Books & Periodicals

Controversial school sale of library books and manuscripts includes an Irish/Latin surprise

Presenting, as always, huge numbers of lots – some 2800 this time, an auction held by Reiss & Sohn (19% buyer’s premium) produced some notable prices.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

A significant collection of Ian Fleming’s books, typescripts and assorted autograph material raised close on £1m at Sotheby’s.

The surprise lot at Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) was one in which the principal attraction may well have been a penny broadside of 1826.

Bid to a record £1900 in a Norfolk auction was a 1905, two-volume first of 'My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions'.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book and works on paper sales.

Shown here is the opening spread of a special copy of an 1895 Dent edition of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' sold at Lyon & Turnbull (25/20% buyer’s premium).

A 1633 first edition of Christopher Marlowe’s 'The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta' was a highlight at Swann Galleries (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

Among the successful lots in a History of Science & Technology sale held by Bonhams Los Angeles (27.5/25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) was a group of five signed and inscribed offprints from periodical publications of papers and other work by the logician, mathematician and analytic philosopher, Kurt Gödel.

Americana, travel and natural history were billed as the main attractions of a sale at Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

A rare complete copy of a famous Arabic medical text sold for £30,000 in a sale of manuscripts and other works on paper from the Islamic and Near Eastern worlds.

Quaintly titled book about Great Yarmouth was one of the varied attractions in Cambridge auction.

A spate of thefts from central London shops has put the antiquarian book trade on high alert.

The latest Specialist Collectors’ Sale at Cuttlestones in Wolverhampton included a little bit of 20th century ceramics history.

Sixteenth century book-maker’s creativity makes maths and astronomy more accessible