Features

Thomas Dangerfield (c.1650-85) was a notorious thief, counterfeiter, highwayman and conspirator who is chiefly remembered for his role in falsely accusing British Roman Catholics as part of the ‘Popish Plot’ of 1678.

Gorringe’s book sale on October 11 in Lewes includes part 1 of the ‘vast selection’ of British topographical works from the library of Dr Brian Austen.

'Catspaws off the Land and Parting with the Tug' are a pair of drypoint etchings by Staithes Group artist Frank Henry Mason (1875-1965), signed in pencil with Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamps, Nos 7 and 8.

Bellmans is holding a special book and manuscript auction as part of the October sales series, on October 11, with the majority of books coming from one collection.

Away from London, some exceptional coin sales coming up in Europe include a number of outstanding British issues.

Assembled over five decades by private collector Martin Burtt, The Glaisdale Agricultural Library on offer at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants on September 30 includes volumes by the great agricultural writers of the 16th to 19th centuries.

Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland is holding The Comics Auction on September 28-29.

The October 13 sale of Early Printed Books at Swann Auction Galleries in New York will feature part two of the library of Ken Rapoport: English literature, tales of chivalry from the Renaissance, and more Shakespeare, Chaucer, Cervantes, Donne, and others.

On October 12 Gloucestershire saleroom Dominic Winter is offering a first English edition of Picasso: Toreros by Jaime Sabartés, London & Monte Carlo: Anton Zwemmer & André Sauret, 1961, estimated at £1000-1500.

The Royal Medal for Astronomy is presented each year by the Royal Society for distinguished contributions to the applied sciences.

Books related to Polar explorers are among the highlights of Bonhams’ Travel & Exploration sale on September 20.

Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Achaemenid empire delivered into his hands a vast wealth.

This copy of 'Hansel and Gretel', 1925, with 12 tipped-in colour plates by the Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886-1957), is one of 600 numbered copies (numbered 16) signed by the artist, in the original publisher’s pictorial cloth.

The Books & Autographs auction at Koller in Zurich on September 21 features the greatest work by artist and naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian on the insects and fauna of Surinam, estimated at SwFr120,000-160,000.

Catalogued as a ‘very good, complete copy in original condition of the first really modern scientific book published in England’, a 1600 first edition (Peter Short) of De Magnete by William Gilbert is estimated at £10,000-15,000 in Forum Auction’s Fine Books, Manuscripts & Works on Paper sale in London on September 29.

Estimated at £3000-4000, this 9½ x 12in (24 x 30.5cm) albumen print by Julia Margaret Cameron of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is offered in the Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photography auction on September 15 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

The Premier Sale held by St James’s Auctions on September 22 includes this gold half guinea token with a ‘phoenix from the flames’ motif made for Wilson and Younge of Sheffield in 1812.

Although an auction house since 1918, stamps specialist Harmers is a relative newcomer to the London numismatic sales.

'Hortus sanitatis' (Gart der Gesundheit, Augsburg 1485), considered among the most important early works of natural history and one of the first scientific incunabula in a vernacular language, is on offer at Munich saleroom Ketterer Kunst on November 28.

Freeman’s September 21 Books and Manuscripts auction, in Pennsylvania is led by an ‘extremely rare’ first edition of 'New Englands First Fruits' (estimate $20,000-30,000), a 1643 account of Puritan evangelisation in New England.