Books & Periodicals

Material in this specialist market ranges from the early printed works of the Gutenberg Press and William Caxton right through to Modern First Editions and now up to signed copies of Harry Potter. Condition and rarity are the keys to this sector.


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American Arctic exploration classic up at New York auction

10 April 2017

The Arctic Regions, 1873, a sumptuously bound narrative of American artist William Bradford’s seven expeditions to the Arctic, illustrated with 141 mounted albumen photographs, is the highest-estimated lot in the April 20 Swann Galleries photographs and photobooks sale.

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Wartime photo albums are snapped up at auction

10 April 2017

The extra push of archive items accompanying medals at auction is well recognised but such material is increasingly on the advance in its own right. Honours offered with log books, diaries, maps, letters and so on are very attractive to buyers given the background story they create about the recipient.

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Fruits at the root of £3000 result at auction in Exeter

10 April 2017

Early children’s books and games provided some of the highlights of a March 15 sale held by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).

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Welsh items produce white-glove success at Bonhams auction

10 April 2017

With every one of the 531 lots sold, from an oak gateleg table that opened proceedings to a 1925 Douglas motorcycle, the March 29 Bonhams (25/20/15% buyer’s premium) sale of contents from Glyn Cywarch, a Welsh home of the Lords Harlech, was one of those ‘white-glove’ sales in which auction rooms take such pride.

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The other flying Richthofen revealed in photos

10 April 2017

A famous military name always in demand at auction is Richthofen. However, the two lots sold at Dickins Auctioneers (19.5% buyer’s premium plus VAT) on March 31 related not to the Red Baron of Great War fame, but to his cousin, Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen (1895-1945).

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Famous fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen's jester amuses at auction

10 April 2017

Hans Christian Andersen did not confine himself to the fairy tales that are his principal and lasting legacy.

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Victoria and Albert Museum to launch huge new photography centre

06 April 2017

Photograph research and study will be boosted by the expansion of the Victoria and Albert Museum's vast collection of historic and contemporary images.

Calculations go into orbit

05 April 2017

Calculations and notes predicting the orbit of what at the time was a newly discovered and very large asteroid, Juno, brought a bid of £7000 at Bonhams (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on March 1.

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Biographies of females famous and forgotten

05 April 2017

Filling much of a full-page advertisement in ATG No 2284 for the Pierre Bergé/Sotheby’s (24/20.5/17% buyer’s premium) sale in Paris on April 26 of books and manuscripts from the library of Jean A Bonna was the star turn – a stunning copy of Galileo’s Discorsi et Dimostrazioni matematiche of 1638.

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Remainer makes his own Brexit to the Netherlands

05 April 2017

Some people who voted Remain at the EU Referendum last year have been dismayed at the Brexit outcome and have dreaded the triggering of Article 50, formally notifying the EU of the UK’s intention to withdraw.

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Couple of nice little learners

05 April 2017

London sale offers ground-breaking grammatical studies from 16th and 17th centuries.

Jon Gilbert

ILAB calls for entries to prestigious bibliography prize

03 April 2017

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) has put out a call for entrants to the 2018 ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography.

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And then there were two Brothers Karamazov

01 April 2017

“Very rare, most extant copies behind institutional walls,” said Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of a first English language version of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.

Robert Owen’s mills at New Lanark

Scottish model for a new society – Robert Owen’s pioneering work offered at Dominic Winter auction

30 March 2017

A copy of a pioneering work that has been described as “the first practical statement of socialist doctrine”, Robert Owen’s ‘A New View of Society...,’ of 1813-14, will be a major attraction in a Dominic Winter sale next month.

Battle of Culloden letter

Battle of Culloden letter 1746 to be contested at Stroud auction

29 March 2017

While relations between the English/Unionist and the Scottish powers-that-be are not exactly cordial at the moment, hopefully it will not lead to battle. If a referendum is indeed held to decide the fate of the union, a ballot rather than the bullet should be sufficient.

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Bonhams’ double 0 heaven

25 March 2017

A crease that runs around the lower part of the dust jacket detracts somewhat from the appeal of a first impression copy of the first of Ian Fleming’s Bond books, Casino Royale of 1953, but it sold for £16,000 in a March 1 sale held by Bonhams (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ for Aristophil

25 March 2017

The legal impasse surrounding the restitution of thousands of historical documents and manuscripts from the scandal-hit Aristophil investment scheme was finally broken last week.

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Shark’s Italian takeaway

25 March 2017

Possibly the first printed reference to a ‘Great White’ shark attack is found in a four-page pamphlet, printed in Naples in 1721, from which the woodcut shown here is taken.

illuminated Gospels

10th century Gospels return to Germany at $3m

25 March 2017

Following a deal between the German state and specialist manuscripts dealer Les Enluminures, this 10th century illuminated Gospels created at Liesborn Abbey will return to Westphalia.

Critics get an icy reception

25 March 2017

Crymogaea sive rerum Islandicarum… is a very rare history of Iceland by Arngrimur Jónsson, a scholar and teacher also known as Arngrimur the Learned.

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