Latest News Articles by Ian McKay

img_22-3.jpg

Cartoonist put politics to one side

31 October 2022

Much, much earlier than most other entries in a comics and comic art sale that ran at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) from September 30 to October 2 were examples of the work of Winsor McCay (c.1866-67-1934), who was well known as an accomplished editorial and political cartoonist and for his work in the world of animation and cartoon strips.

img_23-2.jpg

Britannia rules in Surrey saleroom

31 October 2022

The big attraction in a job lot estimated at £60-100 that went on to sell for £14,000 in a September 23 sale held by Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) was a copy of Britannia: or, a Chorographical Description…, Dr Edmund Gibson’s 1695, updated and English language version of a well-known earlier work.

img_20-1.jpg

Virgil, the Scottish version

24 October 2022

Translation was first time a major poem of antiquity appeared in an English language form.

img_21-1.jpg

The way to locate buffaloes and locals with second sight

24 October 2022

Bid to £3400, a 1703 first edition of Martin Martin’s Description of the Western Islands of Scotland in a later full calf binding proved the most expensive item in the 250-lot book and ephemera section that opened an October 5-7 auction at Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium).

img_20-3.jpg

Victoria’s journal of Highlands life affordable for the little people

24 October 2022

An edition of Queen Victoria’s Leaves from the Journal of our Life on the Highlands… took £550 at a Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) sale of September 23.

British and Irish book auctions: October 18-30, 2022

17 October 2022

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

img_49-1.jpg

Torn jacket but a tidy sum

17 October 2022

Though the dust jacket featuring one of Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for the book is torn with loss and exhibits a number of patched repairs, a 1950 first edition of 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' did sell for £1100 against a guide of £500-700 on October 6 at Buckinghamshire saleroom Bourne End Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium).

img_48-1.jpg

Rare glimpse of Inca culture

17 October 2022

First and only published volume of South American work appears in London saleroom

British and Irish book auctions: October 11-27, 2022

10 October 2022

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

img_34-4.jpg

Moxon Junior shaped up to be a talented son of Joseph

10 October 2022

Illustrated here is a complete deck of James Moxon’s ‘Geometrical’ cards, each bearing figures of scientific instruments and dating from the mid-1690s.

img_34-2.jpg

Fine crop of agricultural works from the Glaisdale library

10 October 2022

Collection gathered in by a local farmer comes to auction in North Yorkshire

img_35-2.jpg

Happy news for salerooms: not the end of Spider-Man

10 October 2022

Four auction records were set in the first 90 minutes of a recent four-day comics and comic art auction conducted by Heritage (20% buyer’s premium).

img_27-2.jpg

Puritan work starts to bear fruit in New England

03 October 2022

Very much the star turn in a Philadelphia sale of September 21 was an extremely rare copy of 'New Englands First Fruits…', a small quarto work, running to just 26pp, that was printed and published in London in 1643.

img_26-4.jpg

‘Anatomical first’ makes appearance

03 October 2022

Boasting what have been described as the first accurate anatomical illustrations of the foetus in utero among its 39 engraved plates, a 1761, second edition of William Smellie’s 'Sett of Anatomical Tables… of the Practice of Midwifery' was one of the highlights of an online-only Forum (25/20/12.5% buyers premium) sale of September 15.

img_26-1.jpg

Calcutta seen in colonial days

03 October 2022

Early views of the city now known as Kolkata reveal 19th development under empire

British and Irish book auctions: October 4-14, 2022

03 October 2022

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

British and Irish book auctions, September 27-October 11, 2022

26 September 2022

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

img_19-1.jpg

Reese: mad about Melville

26 September 2022

The latest in a series of auctions to draw on the private library of one of the more prominent antiquarian book dealers of his generation, William S Reese (1955-2018), ran from September 1-14 at Christie’s New York (26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium).

img_18-1.jpg

WG Grace bowls over bidders

26 September 2022

Two albums of photographs taken by fellow cricketer and friend pitch in at four-figure sum.

img_34-1.jpg

Mapping America in Gloucestershire

19 September 2022

Doubling 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…