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A letter from Ernest Shackleton to a supporter, written from South Georgia on the eve of his final departure on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, was offered at Charles Miller’s (24% buyer’s premium) latest Maritime and Scientific Models, Instruments & Art sale.

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.

Letters and postcard written by Antarctic expedition members were sent to New Zealand host family

Dickinson holds its first exhibition in the field with Renaissance artists going under the spotlight

ATG takes a whistlestop tour of the globe via the greatest recent collection of colour plate travel and costume books

Our regular listing of books and works on paper sales

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over-estimate and the top prices paid online.

A rare lobby card for The Mummy was brought to life at an auction in Los Angeles

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.

Two quite different pieces of glass designed by Dino Martens (1894-1970) led the April 23 sale at Aste di Antiquariato Boetto (25% buyer’s premium) in Genoa.

Our selection of lots from nine upcoming auctions

Former premises rescued as unholy messes are proving ideal for new use as atmospheric settings for antiques shops

The sale at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) on April 18 included an outstanding Russian icon and oklad by Orest Kurlyukov.

A highlight of Apollo Art Auctions’ (20% buyer’s premium) April 27-28 sale was a trio of Egyptian sandstone reliefs from the Amarna period, the 17-year reign of the radical pharaoh Amenhotep IV known as Akhenaten.

A selection of stand-out lots coming up at a variety of auctions

Current collecting taste means that Old Master paintings exploring the darker side of the human character can often find more admirers than more typical subject matter of Georgian gentleman or European landscapes. Works of the grotesque are particularly popular.

A collection of Nelson commemoratives amassed over 30 years includes pieces once owned by the man himself

A classic of the large blue and white forms of Yuan dynasty porcelain comes to auction in Spain

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.