Collectables

The strong suit in the extensive cricket section of Abacus Auctions’ (18% buyer’s premium) Sporting Memorabilia sale in Melbourne on July 22 proved to be a collection of early 20th century autographed real photo postcards of test cricketers that were offered individually.

As both a collecting and a decorating sphere, taxidermy is one of the major growth areas over the past decade.

Potter & Potter, specialist in auctions of magic memorabilia, is holding its summer sale in Chicago on August 25.

Preparatory and other unused drawings relating to Roald Dahl classics come to auction

Two of only 11 leaves of the original, working manuscript of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species… known to remain in private hands were sold at auction in London last month.

Sold for £2500 in a Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) sale of July 25 was an enormous archive of work produced in the 1950s and ‘60s by Leslie Starke (1905-74), a cartoonist once very popular in both the UK and US.

Illustrated with coloured engravings, The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women is a work of 1821 that is “thought to be the first printed book of Limericks”.

A selection of fine or unusual bindings seen at auction during the summer months will feature more prominently in a future issue, but shown here is a 1751 first of Thomas Gray’s An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard in a striking later binding that was among lots offered at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) on July 12.

Sold at £620 in a July 2 sale held by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) was a leather-bound promotional catalogue issued by the Walturdaw Cinema Supply Co of Birmingham.

Rare books and prints valued at millions of dollars remain at large in the international market in the wake of a US library theft.

On the day that the Bastille was stormed Louis XVI famously recorded “rien” (nothing) in his game book.

One of the earlier big attractions of the new season will be the September 18-19 auction at Sotheby’s of the Erwin Tomash library on the history of computing.

The set of flicker books published c.1930 titled 'Drive and Mashie', 'Brassie and Iron' and 'Out the Rough and Putt', were once used as teaching aids for golfers.

Two French corkscrews were the top lots of Henry Aldridge & Son’s auction of the first tranche of a single-owner collection of around 450 examples.

A rare and early combination of a war hammer and pistol was a highlight of the Bonhams (25/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale in Knightsbridge on May 23, selling for £24,000.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from August 7-18, 2018.