Books and Works on Paper

Dated October 29, 1862, a letter that may very well have been Abraham Lincoln’s last to his over-cautious army chief, General George McClellan, provided a highlight of a recent Dallas sale of historical manuscripts.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from November 20-December 1, 2018.

A recent online sale that ran to just 35 lots and closed on October 25 offered a single-owner collection of works by the Victorian explorer and writer, Sir Richard Burton.

Sold for £1900 in a recent London sale was an 1892 first of Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency – a record for this particular work.

The very Penguin copy of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover used by Sir Laurence Byrne, the presiding judge in the famous 1960 obscenity trial, has sold for £45,000.

One of just 100 first edition copies of National Golf Links of America by Charles Blair MacDonald was the top lot in a recent US golf sale at $15,000 (£11,450).

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from November 13-23, 2018.

The last-minute discovery of a 1776 first edition of Adam Smith’s '…Wealth of Nations' was a magical, unforgettable moment for a Derbyshire saleroom’s book specialist.

The very first lot offered as part of a Harry Houdini collection in an October 20 sale held by US magic specialist Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) was a 50 cent, 1898 copy of Magic Made Easy…

Illustrated below is a spread from a 1488 edition of a popular account of travels to various parts of the world that is generally referred to as a compilation by Sir John Mandeville.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from November 6-17, 2018.

Formerly in the collections of a distinguished English bibliophile, Major John Roland Abbey, a copy of Luigi Mayer’s well-known set of Views in Egypt, Palestine and the Ottoman Empire was one of the highlights of a recent Scottish sale.

Published in 1962, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was the first book in a popular series of lupine tales by Joan Aiken (1924-2004), a prolific and prize-winning author whose specialities included the supernatural and children’s books that involved an elaborate, alternative history of Britain.

A 17th century manuscript grimoire that sold for £18,000 (featured on these pages in ATG No 2363) was very much the star turn of an October 2 sale in Sussex, but certainly not the only lot to catch the eye.

A handful of copies of Robert Morden’s 'Geography Rectified, or a Description of the World' have made a little more at auction than a 1680 copy offered in a Stacey’s (24% buyer’s premium) sale of September 10 – but all bar one of them were second or third editions of 1688 and 1693.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from October 30-November 9, 2018.

All rather slim – one in fact a single sheet broadside – the three items noted here were all part of a Bonhams New York (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of September 25 and, spanning some 80 years, all bear Boston imprints.

Rude Rowlandson print is among the highlights of Gloucestershire auction.

They may not have been the most photogenic lots in the catalogue of a recent London sale, but a couple of lots were highly attractive for their significance in the maths and measurements field.

Private Collections, an October 3 sale at Bonhams (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium), offered works of art from a number of sources and among lots from the estate of the late Victor, 3rd Viscount Churchill – a cousin of Winston – there were a few books.