Book

Ralph ‘Randolphus’ Ayres is recorded as being head cook at New College, Oxford at various times in the 18th century.

First edition of key Mormon work lists Joseph Smith as ‘author and proprietor’ of text not ‘translator’

Only 29 books from the library of John Keats are recorded - among them a 1679 printing of the collected works of the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser given to him by the artist Joseph Severn (1793-1879).

Naturalist produced a fish-focused work featuring nearly 3000 original watercolours across 50 copies

The original artwork for 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' sold at Sotheby’s for $1.6m (£1.3m) plus 20% buyer’s premium in New York on June 26.

In a private collection since it was last sold in 1991, one of only two known autograph manuscripts by author and journalist Albert Camus of his masterpiece L’Etranger was sold by Tajan (23/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Paris on June 5.

Most Tudor and Stuart embroidered bindings that have survived from the 16th and 17th century cover Bibles, prayerbooks, and other devotional texts.

Not only is this 1960 first edition of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' inscribed by Harper Lee to her friend Harold Caufield, but it was sold with a Christmas card from the author penned with a lengthy message.

An 18th century folio bible in mosaic binding was among the notable sales at the recent Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair.

Seventeenth century guide to growing vines in England was published just before the Great Fire of London

Victorian mountaineering book annotated by the author climbs to 20 times the top estimate

A book elaborately illustrated with needle-work samples and commemorating Queen Victoria’s first trip to Ireland as monarch was one of the standout sales as 'Firsts London’s Rare Book Fair' opened.

Published between 1750-73, Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortis curiosorum (‘A selection of plants from natural specimens nurtured in London’s curious gardens’) is considered the most important botanical work ever printed in Germany.

Owen Simmons was a bit of a bread fan, it is fair to say. A lecturer at the National Bakery School in London, he produced the lavish book shown here.

The Science, Medicine & Early Technology auction at Flints (25% buyer’s premium) in Thatcham, Berkshire on May 1 was led by a complete seven-volume set of The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain by James Sowerby (1757-1822).