Books and Works on Paper

Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) recent sale in Paris of books and manuscripts was led at €125,000 (£113,635) by a Nobel Prize for Literature medal awarded in 1947, just four years before his death, to the essayist, critic, novelist and dramatist André Gide.

Harry Potter first deemed too scruffy by a public library brings a spellbinding result

An account of travels in Indian territories in the early 19th century was one of two letters of particular North American interest sold for notably higher than expected sums by Forum (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

The two most expensive lots in an online London books sale of just 100 lots could hardly have been more different.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

Originally scheduled for the end of March, an ‘African Americana’ sale planned by Swann Galleries (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) was postponed until May 7, when it was successfully sold online with almost 90% of the 400 lots finding buyers.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

Document signed by the great scientist reveals an investment skill not to the same standard.

Dating from c.1908, a “notebook of secrets from Harry Houdini’s collection” was one of the more successful lots in a very successful magic auction held by Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) with 98% of lots sold and total of around $500,000.

Long run of the comics includes very first issue introducing The Hulk, Iron Man et al

A sizeable collection of 18th and 19th century New York views, maps and maritime prints belonging to the Down Town Association, an historic private club located in Manhattan’s financial district, was the focus of a sale held by Arader Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

Literary lots in a recent Irish sale included one of a thousand signed copies of the 1922, limited-edition issue of 'The Trembling of the Veil', one of William Butler Yeats’ autobiographical works.

Bid way over estimate to sell at £1400 in a recent online sale was a 1912, Cuala Press first of WB Yeats’ 'The Green Helmet and other Poems'.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

Rare work on absolute geometry among highlights of mammoth German ‘lockdown’ sale

'The Loyalists Alphabet, an Original Effusion' was one of an additional group of 55 lots from the Birmingham Assay Office collections (see main report in ATG No 2438) that was offered as part of one of the regular online sales held by Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions (online only at present because of the Covid-19 alert).

Jeremy Carson’s passion for collecting a very appropriate sub-genre of crime fiction – bibliomysteries – led to a career as an antiquarian book dealer.

Alan Hewer of Seaford, Sussex, is a book collector who has turned a personal collection into a resource for others.

Diligently researched and documented by a local collector, the late William Toplis, a wide-ranging PG Wodehouse collection offered by Freeman’s of Philadelphia featured books, manuscripts, artwork and much more besides.