Collectables

Translation was first time a major poem of antiquity appeared in an English language form.

An edition of Queen Victoria’s Leaves from the Journal of our Life on the Highlands… took £550 at a Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) sale of September 23.

Bid to £3400, a 1703 first edition of Martin Martin’s Description of the Western Islands of Scotland in a later full calf binding proved the most expensive item in the 250-lot book and ephemera section that opened an October 5-7 auction at Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium).

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

An album of 19 carte de visite portrait photographs of Charles Darwin is offered in Reeman Dansie’s Fine Art auction on November 8-9.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including the football from the infamous Argentina v England match coming to auction.

Vienna antiquarian bookseller Michael Steinbach is celebrating 50 years in the business and has produced a catalogue to mark the milestone.

First and only published volume of South American work appears in London saleroom

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

Though the dust jacket featuring one of Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for the book is torn with loss and exhibits a number of patched repairs, a 1950 first edition of 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' did sell for £1100 against a guide of £500-700 on October 6 at Buckinghamshire saleroom Bourne End Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium).

Among the eye-catchers at Wendl in Rudolstadt from October 27-29 is an example of the world’s first functioning lighter.

Forty years after he began identifying Victorian rubbish heaps then digging in them, a Kent collector’s faith in the saying ‘where there’s muck there’s glass’ was vindicated when fellow enthusiasts demolished estimates on scores of his old bottles.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

Two leading book dealers have come together to jointly buy the eponymous William Reese Company and its 40,000 stock of books.

Enthusiasts who feel British enamel advertising signs are becoming overpriced may spare a thought for collectors in the US.

Christie’s sale titled Art of the Islamic & Indian Worlds on October 27 includes a magnificent flintlock jezail, c.1823-33.

Collection gathered in by a local farmer comes to auction in North Yorkshire

Illustrated here is a complete deck of James Moxon’s ‘Geometrical’ cards, each bearing figures of scientific instruments and dating from the mid-1690s.