Book

Alchemical work is best-seller as Vishniac lots create a valuable mix in the saleroom

In what was the auction house’s most successful sale ever in financial terms, and one that boasted a 97% selling rate, a March 4 sale at Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) was led at $65,000 (£49,240) by a 'Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity from the Time of his Being Taken by the British, near Montreal… in 1775, to the Time of his Exchange…in May 1778'.

Though it is the pineapple that is most prominent, it is the assortment of creatures that flutter around, climb or emerge from its leaves that are the principal attraction of this coloured plate, below.

If social media makes you feel like Big Brother is watching you, and if truth occasionally feels stranger than fiction, then like many bibliophiles you might be exploring books that suggest models for society and the role of the individual.

The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA) is searching for a new fair manager for its London Antiquarian Book Fair.

Extensive group of lots from well-known book dealer and his wife led London auction

Bearing a very modest estimate of just £20-30, this copy of The Angler in Ireland: or An Englishman’s Ramble through Connaught and Munster, during the Summer of 1833 was bid to £700 in a March 12 sale held by Rowley’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) of Ely.

Bid to £2800 in a recent Norfolk sale was a detailed and now rare Map of the Parish of St Mary Abbotts, Kensington… dating from 1879.

Harry Potter just keeps on doing well at auction, and Hansons (25% buyer’s premium), which has enjoyed a particularly close and profitable relationship with JK Rowling’s creation over the years, had more to offer in a March 9 sale.

Potter & Potter’s Fine Literature & Modern Firsts Sale on April 26 in Chicago includes a copy of Oscar Wilde’s (1854-1900) The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Anonymous complete edition from 1696-97 is now recognised as the work of Mary Astell

Formed by a local man, the late Brian Ferguson, a collection of over 40 books issued by the Golden Cockerel Press featured in an auction held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) of Carlisle.

Aubrey Beardsley and John Batten add the illustrative attractions in North Yorks sale

Two very different lots from a Sussex sale are noted here: a German manuscript of Lenten sermons and the tale of a toy rabbit.

This Kelmscott press 1892 edition of William Caxton’s translation of 'The History of Reynard the Foxe' will be offered by Potter & Potter auctions as part of its February 26 auction of books and manuscripts in Chicago.

When Ian Fleming sent an initial typescript of his first James Bond book Casino Royale to his good friend Paul Gallico asking if it was publishable, he got the reply “the book is a knockout!”.

The collection of the late Americana book dealer William Reese (1955-2018) is coming to Christie’s from May this year.

Bidding on an exceptionally fine, virtually mint first edition of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone offered in the special Firsts into Film section of a December 9-10 sale opened at $75,000.

In the early 1880s Alfred Barnard, secretary of Harper’s Weekly Gazette (the magazine that morphed into today’s Harpers Wine & Spirit), decided to visit all distilleries in Scotland, England and Ireland.

The undoubted star of the November 24 sale at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) was the early 15th century folding almanac, or girdle book, that took £95,000.