
17 December 2018Russian literary firsts and related manuscripts were the focus of one of the many major sales held in the UK, Europe and the US at the year’s end.
Einstein and his word on God at Christie’s New York
10 December 2018Written just a year before his death in 1955, a famous two-page letter in which Albert Einstein put down his thoughts on religion, his Jewish identity and his own search for the meaning of life sold for $2.4m (£1.89m) in a New York auction on December 4.
First edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice makes £38,000 at Bonhams
10 December 2018Literary high spots of a Bonhams (25/10/12% buyer’s premium) sale of November 27 included a three-volume, 1813 first of Jane Austen’s 'Pride and Prejudice'.
Russian botanical work blooms in Germany
10 December 2018Along with Pallas’ 'Flora Russica', the 'Icones Plantarum novarum… floram Rossicam' of the German-Estonian botanist Carl Friedrich von Ledebour is recognised as one of the great works on Russian flora.