Books and Works on Paper

Remarkably well-preserved 1818 Frankenstein and 1897 Dracula firsts impress in New York

Incorporating 40 coloured litho plates, a copy of The Last Works of Henri Matisse, a folio collection of 1958 issued by Harcourt Brace of New York, led a sale held by Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) of Washington in West Sussex at £2600.

A menu celebrating a landmark in British aviation – the first flight from London to Brighton, accomplished in 1911 – sold for £750 at Bellmans.

Now well-established London auction house marks landmark with a wide-ranging sale

The sale of July 15 proved to be its most successful since lockdown for auction house Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Presentation copies and private press books were a key feature of a Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale.

Three very different lots brought six-figure bids at a Christie’s (25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale – and they were not the only ones to reach such impressive heights.

Author’s works were well represented in London auction that included a £24,000 surprise

Highlights of Chiswick Auctions earlier this summer

One of the more unusual lots that I have encountered in recent times is a piece of card bearing the only known example of Mahatma Gandhi’s fingerprints.

Many of the lots in a June 16 sale of books, maps and pictures held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) in Carlisle came from the collections of the late Dr George Kozikowski of Skye, a microbiologist, archaeologist and antiquarian of Polish descent.

Collection now up for sale was owned by soldier killed in Korea but kept safe by his brother

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Having secured his prize for a notably higher than estimate sum, the buyer of a ‘Fireball XLV’ artwork told Malcolm Phillips of Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) that very few artworks by its creator, Mike Noble, ever come to auction.

New York sale maintains run of high JK Rowling prices while Dr Seuss surfaces also in UK

Estimated at €50,000 but sold for €405,000 (£346,275) in a sale held in Turin by was a 1482 edition of Ptolemy’s Cosmographia.

A recent sale in New York was led at $65,000 (£47,100) by a disbound but rare example of the work of Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-95).