Auctioneers

Typewriters on which famous books came into existence have featured on these pages before, but not for some time – and certainly not machines of a kind that that continue to be used by their owner to this day.

The diverse collection of Jeffrey M Kaplan is making various appearances under the hammer this spring.

A crease that runs around the lower part of the dust jacket detracts somewhat from the appeal of a first impression copy of the first of Ian Fleming’s Bond books, Casino Royale of 1953, but it sold for £16,000 in a March 1 sale held by Bonhams (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

Possibly the first printed reference to a ‘Great White’ shark attack is found in a four-page pamphlet, printed in Naples in 1721, from which the woodcut shown here is taken.

Dealers and fairs are embracing the ‘mix it up’ approach to offering a wide range of styles and eras, as noted in our BADA fair preview (ATG No 2282).

With BBC Radio 4 currently offering a season of programmes focusing on the Red Planet in fact and fiction, a couple of books from the Edgar Rice Burroughs series of Martian fantasies that made high prices in a recent US sale are an appropriate choice for these reports.

Rare painting by 19th century American artist achieves record price at Bonhams

A Chinese Kangxi period triple gourd vase that once belonged to the financier JP Morgan will feature as one of the highlights in Heritage Auctions’ inaugural Asian Art sale in Dallas on April 2.

Crymogaea sive rerum Islandicarum… is a very rare history of Iceland by Arngrimur Jónsson, a scholar and teacher also known as Arngrimur the Learned.

Among the picture highlights of Peter Wilson’s (24% buyer’s premium) Fine Art Sale on March 2 in Nantwich was a coastal sunset scene by prolific Birkenhead artist Samuel John Lamorna Birch (1869-1955).

A lithograph of David Roberts’ (1796-1864) lost painting The siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans under the command of Titus took top honours at Staffordshire auction house Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) on March 2-3.

A coin sold in the Dix Noonan Webb (20% buyer’s premium) auction on March 15 is a poignant reminder of the mysterious death of the Princes in the Tower.

Furniture takes a rare top spot despite numerous and varied delights at Dorchester auction

The £810,000 wucai fish at Fellows’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Birmingham on February 27 (ATG No 2282) overshadowed everything else on offer but there were a number of other areas of interest among the 1250 lots.