Collectables

Sold online to a collector in France in a sale held by McTear’s (24% buyer’s premium) of Glasgow was a scarce copy in original boards of 'On Naval Timber and Arboriculture'.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including a copy of The Beano No 1 selling for a five-figure sum at auction.

A small collection of the works of TS Eliot offered in a Canterbury Auction Galleries (22.5% buyer’s premium) sale of August 6-7 included what appears to have been a 1943, first US printing of his 'Four Quartets'.

Nineteenth and early 20th century novelty silver continues to be one of the strengths of the collecting category.

Sixteenth century manuscript produced in a Florence monastery sells in Essex

A well-preserved and boxed version of the 1960s Japanese Masudaya Machine Man robot was the highest flyer in the Morphy Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) August 9-10 toys and collectables sale in Denver, Pennsylvania.

A substantial collection of works by just one multi-talented and enormously influential figure was presented as part of series of sales held by Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in its Macclesfield rooms.

A two-volume manuscript used to determine swan ownership in East Anglia from the 16th to the 19th century was sold by Sworders for a remarkable £54,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium).

The first Victoria Cross awarded to a civilian is coming up for auction at Noonans on September 14.

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

Copy of his first book was a later gift from Sir John Heygate to Tarka the Otter author

A volume containing first editions of two important geological works by Dr Gideon Mantell sold for £2000 in West Sussex.

Making its third appearance at auction in almost 60 years, the 34pp autograph manuscript of Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter’, a tale from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes collection of his stories that first appeared in The Strand magazine in 1893, has sold for $280,000 (£236,090) in Dallas.

A 1914 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland proved one of the principal attractions in a July 26 sale held by Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium).

Visitor numbers are likely to be swelled above the usual 1000 a day at the annual 'York National Book Fair' held at the city’s racecourse on Friday and Saturday, September 9-10.

Organised by Tricorn Fairs, the biannual Bristol Fine Antique Arms Fair returns on Sunday, September 11, at a new venue: the Aztec West Hotel and Spa.

Two sporting ‘firsts’ are being marked by lots coming up in separate auctions this month.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

The highlight of the latest maritime sale at Adam Partridge in Liverpool was a collection of 40 menus for dinners held between 1899-1919 in honour of various British and foreign dignitaries.