Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
British and Irish book auctions, January 1-30, 2020
23 December 2019Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.
Super scientific lots in Chicago
16 December 2019Darwin and Newton impress in US auction while Adam Smith brings wealthy sums.
Marvellous ‘Windy City pedigree’ blows hot at Heritage
16 December 2019Comics and comic artwork selling at a very high level were evident in a three-day sale held recently in Dallas.
British and Irish book auctions, December 17, 2019-January 30, 2020
16 December 2019Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.
Sale serves up a moveable feast
09 December 2019Copy of only the fourth book to be printed using the new types comes to auction
Hammett hammers at joint record price
09 December 2019A fine-looking copy of the 1931, US first of The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett sold right on the low estimate at $60,000 (£46,875) at Christie’s New York (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) to match a previous auction high.
Taken Brack to basics
09 December 2019The binding of a copy of 'Vocabularis rerum' of Wenceslaus Brack sold in a recent West Sussex sale was a 19th century one and now broken, but this was in its time a very popular and much reprinted work.
Beautiful botanical volumes
09 December 2019Though the splendid but incomplete copy of Jakob Christoph Trew’s 'Hortus nitidissims… floribus' previewed in ATG No 2018 got close to the high estimate in selling at £85,000 as part of the opening, natural history section of a recent London sale, a number of other top lots failed to find buyers.
British and Irish book auctions: December 8, 2019-January 8, 2020
09 December 2019Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.
First banned book in America lambasted the joyless settlers of Massachusetts
02 December 2019A 1637 first edition of 'New English Canaan…' was one of the homegrown highlights of a sale held by Christie’s New York (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium).
18th century shipbuilding manual emerges at Charles Miller
02 December 2019Containing numerous diagrams, a manuscript manual on 18th century shipbuilding techniques and practices sold for £3600 in a recent sale.
Spanish text manuscript is emblematic of a high price
02 December 2019Possibly dating from the late 16th or early 17th century, a Spanish text manuscript version of Andrea Alciato’s 1531 'Emblemata', the first and most frequently reprinted emblem book, sold for $9000 (£7030) at Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in New York.
Whiskey ‘can cure your ailments’
02 December 2019“Try a glass of Old Bushmills whiskey, your majesty, it is the whiskey all connoisseurs drink”. Not only that, but it seems this royally promoted tipple was “… recommended by Doctors in cases of Gout and Rheumatism as the most helpful drink”.
British and Irish book auctions: December 2-12, 2019
02 December 2019Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.
Arctic sailing journey complete with sea monsters
25 November 2019Bid to £32,000 in a Gloucestershire auction was a 1599, first Latin edition of the Dutch traveller and explorer, Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Navigatio ac itinerarium…
Indian bird life lost but now found
25 November 2019Original watercolours intended for pioneering, unpublished work are now highly valued
New York and Houston outlined
25 November 2019A selection of maps of US cities from recent auctions stateside.
Photographic carte de visite portraits of Carson, Custer and ‘Our Willie’ sold in Dallas
25 November 2019Featured here are three photographic carte de visite portraits of American interest from an historical manuscripts and documents sale held in Dallas by Heritage (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium).
British and Irish book auctions: November 26-December 7, 2019
25 November 2019Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.
Licence to kill a Bond book
18 November 2019Instruction from author Fleming was thankfully not followed and first issue survives.