Book

At a recent PBFA fair, dealer John Underwood sold a collection of albums of mosses compiled by the naturalist Frederick DuCane Godman (1834-1919) to Horsham Museum & Art Gallery.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Jane Austen was among the names to note in a recent Norfolk sale, with the day’s top bid securing a four-volume, 1818 first of Northanger Abbey & Persuasion.

Plenty of Dickensian lots were on offer in a sale held by US saleroom PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium).

Stand-out lot in a travel, map and natural history sale held by Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) was a grand and elaborately cased set of the monumental 'Description de l’Egypte' of 1809-22.

Always likely to produce one of the sale’s best results, a 1798 first of Thomas Malthus’ 'Essay on the Principle of Population' duly led the bidding in a recent German sale.

A number of higher-priced lots featured in a sale held by Hindman (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of Chicago this summer, where fine binding was very much in evidence on both individual volumes and sets.

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).

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

Literary lots in a recent Irish sale included one of a thousand signed copies of the 1922, limited-edition issue of 'The Trembling of the Veil', one of William Butler Yeats’ autobiographical works.

Bid way over estimate to sell at £1400 in a recent online sale was a 1912, Cuala Press first of WB Yeats’ 'The Green Helmet and other Poems'.

Our selection of books, maps and works on paper available to view and buy from dealers online.

No other Victorian could equal Charles Dickens for fame, earnings and sheer popularity. And few can match him today in the collecting arena.

The annual 'Rare Books London' schedule of events is cancelled this year due to COVID-19, but plenty of book dealers are still doing business.

Welcome to the fifth annual Books, Maps & Prints supplement produced by Antiques Trade Gazette showcasing the world of rare books and works on paper, writes Rupert Powell. It is the third to feature Forum Auctions as the primary sponsor.

Alan Hewer of Seaford, Sussex, is a book collector who has turned a personal collection into a resource for others. Interview by Jeremy Carson

Jeremy Carson’s passion for collecting a very appropriate sub-genre of crime fiction – bibliomysteries – led to a career as an antiquarian book dealer.

A selection of upcoming lots of books, maps and prints from auctions taking place around the UK.