Books and Works on Paper

More than 130 original artworks by the artist, sometimes savage political cartoonist and stage designer, Gerald Scarfe, were offered by Sotheby’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on April 5.

Reversing the usual pattern where it is an author’s first book that makes the big money, it is the last of the 38 books featuring Richmal Crompton’s most famous children’s book creation that has for many years been one of the most expensive purchases for collectors.

Best round scores in the most recent PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) golfing sale came with the appearance of a group of the papers of golfing historian and collector CB Clapcott.

Compiled by J Wells Kelly and published in San Francisco in 1862, a rare copy of the First Directory of Nevada Territory…, which was worn, dry and splitting but in original, leather-backed printed boards, sold for $6500 (£5080) in a PBA Galleries sale of April 20.

From the earliest days a common bond has bound the antiquarian book trade together. And, more than ever, professional standards matter.

Interest in 20th century maps is growing rapidly among dealers, collectors and curators. And some are rarer than you might think, writes Tim Bryars.

ATG’s timeline chronicling the history of book dealing associations from 1906 to 2016…

A selection of forthcoming UK and international auction highlights.

A hundred or so years ago, a group of booksellers gathered in London for their debut exhibition, with a catalogue that boasted no fewer than 15 original William Caxton books.

From Arthur Rackham to Gerald Scarfe, there is a burgeoning market for original illustration art of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Literary anniversaries are a good story to tell to potential sellers but do they bring greater interest and greater prices?

‘As London’s newest specialist auction house, our sponsorship of this ATG supplement is a very natural fit’

With prices lagging behind modern limited editions, Old Master prints may be the market’s best-kept secret...

A selection of stand-out results achieved at auctions in the UK and abroad.

The name of William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) is enshrined in the Oxford English Dictionary. Definition: “Ingeniously or ridiculously over-complicated in design or construction”.

A millennia after the technology was first used in China, the earliest printed images in Europe were created in the 14th century. Simple woodcuts intended for private devotion, they served as cheap substitutes for book illuminations. Few survive today.

A new generation of dealers, auctioneers and fair organisers is keen to show there is a thriving future for the trade.

Tom Lintern-Mole has just finished filming a video in his shop to advertise the latest book fair on YouTube.

No fewer than 840 lots were offered in the bumper April 5-6 sale held by Dominic Winter (19.5% buyer’s premium). The most successful of them, at a record £32,000, was a presentation copy of a pioneering work that has been described as “the first practical statement of socialist doctrine”, Robert Owen’s A New View of Society… of 1813-14.

A major attraction in a PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) sale of April 6 was the Samuel Hessel ‘DNA’ collection of scientific papers, journals and books.