Books & Periodicals

An early 19th century royal manuscript produced for the Nawab of Sachin, c.1830, was given the Antiques Trade Gazette prize for Outstanding Indian or Islamic Work of Art from an Auction House when the annual Asian Art in London awards were announced last week.

Richard Sheaf, 44, is a collector and daily blogger on British comics.

Highlights from wide-ranging auctions held on consecutive days

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

As referenced in an inscription to the opening folio, this early 19th century manuscript – offered at Roseberys in south London – was produced for the Nawab of Sachin, Ibrahim Muhammed Yakut Khan I Bahadur (r.1802-53).

One of two near identical artworks that Frank Frazetta made in 1970 for the dust jacket of a Doubleday re-issue of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars has sold in a Dallas auction for $1m (£781,250).

Printed volumes and manuscripts contain many rare works and unusual material

Over 50 lots, many of them multiples, offered in a sale held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) featured the works of Bram Stoker.

A 1776 first of Adam Smith’s '…Wealth of Nations' sold in a New York summer sale bore an understandably irritated inscription by the man to whom it had been gifted by its author.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

One of two book sales held by Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) presented a single-owner collection billed as The Library of Greek Bibliophile.

Tim Bryars’ enthusiasm for the “democratisation of travel” extends well beyond the railways.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

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.

Before railway mania came canal mania – key to the Industrial Revolution. This 1830 second edition copy of George Bradshaw’s 'Map of Canals, Navigable Rivers, Rail Road &c. in the Midland Counties of England from Actual Survey' sold for £500 (estimate £200-300) at Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on October 8.

“Bradshaw becomes first-hand for any sort of railway guide – you can argue whether or not he was the very first to create them, but he was the first to be successful. It is a bit like everyone calling vacuum cleaners Hoovers.”

Highly influential three-volume set on maths takes a record £90,000 sum in London

It was not in the best of conditions, but an unusual cartographic lot in an August 6 sale at Thomson Roddick (17.5% buyer’s premium) of Carlisle sold at £420.