Books and Works on Paper

An 1859 first of Darwin’s seminal work shrugs off condition issues to be a best-seller

Estimated at £200-300 in a Kent sale, a military commission that bears the signature of King George III and is additionally signed and endorsed by William Pitt the Elder, Britain’s prime minister at the time of the Seven Years War, sold online instead for £7500.

Principal attraction in a Crewkerne book sale at Lawrences (25% buyers premium) was the Browning family archive that featured as Pick of the Week in ATG No 2459, but three other items from that 370 lot sale are noted here.

‘Miseries of Travelling’ is one of the 50 hand-coloured plates that make up an 1808 first edition of Thomas Rowlandson’s 'Miseries of Human Life' – in this instance “Unpacking up your clothes for a journey because your servant is a fool…”.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions. While care has been taken in compiling these previews, we strongly advise that you also check with the saleroom concerned in case of cancellations or postponements because of the latest Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions.

Two very different lots were bid to $22,000 (£17,325) each in a sale of printed and manuscript Americana held in New York.

A selection of children’s books and annuals offered recently by British Bespoke Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) included among the comics a great many bound volumes of Dandy, but the star turn was always going to be 'The New Adventures of Rupert' shown here.

One of two near identical artworks that Frank Frazetta made in 1970 for the dust jacket of a Doubleday re-issue of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars has sold in a Dallas auction for $1m (£781,250).

Richard Sheaf, 44, is a collector and daily blogger on British comics.

Highlights from wide-ranging auctions held on consecutive days

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Spider-Man has made a couple of successful appearances in recent UK sales.

Shown here are two of the higher-priced lots from a timed online Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) sale.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Over 50 lots, many of them multiples, offered in a sale held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) featured the works of Bram Stoker.

A 1776 first of Adam Smith’s '…Wealth of Nations' sold in a New York summer sale bore an understandably irritated inscription by the man to whom it had been gifted by its author.

Highly influential three-volume set on maths takes a record £90,000 sum in London

One of two book sales held by Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) presented a single-owner collection billed as The Library of Greek Bibliophile.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.