Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
British and Irish book auctions: April 11-28, 2023
10 April 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions
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The last word on Samuel Johnson
03 April 2023Shrewsbury sale offered rare opportunity to bid for a letters by the great writer and lexicographer
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Buyer not afraid of Virginia Woolf value
03 April 2023Complete with the often missing dust jacket and entirely unrestored, as the cataloguer’s notes were pleased to point out, a 1925 Hogarth Press first of Virginia Woolf’s famous novel Mrs Dalloway was offered as part of a March 2 sale at Swann Galleries (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of New York.
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Watership Down in a special binding
03 April 2023A sale held by Martel Maides (20% buyer’s premium) of Guernsey to disperse the contents two island homes included some 60 or more single and multiple lots of books, a number of which boasted special bindings.
British and Irish book auctions: April 4-28, 2023
03 April 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions
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Tolkien’s family and friends
27 March 2023Middle-Earth history works edited by Christopher and two copies of The Hobbit with interesting links
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George Bernard Shaw says ‘I thought you were dead’
27 March 2023A handful of lots featuring communications between an actress, Miss Alice Bowes (1889-1969), and George Bernard Shaw featured in a Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale.
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Your own Lindisfarne Gospels to treasure
27 March 2023Sold at the high-estimate £3500 at a Kent auction was a German facsimile edition of the Lindisfarne Gospels.
British and Irish book auctions: March 29-April 17, 2023
27 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions
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Familiar fliers from New Naturalist but name of artist harder to place
20 March 2023The work of illustrator Robert Gillmor graces many books from a well-known natural history series
British and Irish book auctions: March 21-April 7, 2023
20 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
British and Irish book auctions: March 14-April 2, 2023
13 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
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Long life down to good cooking?
13 March 2023Manuscript including recipes sold for £15,000 was written by a lady who died ‘aged around 100’
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Maritime tale gains from Mark Twain inscription
13 March 2023A 1908, presentation first of one of WW Jacobs’ maritime tales, 'Salthaven', was the top lot in a sale held by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium).
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Dan Dare frustrates the Mekon in full colour art
13 March 2023Full-page artworks featuring Dan Dare and the unmistakable green features of the villainous Mekon were among the most successful lots in a Comic Book Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) timed online sale of February 26.
British and Irish book auctions: March 7-17, 2023
06 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
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DNA discovery and damnation
06 March 2023Extraordinary letter by Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist both commends and condemns a colleague
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School songbook signed by Winston Churchill for Jock is on tune
06 March 2023Available from the school’s own bookshop from 1937 was a printed collection of Harrow School Songs, but it was a rather special copy that sold for £7500.
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Beautiful Kelmscott work... shame about the library stamp
06 March 2023Featured in an Oxford sale was a copy of the 1893, Kelmscott Press edition of The History of Godefrey of Boloyne and of the Conquest of Jerusalem.
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Time and place for Hemingway
27 February 2023Inscription signalled one of American literature’s most significant editorial relationships