Books & Periodicals

The Book of Sports by Robin Carver is considered the first American publication to describe the sport of baseball.

An 18th century copy of Tikkunei Shabbat (an amalgam of Hebrew prayers and devotions for the Sabbath) sold for £57,000 to an international phone bidder at Hansons on September 5.

The PBFA (Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in style next year with two new fairs: in Bath and Tunbridge Wells.

A special selection of upcoming auction lots

The earliest book on the boy wizard continues to entrance collectors

“I get loads and loads of emails and calls all the time from people whose eyes have lit up when they see those words ‘first edition’…”

Robert Weaver, a teacher and keeper of the Fellows’ Library at Dulwich College in south London, has collected medieval manuscript fragments for close to 50 years

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions running on thesaleroom.com

While the rare book trade is steadily becoming more diverse, challenges still exist, as four newer members of the Forum Auctions team in London tell ATG

An ex-fashion buyer book lover turned bookbinder is one of the stallholders at Home and Vintage Living, organised by Jules Langley.

The membership figures for the PBFA (Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association) are looking robust with 25 new members in the past 12 months, bringing the total to around 400.

A group of four lots being sold by the family of the former foreign editor of The Daily Mail includes items relating to the first direct flight across the Atlantic as well as Malcolm Campbell’s Blue Bird 1933 land speed record.

A photo album containing 60 cabinet card photos of late 19th and early 20th century circus acts was among the highlights of an August 27 sale in Sarasota, Florida, conducted by Freedom Auction Company in conjunction with the Circus Historical Society.

A previously unrecorded 18th century manuscript containing 75 pieces of traditional Scottish music sold for £5000 at Lyon & Turnbull (plus 26% buyer’s premium).

This medieval document with a royal seal attached amounts to a pardon granted by Henry IV (1367-1413) to John Barlawe of the manor of Barlow in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy (now suburban Manchester).

Extensive selection of the long-running cricket guides on offer at auction runs up a market test

A 19th century document referencing Elias Howe Jr’s patent for the first modern sewing machine sold for more than 100 times its estimate at Devin Moisan’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Epping, New Hampshire.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

A wistful and chatty letter from Charlotte Brontë to her editor William S Williams comes for sale in California on September 7.