Books & Periodicals

June and July brought a rich crop of auctions in London, around the country and overseas. A few of those sales and stand-out results have already been reported on these and the ATG news pages, but many more hammer highlights were achieved.

Two albums of 19th century watercolours and drawings produced unexpected results in summer sales.

A dispute over the ownership of a score by Sir Edward Elgar involving the BBC and the former Conservative MP David Mellor could lead to the manuscript being given to the British Library.

Comprising some 3000 books ranging in date from 1473-1840, one of the finest collections of books on agriculture ever assembled was dispersed by Forum Auctions (30/24/14.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in a July 10-11 sale that totalled £1.6m.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 25-August 15, 2018.

Estimated at £200,000-300,000, the 'Hours of Isabella d’Este' sold at £340,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures on July 10.

The original drawing of the map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s 'Hundred Acre Wood' sold for £350,000 (plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium) at Sotheby’s sale of English Literature, History, Science, Children’s Books and Illustration on July 9-10.

A copy of the posthumously published, 1633 first edition of John Donne’s Poems in a neatly rebacked but contemporary sheep binding is a desirable volume in itself.

There were two 1997, first-impression copies of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the June 21 sale held by Bonhams.

One of a collection of ornithological and other natural history works from a country house library offered in an Edinburgh sale was a scarce, complete copy of a work that created a bitter fall-out between author and illustrator.

Issued by ‘Hunt & Sons, Card Makers to His Majesty’, a ‘Great Mogul’ deck of playing cards of c.1830, the labels that seal the packaging still unbroken after all those years, featured in a recent Suffolk sale.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 17-28, 2018.