Books and Works on Paper

In 1902 the author Booker T Washington sent a typed and handwritten letter to the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie regarding his recently published work.

Though around 30% of the 150 lots remained unsold, no fewer than eight of those offered in a held by Christie’s (15/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) in London brought six-figure bids.

On offer at the Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs sale held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on September 28 is an anti-slavery broadside: 'The Sorrows of Yamba, or, the Negro Woman’s Lamentation. To the Tune of Hosier’s Ghost'.

Sold online for a record $20,000 (£16,340) at the former Butterfields, now Bonhams Los Angeles (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) salerooms as part of the David Lloyd collection of modern literature was a 1909 first edition of Frank L Baum’s 'The Road to Oz'.

Sold at $440,000 (£371,000), the most expensive lot in a three-day auction at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) was a logbook kept on the B29 Superfortress bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.

Sold at Bonhams Skinner (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) was a 1584 first edition of Reginald Scot’s 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft….'

An early 19th century child’s mosaic alphabet, c.1820, is estimated at £100- 200 at Catherine Southon’s auction at Farleigh Court on November 16.

The ‘property of a lady’, this concertina-style wallet book by Beatrix Potter, 'The Story of Miss Moppet', is a first edition published by Frederick Warne & Co, London & New York, 1906.

'Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge' is a Christie’s auction from September 7-21 celebrating editions created in the 21st century by ‘leading artists and sought after new talents’.

Thomas Dangerfield (c.1650-85) was a notorious thief, counterfeiter, highwayman and conspirator who is chiefly remembered for his role in falsely accusing British Roman Catholics as part of the ‘Popish Plot’ of 1678.

Gorringe’s book sale on October 11 in Lewes includes part 1 of the ‘vast selection’ of British topographical works from the library of Dr Brian Austen.

'Catspaws off the Land and Parting with the Tug' are a pair of drypoint etchings by Staithes Group artist Frank Henry Mason (1875-1965), signed in pencil with Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamps, Nos 7 and 8.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Bellmans is holding a special book and manuscript auction as part of the October sales series, on October 11, with the majority of books coming from one collection.

Assembled over five decades by private collector Martin Burtt, The Glaisdale Agricultural Library on offer at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants on September 30 includes volumes by the great agricultural writers of the 16th to 19th centuries.

Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland is holding The Comics Auction on September 28-29.

The October 13 sale of Early Printed Books at Swann Auction Galleries in New York will feature part two of the library of Ken Rapoport: English literature, tales of chivalry from the Renaissance, and more Shakespeare, Chaucer, Cervantes, Donne, and others.

On October 12 Gloucestershire saleroom Dominic Winter is offering a first English edition of Picasso: Toreros by Jaime Sabartés, London & Monte Carlo: Anton Zwemmer & André Sauret, 1961, estimated at £1000-1500.

Books related to Polar explorers are among the highlights of Bonhams’ Travel & Exploration sale on September 20.

This copy of 'Hansel and Gretel', 1925, with 12 tipped-in colour plates by the Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886-1957), is one of 600 numbered copies (numbered 16) signed by the artist, in the original publisher’s pictorial cloth.