Books & Periodicals

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

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

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.

Letter highlights early fossil fan Mary Anning who is soon to be the subject of a film.

MADAM – The auction report (issue 2459, page 22) highlighting the sale of two Napoleonic documents at Sotheby’s is most interesting when you consider the two very different characters they were addressed to.

Future president’s 'How to Get Rich' is a curious feature of a bumper summer sales week

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 29-October 10, 2020.

Bid to £1.35m at Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) this summer, as part of a ‘Classic Week’ evening sale of paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture and decorative arts of all ages, was a lavishly illustrated Book of Hours attributed to the Master of the Monypenny Breviary and associates.

An English translation of a Dutch 16th century sea atlas was among the standout sales at the recent online edition of Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair.

Inscribed copies of the works of Dodie Smith were among the attractions of a summer sale held by Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium) of Chichester.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 22-October 9, 2020.

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.

A cache of material related to the influential Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) and her family sold for close to £50,000 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 15-26, 2020.

Napoleon’s view after first meeting on St Helena did not improve on closer acquaintance

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.