Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
Mapping America in Gloucestershire
19 September 2022Doubling its mid-estimate to sell at £50,000, one of the top lots in a sale of September 7 was Paulo Forlani’s Il Disegno del discoperto della nova Franza…
‘Well, I think we’re just out of Waldorfs’
19 September 2022This camera script produced for the ‘Waldorf Salad’ episode from the second series of Fawlty Towers was offered by East Bristol Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) in a timed online sale that ended on August 23,
Booker T Washington came Up from Slavery
19 September 2022In 1902 the author Booker T Washington sent a typed and handwritten letter to the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie regarding his recently published work.
First issue copy of Newton’s ‘greatest scientific work’ edges past top estimate
12 September 2022Though around 30% of the 150 lots remained unsold, no fewer than eight of those offered in a held by Christie’s (15/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) in London brought six-figure bids.
Beyond the wizard: Baum’s Oz makes a record
12 September 2022Sold online for a record $20,000 (£16,340) at the former Butterfields, now Bonhams Los Angeles (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) salerooms as part of the David Lloyd collection of modern literature was a 1909 first edition of Frank L Baum’s 'The Road to Oz'.
Atomic bomber’s secret logbook made headlines
12 September 2022Sold at $440,000 (£371,000), the most expensive lot in a three-day auction at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) was a logbook kept on the B29 Superfortress bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
Reginald was not bewitched by magic claims
12 September 2022Sold at Bonhams Skinner (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) was a 1584 first edition of Reginald Scot’s 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft….'
British and Irish book auctions: September 13-30, 2022
12 September 2022Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
American early rarities and a Shakepeare First Folio achieve seven-figure sums
12 September 2022The principal portion of a two-part sale conducted by Sotheby’s New York included not one, but three lots that brought seven-figure bids.
British and Irish book auctions: September 6-30, 2022
05 September 2022Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
Book recalls evolution of a natural selection theory
05 September 2022Sold online to a collector in France in a sale held by McTear’s (24% buyer’s premium) of Glasgow was a scarce copy in original boards of 'On Naval Timber and Arboriculture'.
How to illustrate the tale of a tail
05 September 2022Bid to £65,000 in a Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) sale that ran online from July 12-19 was the ink drawing by Ernest Shephard shown below.
Four Quartets and a signature add up to £1750
05 September 2022A small collection of the works of TS Eliot offered in a Canterbury Auction Galleries (22.5% buyer’s premium) sale of August 6-7 included what appears to have been a 1943, first US printing of his 'Four Quartets'.
Nun’s illuminating role in Italy
05 September 2022Sixteenth century manuscript produced in a Florence monastery sells in Essex
Extensive collection of Ford Madox Ford emerges in Cheshire
05 September 2022A substantial collection of works by just one multi-talented and enormously influential figure was presented as part of series of sales held by Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in its Macclesfield rooms.
Evelyn Waugh’s first book inscribed by man who wooed author’s first wife
29 August 2022Copy of his first book was a later gift from Sir John Heygate to Tarka the Otter author
Fossilised remains unearthed once more in Sussex
29 August 2022A volume containing first editions of two important geological works by Dr Gideon Mantell sold for £2000 in West Sussex.
Sherlock’s brother detected in Arthur Conan Doyle autograph manuscript
29 August 2022Making its third appearance at auction in almost 60 years, the 34pp autograph manuscript of Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter’, a tale from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes collection of his stories that first appeared in The Strand magazine in 1893, has sold for $280,000 (£236,090) in Dallas.
Arthur Rackham rarity bound to please
29 August 2022A 1914 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland proved one of the principal attractions in a July 26 sale held by Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium).
British and Irish book auctions: August 31-September 24, 2022
29 August 2022Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.