Dealers

Deborah Coltham specialises in rare books, manuscripts and ephemera relating to science and medicine. She is an exhibitor at 'Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair' (June 7-9).

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

Two rackets rackets (no, you aren’t seeing double) are on offer at the exhibition '#7 – It’s a Magic Number', organised by Cotswolds dealers Manfred Schotten and Christopher Clarke Antiques.

On a sunny day in the beautiful surroundings of the Palladian Buxted Park Hotel in East Sussex, fair organiser Caroline and her husband Ricardo Penman celebrated their golden wedding and 75th birthdays.

Oscar Graf, the French specialist in 19th decorative art, opens a gallery in London this summer.

The Great Hall in the privately owned 18th century Grade I-listed Crowcombe Court in the Quantock Hills, west Somerset, near Taunton, is an intricately decorated room which makes it an ideal setting for many events.

'Grand Fourmilier' (1906), a large bronze sculpture of a giant anteater, is distinctive among a collection of bronze sculptures by Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916) offered at a Sladmore Gallery exhibition.

One of the last oil paintings by Scottish artist William McTaggart (1835-1910) is on offer in a show of highlights at The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh.

For the first time this year, the four fairs that make London a destination for bibliophiles in June will be held side-by-side across the space of just four days. ATG looks at the personality of each event.

After more than two centuries of collecting history, the market is once again changing how it evaluates – and values – rare books by women. Bonhams’ head of books Matthew Haley reports...

Just being old is no longer enough. True, most of the collectable maps that change hands in the market are of some considerable age. Many were printed by hand using techniques which changed little between the 1470s and 1830s. Tim Bryars reports...

Old cookery books are more than simply receptacles of food history. They speak of technological change, the availability and discovery of ingredients that came with the expansion of the known world and how the social standing of the cook or chef changed over time. They are also very much in collecting vogue.

A trio of exhibitors at London’s rare book fair 'Firsts' ponder the market, their motivations – plus flooded shops and heavy metal.

A selection of highlights that dealers are taking to upcoming fairs.

Bookings are significantly up this year for the Fawley Decorative Fair which is held on the Fawley Hill estate near Henley-on-Thames and runs from Friday to Sunday, May 31-June 2.

A collection of rediscovered drawings by the 19th century artist Elizabeth Frances Batty (1791-1875) feature at Bloomsbury gallery Abbott and Holder this month.