Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
British and Irish book auctions: April 11-28, 2023
10 April 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions
The last word on Samuel Johnson
03 April 2023Shrewsbury sale offered rare opportunity to bid for a letters by the great writer and lexicographer
Buyer not afraid of Virginia Woolf value
03 April 2023Complete with the often missing dust jacket and entirely unrestored, as the cataloguer’s notes were pleased to point out, a 1925 Hogarth Press first of Virginia Woolf’s famous novel Mrs Dalloway was offered as part of a March 2 sale at Swann Galleries (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of New York.
Watership Down in a special binding
03 April 2023A sale held by Martel Maides (20% buyer’s premium) of Guernsey to disperse the contents two island homes included some 60 or more single and multiple lots of books, a number of which boasted special bindings.
British and Irish book auctions: April 4-28, 2023
03 April 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions
Tolkien’s family and friends
27 March 2023Middle-Earth history works edited by Christopher and two copies of The Hobbit with interesting links
George Bernard Shaw says ‘I thought you were dead’
27 March 2023A handful of lots featuring communications between an actress, Miss Alice Bowes (1889-1969), and George Bernard Shaw featured in a Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale.
Your own Lindisfarne Gospels to treasure
27 March 2023Sold at the high-estimate £3500 at a Kent auction was a German facsimile edition of the Lindisfarne Gospels.
British and Irish book auctions: March 29-April 17, 2023
27 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions
Familiar fliers from New Naturalist but name of artist harder to place
20 March 2023The work of illustrator Robert Gillmor graces many books from a well-known natural history series
British and Irish book auctions: March 21-April 7, 2023
20 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
British and Irish book auctions: March 14-April 2, 2023
13 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
Long life down to good cooking?
13 March 2023Manuscript including recipes sold for £15,000 was written by a lady who died ‘aged around 100’
Maritime tale gains from Mark Twain inscription
13 March 2023A 1908, presentation first of one of WW Jacobs’ maritime tales, 'Salthaven', was the top lot in a sale held by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium).
Dan Dare frustrates the Mekon in full colour art
13 March 2023Full-page artworks featuring Dan Dare and the unmistakable green features of the villainous Mekon were among the most successful lots in a Comic Book Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) timed online sale of February 26.
British and Irish book auctions: March 7-17, 2023
06 March 2023Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.
DNA discovery and damnation
06 March 2023Extraordinary letter by Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist both commends and condemns a colleague
School songbook signed by Winston Churchill for Jock is on tune
06 March 2023Available from the school’s own bookshop from 1937 was a printed collection of Harrow School Songs, but it was a rather special copy that sold for £7500.
Beautiful Kelmscott work... shame about the library stamp
06 March 2023Featured in an Oxford sale was a copy of the 1893, Kelmscott Press edition of The History of Godefrey of Boloyne and of the Conquest of Jerusalem.
Time and place for Hemingway
27 February 2023Inscription signalled one of American literature’s most significant editorial relationships