Latest News Articles by Ian McKay
Elizabethan intrigues, invasion and execution
22 July 2019Beneath the famous anchor and dolphin device that denotes a product of the Aldine presses in Venice, the final leaf of a 1516 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses below bears an inscription that reveals the reason this little work in its later vellum binding sold at £6000.
Cosmographical delight and colossal crustaceans
22 July 2019Top lot in a June 6 sale of maps, natural history and other colour plate books held in New York was a rare map by Lewis Evans of what were then still the ‘Middle British Colonies’ in America.
Mao as master of calligraphy underlined by 1940s letter
22 July 2019No record exists of any signed, autograph letter in the hand of Mao Zedong being previously sold on the international market, said Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) of the example it offered as part of a June 11 sale of manuscripts, Continental books and music.
Bloch hammers down at $80,000
22 July 2019The Hammerhead shark plate shown below is not as colourful as many of the other 432 featured in a generally fine and complete copy of Marcus Elieser Bloch’s Ichthyologie… sold recently, but certainly one of the more eye-catching.
British and Irish book auctions: July 23-August 3, 2019
22 July 2019Our listing of British and Irish book auctions taking place from July 23-August 3, 2019.
Colin Dexter's Quinn takes top spot
15 July 2019A Colin Dexter first brought one of the higher bids at Keys (20% buyer’s premium) of Aylsham in its June 13-14 sale.
Fancied fillies and fancy embroidery
15 July 2019An 1841 guide to London’s ladies of the night sold by Hansons for £3300 featured recently in ATG (No 2390), and one of the many rarities that emerged from the recent Gloucestershire sale of the late Martin Orsky’s library was a group of four 18th century broadsides advertising prostitutes.
British and Irish book auctions: July 16-27, 2019
15 July 2019Our listing of British and Irish book auctions taking place from July 16-27, 2019.
Ulysses makes latest epic price
15 July 2019Stand-out lot in a recent Irish sale was one of the 100 special copies of Ulysses printed on Dutch handmade paper by Van Gelder that James Joyce signed on publication in Paris in 1922.
Emmeline Pankhurst biography by her daughter sold at Forum Auctions
15 July 2019For three years now Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) has, in addition to its high-profile auctions, been holding fortnightly, online-only timed sales that in their diverse content, it feels, act as a useful bellwether for the book world at large.
Rare and often forgotten books by little-known authors can nonetheless shine at auction
08 July 2019Two recent auctions offered a number of 18th and 19th century English novels by authors unfamiliar to many readers but who are nevertheless in demand through their rare surviving works.
Hirschfeld steps into the saleroom
08 July 2019Works produced in the 1940s by Al Hirschfeld figured prominently among the higher priced lots at a June 4 Illustration Art sale held in New York.
A to Zee guide to the maritime world
08 July 2019A complete set of the Metellus 'Speculum orbis terrae' publications that featured in ATG No 2399 was not the only lot to record a six-figure result in the June 5, King Street sale of the Mopelia collection of atlases and travel books.
Howzat? Cricket book at £6400
08 July 2019Disbound, but complete and still in the original covers, an 1830 first of William North’s Correct Account of all the Cricket Matches Played by the Nottingham Old Cricket Club from 1771 to 1829 came into bat in a recent Staffordshire sale with an estimate of just £50-100, but went on to score £6400 online via thesaleroom.com.
British and Irish book auctions: July 9-19, 2019
08 July 2019ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 9-19, 2019.
15th century maths book merits own catalogue and sells for $1m in New York auction
01 July 2019Published in Venice in November 1494, a copy of Luca Pacioli’s 'Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proporzioni et proporzionalità…' offered in a recent US sale was granted the rare privilege in the book auction world of having a catalogue all of its own.
Metellus maps out a sale success
01 July 2019Beyond the Horizon was the title given to the remarkable Mopelia collection of atlases and travel books offered in a June 5 sale in London.
Hamburg sale is a books best
01 July 2019Running up a total of over €2m on 600 lots, a smaller number than usual, the May 27 sale held by Ketterer Kunst (23/21% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg produced the book department’s best-ever results.
Tintin meets Egyptian queen
01 July 2019A rare signed ink and gouache image in which Tintin carves a makeshift propellor to replace that damaged by a forced landing of his aeroplane in the Soviet Union sold for $900,000 (£708,660) in a June 8-9 sale of European comic artworks held in the US.
British and Irish book auctions: July 2-13, 2019
01 July 2019Our listing of British and Irish book auctions taking place from July 2-13.