Books & Periodicals

Our round-up of British and Irish book salescoming up from August 21-31, 2018.

The most important Greek printing project of the 15th century, and the greatest achievement of the great Venetian printer Aldus Manutius’ Greek publishing programme, was one of the landmark works seen at auction this summer.

The first copy to come onto the market since 1895 and one of only six recorded in all, the Breviarum Romanum Glagoliticum printed in Venice in 1493 by Andreas Torresanus de Asula was another highlight of the Christie’s sale of July 11.

A fine copy in a well-preserved dust jacket of DH Lawrence’s The Rainbow of 1915 was sold at a record £13,000 as part of the eighth portion of the ongoing disposal of ‘The Library of an English Bibliophile’ – a sale held by Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9% buyer’s premium) on July 10.

A cartographic highlight of the summer came with the appearance in an 11-day, online US sale of a remarkably detailed early 18th century manuscript map of the American south-west.

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.

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.

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