Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
Early printed book in Arabic elucidates interest at Bloomsbury Auctions
20 July 2020One of the “very earliest books printed in Arabic by means of moveable type” made £18,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).
Kenneth Grahame’s letter on the loss of his son sells in Bristol
20 July 2020A letter in which Kenneth Grahame writes about the suicide of his son, Alastair, sold at East Bristol Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) for £1200.
Geniuses score six out of 10 in test at Bonhams
20 July 2020Running to just 10 lots and held online Essential Genius: Ten Important Manuscripts for Modern Times was a Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9%) auction.
British and Irish book auctions: July 21-Aug 1, 2020
20 July 2020ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 21-Aug 1, 2020.
Texas located for the third time
13 July 2020Rare early map of the region from three years before the Alamo has another saleroom outing
Kipling first edition equals auction record thanks to author’s signature
13 July 2020The gilt decorated blue cloth binding showed signs of age, but a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s 'Captains Courageous, A Story of the Grand Banks' offered in a Philadelphia sale bore the author’s signature on the title-page.
Portrait plays second fiddle to map with famous Blaeu name
13 July 2020Bearing an estimate of just €100-150, a double-sided lot in a big Dutch sale attracted great international interest and ended up selling at €32,500 (£29,120).
British and Irish book auctions: July 14-29, 2020
13 July 2020ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 14-29, 2020.
Churchill: if looks could kill…
06 July 2020Though largely made up of books, the star turn in a US sale of 100 lots called ‘Churchill in Charge’ was a portrait by the photographer usually known simply as Karsh. The sale was inspired by the 80th anniversary of his assuming the office of Britain’s Prime Minister.
British and Irish book auctions: July 7-23, 2020
06 July 2020ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 7-23, 2020.
Album of watercolours sold for £52,000 shows view of sailors greeting friendly natives
06 July 2020Presenting some 434 lots and with a total not far short of £1m, a recent sale held by Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) included a rich enough string of successes to outshine a few of the more highly valued lots left unsold.
Winter auction goes supersize
29 June 2020South Cerney sale of nearly 900 lots mirrors the huge offerings held in Germany
British and Irish book auctions: June 30-July 17, 2020
29 June 2020Our regular listing of British and Irish book sales.
Nobel Prize and bindings combine to impress
29 June 2020Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) recent sale in Paris of books and manuscripts was led at €125,000 (£113,635) by a Nobel Prize for Literature medal awarded in 1947, just four years before his death, to the essayist, critic, novelist and dramatist André Gide.
JK Rowling's children's classic dumped in a skip, now £33,000
22 June 2020Harry Potter first deemed too scruffy by a public library brings a spellbinding result
Travel account of early US sells for many times estimate
22 June 2020An account of travels in Indian territories in the early 19th century was one of two letters of particular North American interest sold for notably higher than expected sums by Forum (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).
British voyages and a letter from Churchill star at Sotheby's
22 June 2020The two most expensive lots in an online London books sale of just 100 lots could hardly have been more different.
British and Irish book auctions: June 23-July 4, 2020
22 June 2020Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.
Photocard portraits showing faces of the struggle against slavery
15 June 2020Originally scheduled for the end of March, an ‘African Americana’ sale planned by Swann Galleries (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) was postponed until May 7, when it was successfully sold online with almost 90% of the 400 lots finding buyers.
British and Irish book auctions: June 16-26, 2020
15 June 2020Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.