Features

ATG meets Jeffrey Johnson, whose collection of classic ‘Whodunnits’ was recently on public display at the Grolier Club in New York

London dealership AntikBar brings a major collection of pieces relating to Intourist, the 20th century USSR travel company, to 'Firsts London' book fair.

Small books have long been objects of wonder. The history of tiny type can be traced back to the smallest cuneiform clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia or the diminutive papyrus codices treasured by Christians in Roman Egypt.

The first ‘Thumb Bibles’, paraphrased or abridged versions of the good book, were published in the early 17th century – the London printer John Weever offering his 128- page An Agnus Dei, measuring just over 1in, in 1601.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Georgian period carried not only prayer books and bibles, but also books of poems and the annual miniature almanacs containing practical information on everything from the phases of the moon to the currency exchange rates of Europe.

When James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) arrived in Paris in 1855 determined to pursue a career as an artist, printmaking was experiencing a revival.

While the market-defining sales of Asian works of art are now held in New York and Hong Kong, the UK still holds its own.

It was a piece of modern design that led Kinghams’ (25/18/15% buyer’s premium) latest dedicated sale of silver and objects of vertu.

This early 20th century 10in (25cm) long sporran impressed in Edinburgh at Franklin Browns (18% buyer’s premium).

Until late last year, few people involved in the Modern British art market, even veteran dealers, had ever heard of Hedwig Pillitz (1896-1987).

A highlight of Anderson & Garland’s (25% buyer’s premium) recent silver sale was a particularly early and rare North Country seal top spoon.

A table bell was among the more sought-after lots in a dedicated 200-plus lot silver sale held by Roseberys (26/25/20% buyer’s premium) on March 20.

A substantial piece of Edwardian silver which has served both as a wine cistern and a racing trophy was the most expensive piece of silver in Tennants’ (24/20% buyer’s premium) dedicated auction of jewellery, watches and silver.

London auction shows the collecting appeal and opportunities for silver produced beyond Europe

These two pieces share a common Aesthetic-movement style and a link to the influential and avant-garde designer Christopher Dresser

The astrolabe was used for not only telling the time, but mapping one’s location, tracking the stars, and even as an astrological tool for decision-making.

Austin Farahar, head of cameras and photography at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium), was recently contacted by a budding documentary photographer in Vienna who had received a collection of old cameras from his in-laws.

Knowledgeable bidders generated high prices for early typewriters at German technology specialist’s latest sale

This aristocratic survivor from the ‘brass and glass’ era of microscope making, a version of Powell & Lealand’s famous ‘No 1’ compound monocular and binocular microscope, is dated 1898.

Although easily mistaken for railway or ship lamps, this pair of brass and iron lanterns were made for a road locomotive: the steam-driven traction engines that were some of the first powered vehicles to travel on Britain’s highways.