Books & Periodicals

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 7-23, 2020.

Dealer John Martin runs Mayfly Ephemera. Available via ebay and on the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA) website.

Presenting some 434 lots and with a total not far short of £1m, a recent sale held by Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) included a rich enough string of successes to outshine a few of the more highly valued lots left unsold.

South Cerney sale of nearly 900 lots mirrors the huge offerings held in Germany

Our regular listing of British and Irish book sales.

The Paris auction centre Drouot opened its doors again last month in France following the lockdown.

Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) recent sale in Paris of books and manuscripts was led at €125,000 (£113,635) by a Nobel Prize for Literature medal awarded in 1947, just four years before his death, to the essayist, critic, novelist and dramatist André Gide.

One of the few first-edition copies of 'Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone' inscribed and signed by JK Rowling has sold at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh for £100,000 (plus 25% premium).

Harry Potter first deemed too scruffy by a public library brings a spellbinding result

A signed memorandum letter sent by Nelson from HMS Victory to one of his captains sold for a mid-estimate £3200 at a recent TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium) auction in Diss in Norfolk.

An account of travels in Indian territories in the early 19th century was one of two letters of particular North American interest sold for notably higher than expected sums by Forum (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

The two most expensive lots in an online London books sale of just 100 lots could hardly have been more different.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

Simon Beattie specialises in European cultural history, with interests in cross-cultural material and the history of decorated paper. He is also the founder of Facebook group We Love Endpapers, which has 5000 members.

Originally scheduled for the end of March, an ‘African Americana’ sale planned by Swann Galleries (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) was postponed until May 7, when it was successfully sold online with almost 90% of the 400 lots finding buyers.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

Document signed by the great scientist reveals an investment skill not to the same standard.

Dating from c.1908, a “notebook of secrets from Harry Houdini’s collection” was one of the more successful lots in a very successful magic auction held by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) with 98% of lots sold and total of around $500,000.

A rare first edition of the first fully realised post-apocalyptic tale is on offer in Peter Harrington’s inaugural fantasy and science-fiction catalogue, 'In Other Worlds'.