First Edition

Chicago sale offers more than 300 works related to the British author amassed by US collectors

Actress cheated by the Prince of Wales turned to a campaign based on ‘injustice of mental subordination’

An original dust jacket made all the difference when Weiss Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) offered a first edition copy of Agatha Christie’s Dumb Witness in Lynbrook, New York.

Pictured here are two fine 19th century presentation copies that, unexpectedly, topped sales in South Cerney and Cambridge in October.

A first edition, first impression presentation of WB Yeats’ first book, Mosada (1886), was among the standout sales at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair.

Agatha Christie and Evelyn Waugh records beaten as collection of a Rolling Stone comes to auction

Christie’s sale Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone combined stardust with an extraordinary library of modern first editions.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including the book collection of the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts being offered at Christie's.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Works by the three sisters including copies published under pseudonyms come to a Cambridge auction

Two of Jane Austen’s works, both from the same Wyoming collector’s estate, were stand-out lots in a May 11 sale held in Chicago.

The best-selling lot in a recent Carlisle auction was a 1919, Collins first of Heritage, the debut novel of Vita Sackville-West, who at that time was better known for her poetry.

'A Magician Among the Spirits' by Harry Houdini conjured up one of the highest prices in the Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) Houdini-related sale in Chicago on April 8 when it sold for $15,000 (£12,095).

This copy of 'The Study of Sociology' by Herbert Spencer is a first edition from 1875 in original cloth.

The dust jacket in those familiar red, black and yellow colours favoured by the publisher, Gollancz, had a few shortcomings in terms of condition, including some chips and losses, but this ‘Just out!’ 1935 first of 'Gaudy Night', signed by its author, Dorothy L Sayers, was bid to £2100 on March 3.

Complete 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.

A 15th century first edition of a pioneering work by Johannes Gallensis surfaced at auction late last month.