Books and Works on Paper

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from March 11-31, 2020.

Very much the surprise of an online sale held by Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) was a lot presenting incomplete fragments of 'An Almanacke and Prognosticatyon'… for the year 1552.

An unexpected star turn of a recent Norfolk sale was a job lot of works from the library of the late Ron Fiske of Morningthorpe Manor, an East Anglian collector whose books a Norfolk auction house first started dispersing a few years years ago.

List of deaths is timely reminder that outbreaks are nothing new

Said to date from the 12th-14th century, an incomplete and dampstained Middle Eastern medical manuscript sold for £70,000 at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) on February 22.

Shown below is a plate from A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates… sold at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) on February 19

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Early-17th century Lithuanian plan sold alongside companion Dnieper river details

A momentous letter of July 6, 1776, in which President of Congress John Hancock announced the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, was the most expensive lot in a printed and manuscript Americana sale on January 27.

An eyewitness account of the trial of two elderly widows on charges of witchcraft proved one of the more successful lots in a truly Out of the Ordinary sale held in Essex on February 11.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Modestly estimated at just £100-150 in a recent Carlisle sale, an 18th century manuscript notebook offering ‘An Account of the Improvements in the Gardens & Park at Cannonhall’ proved a major attraction.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Featuring one historiated initial depicting a priest blessing the marriage of a couple who stand before him, a medieval guide to marital problems and resolutions made £32,000 online at Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

Two broadsides describing and illustrating with wood engravings the executions of convicted murderers were sold online at £1600 apiece by Forum.

Comics played a significant part in a recent held by Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium) of Cockermouth, undoubtedly helped by the presence of some 30,000 Marvel comics from one private collection.

Sold for £4600 in a February 6 sale held in the Chichester salerooms of Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium) was an album of cut-paper work produced by Elizabeth Cobbold c.1810-20.

Star turn among some 120 lots of playing cards offered as part of a Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) sale was the last to be offered. A complete set of Charles Hodges’ Astronomical Playing Cards, it sold online for £3000.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Publisher tried to link book to the poet to boost sales but a revised version was issued instead