Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
British and Irish book auctions: December 21, 2021-January 27, 2022
20 December 2021Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
Head of Joaquin and Jack’s three fingers
13 December 2021A live online October 28 sale held by Forum (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) attracted a much higher than expected bid for this small and rather browned poster promising that, for one day only, visitors to The ‘Stockton House’ could view not only the preserved head of the renowned bandit Joaquin, but ‘the hand of Three Fingered Jack!’
Third slice of Foxe Pointe Manor library up for auction
13 December 2021A third selection of 16th and 17th century English books from Fox Pointe Manor was offered by Forum (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on October 21.
Shakespeare third folio takes £70,000
13 December 2021Edition of Shakespeare’s works from 1663 heads varied selection in Cambridge.
Produced by the talented Abraham
13 December 2021A single-lot sale on October 19 offered an illuminated Ashkenazic prayer book that realised a premium-inclusive $8,307,000 (£6,019,565).
British and Irish book auctions: December 7-21, 2021
06 December 2021Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
Horror hammer highlights
06 December 2021Gary Munson collection delivers a string of rarities sold for record-breaking sums
Bound for a church career
29 November 2021Painted with an image of an urn to the front cover of its vellucent binding and with a view of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire to the rear, the Book of Common Prayer & Book of Psalmes shown below was printed in 1774 by T Wright & W Gill for the University of Oxford.
Cure for a ‘Hectick ffeavour’
29 November 2021Two very different lots shared the highest bid honours in a September 30 sale held in Norfolk. A manuscript recipe book dating from the late 17th/early 18th century onwards was, as such, accomplished in several different hands.
British and Irish book auctions: November 30-December 10
29 November 2021Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
Copies of Rosellini’s exceptional work on ancient Egypt emerges in Irish sale
29 November 2021An exceptional, expanded and specially cased example of Ippolito Rosellini’s 'I Monumenti dell Egitto e della Nubia' of 1832-34 topped the bidding in a Fonsie Mealy (20% buyer’s premium) sale of the library from Howth Castle.
Tolkien classic takes £46,000 in Dorset
29 November 2021Among the book lots offered as part of an October 7-8 sale at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) the earliest was a Burgundian ‘Hours of the Virgin’ manuscript.
Is there anything he didn’t do?
22 November 2021Library on offer at Forum auction in London was based on works collected by a man whose roles ranged from alchemist to diplomat
Seven CS Lewis copies to treasure
22 November 2021Now handsomely bound in full red morocco and contained in slipcases, a set of first-edition copies of what are collectively known as ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ of CS Lewis led a Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) sale of October 7 with a bid of £3400 from a buyer on thesaleroom.com.
Rare Stubbs signature surfaces at auction
22 November 2021Bid to to £400 in an October 6 sale held by Halls (20/12% buyers premium) of Shrewsbury was a simple, partly printed receipt in the sum of three guineas with autograph additions and signature that date it to April 24, 1806.
British and Irish book auctions: November 23-December 3, 2021
22 November 2021Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
Presidential importance boosts US lots
22 November 2021Running to just 20 or so words, a tiny signed card in which Abraham Lincoln instructs Edwin Stanton to meet with the African-American abolitionist and officer Martin Delany in Washington led the bidding at Doyle (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) on September 23.
Trafalgar hero’s coastal views
15 November 2021Distinguished naval officer admired by Nelson was also a talented watercolour painter
Bird artist became pottery painter after bankruptcy
15 November 2021Sold for £16,000 in a September 23 sale was an album of 41 watercolour studies of birds produced by William Weston Young (1776-1847).
British and Irish book auctions: November 16-27, 2021
15 November 2021Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.