Auction News Archive

19.12.06. Sorry for the delay, but we will have a provisional Auction Diary for 2007 up on January 1st. The new database we will be using means that next year there will be no year end hiatus and dates for the following year will be available as soon as they are announced. Not that I expect the diary to be anything but sparse, as most auctioneers are still rather slow in confirming dates for the coming year. Add a comment

02.12.06. Bloomsbury Auctions General Book Sale on December 4th has an interesting collection covering bibliography and book production, mostly from the stock/library of the late Peter Stockham. It includes works on book collecting, bookbinding, paper making, printing history and publishing. It is followed by their Printed Books Sale on December 14th, which has a large collection of W.E Johns’ Biggles titles from the early The Cruise of the Condor through to The Dark Intruder and Mossyface. Add a comment

22.11.06. Neales Fine Art Auctioneers have a 64 lot book section in their sale on Monday the 27th of November. It's part of a one day speciality Gallery Sale which along with books, includes pictures and collectable items.
Lots of note include: a Winston Churchill signed book and letter. An early 17th century Robert Barker Bible and a Archangelo Corelle early music score. Private press publications including a scarce Strawberry Hill title. Antiquarian and leather bindings, travel and topography, 19th century English county maps nad some modern 1st editions. There's a Scarce early motoring title, some Tichbourne Trial ephemera, and a signed G E Studdy title. Sets of 19th century classics bound in tan calf gilt, including Byron, Waverley novels, Pope and Shakespeare. Add a comment

12.10.06. At Sheffield based auctioneers ELR four Bond titles have gone under the hammer for UK record prices, to the same private collector. Casino Royale fetched £12,000, Live and Let Die £7,200, Moonraker £3,800, and Diamonds are Forever £1,900. All 13 volumes were sold for a total of £28,000 ... more Add a comment

04.10.06. Alan Cussons is auctioning a collection of books from a deceased estate at the Half Moon Hotel, West Street, Alford, Lincolnshire, on October 21st. To be sold without reserve, for further details ring 07778 861 415, or email for a catalogue. Add a comment

21.09.06. A highlight in the English Literature section of Bloomsbury Auctions Printed Books sale on October 5th, is The Works of the English Poets with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical by Samuel Johnson. This 75 volume collection from 1790 is estimated to achieve £4,000-5,000.
The same auctioneer's Travel, Topography, Natural History and Science sale on October 18th will feature a 1782 copy of Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce by Marie Gabriel Choiseul-Gouffier, estimated at £4,000-6,000. Add a comment

19.09.06. Simon Chorley Art & Antiques (formerly BK) are holding a sale of art reference books from a private library, on September 28th, at The Tithe Barn, near Cheltenham. Add a comment

11.09.06. The Charterhouse saleroom's Antiques, Collectors' Items & Clocks sale on September 22nd has an interesting lot of Antarctic ephemera. Lot 417 is described as:"A Quantity of Memorabilia, relating to the Discovery Antarctic expedition of 1901, and the 1921 Quest expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton, assembled by Petty Officer J W Dell, an engineer on both expeditions. The collection includes letters from Captain Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Dr Edward Wilson, photographs of Discovery and her crew, and agreements between Sir Ernest Shackleton and Petty Officer Dell regarding employment on the Quest expedition. Estimate £600 - 1000. (Thanks to Clive Keeble) Add a comment
Clive reports that this lot made ten times the bottom estimate (£6,000) and that the other Antartic lots did extremely well. - TBG.

02.09.06. Summer's end always seems to be a quiet time for auctions containing books - but I have to confess that we have not yet persuaded enough provincial auctioneers to notify us of sales that might be of interest to book collectors.
Part of the problem is that the smaller auctioneers often have little notice of the content of their next sale. However, the new book auction database - which we're currently working on - will make it a great deal easier to keep in regular contact with auctioneers and should produce much improved results later in the autumn.
The new database will also mean that you will be able to search much more precisely by region, town or sale content. It should also enable me to give you more timely news of up-coming lots. Add a comment

15.08.06. Bloomsbury Auctions sale of Printed Books on August 24 includes books on Wales, Africa and America together with multiple lots from all corners of the globe. Highlights include a first edition Tibet Advis Certain, D’Une Plus Ample Descouverte du Royaume de Catai which includes a letter by the French Jesuit François Godin, reporting the apparent discovery of Cathay estimated to reach £1000-1500. Add a comment

05.08.06. On the 17th of August the Malvern Saleroom are auctioning the Allardyce Nicoll Collection of antique & modern theatre related books. Add a comment

12.08.06. Neales Speciality Gallery Sale in Nottingham on Monday 14th of August includes a large collection of A and C Black Colour series topographical books, including some of the rarer titles. Add a comment

20.07.06. An exceptionally rare book illustrated by Lakeland author Beatrix Potter has been sold for £18,000 at Sotheby’s – three times the expected price. Fewer than ten copies of the book, A Happy Pair by Frederic Weatherly are thought to still be in existence… more Add a comment

15.07.06. A first edition of James Joyce's masterpiece 'Ulysses' sold at auction at Sotheby's on Thursday for £30,000, far below the guide price of between £36,000 and £50,000 … more Add a comment

15.07.06. The most important book in English literature was sold on Thursday at Sotheby's for £2,808,000. The successful bid for a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio of plays was made by Simon Finch, a London book dealer based in Mayfair … more Add a comment

08.07.06. David Roberts travelled through the Middle East in the 1830s when such journeys were virtually unknown, sketching as he went. He published his work, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, in six immense, folio-sized volumes. Three of these volumes, covering the Holy Land and the surrounding area, bound in two magnificent books, will be auctioned at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on Tuesday ... more Add a comment

01.07.06. Under an extraordinary deal championed by the mayor of Atlanta, the papers of the late Martin Luther King have been saved from the auctioneer's gavel ... more Add a comment

30.06.06. Recurrent computer problems have kept us occupied for the past few days and it's possible we may have mislaid some email. If you have emailed us and not received a response, please do contact us again. Apologies for any inconvenience. Add a comment

16.06.06. A rare, "striking" and detailed letter in which Charles Darwin defends his theory of natural selection will go for auction next month at Sotheby's in London … more Add a comment

16.06.06. Lot 206 in the Natural History section of Dominic Winters sale on June 21st caught my eye. It's an album of Dried Algae, containing approximately 100 leaves, all identified in ms. and bound in the original green calf. Dating from 1904, the estimate is £150 - £200. Add a comment

08.06.06. Derweatt Neate's sale of Pictures & Books on June 14th includes some interesting ephemera. One particularly poignant item is a South Carolina slave receipt dated 1860, for the sale of twenty four slaves for fifteen thousand and seven hundred dollars. The estimate is £150 -200. They also offering GK Chesterton's The Man Who Knew Too Much is in a dustwrapper described as spine chipped ( £2,000 -2,5000) and The Secret of Father Brown in a chipped wrapper with a short tear in the rear panel, £700 - 900. Add a comment

02.06.06. On June 15 Bloomsbury Auctions are offering as lot 456, a very good copy of the fifth [first Stowe] edition of The Workes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Dating from 1561, this rare and important edition is illustrated with series of wonderful Caxton woodcuts. The estimate is £8000 to £12000. Add a comment

02.06.06. Holloways Auctioneers will be selling a matched pair of 12 inch diameter celestial and terrestrial library table globes by J. & W. and G. & J. Cary of London, at their Banbury Auction Rooms on June 6th. The sale also includes a number of book and ephemera lots. Add a comment

19.05.06. Compalcomics Summer auction is now open for preview. The 413 lots of comics and comic book art includes a very special 2000AD Prog 1, signed to the front cover by five of its now-famous artists, as well as original Oor Wullie and The Broons artwork. Add a comment

19.05.06. Tring Market Auctions sale on May 26th has several postcards signed by H G Wells and Bernard Shaw to actress and suffragist, Sime Seruya. Add a comment

18.05.06. The long-lost diary of a Bradford soldier which details a 118-day siege during the Boer War is expected to fetch hundreds of pounds at auction this week ... more Add a comment

18.05.06. A sixty year-old railway poster emblazoned with the words 'Royal Border Bridge, Berwick on Tweed' is expected to fetch up to £1200 in London today, Thursday.
The poster, produced for British Railways in or around 1946 is particularly valuable because it is by one of Britain's greatest steam train artists,Terence Cuneo, whose oil paintings now sometimes sell for tens of thousands of pounds ... more Add a comment

We received a complaint from Donald Shorrock about late payment for books sold in Y Gelli Book Auctions February sale. When I spoke to Michael Bowers the saleroom owner, he told me that payment had originally been delayed because of a disputed lot. However, because of the time it has taken him to deal with the matter, Mr. Shorrock would now be paid immediately.
The date of Y Gelli's May sale has been rescheduled from the 12th to the 19th. Michael Bowers has also asked me to point out that (despite what I was told by someone in his office) no date has been set for his retirement from the business. Add a comment

A postcard from a passenger on the Titanic to a relative in Cheshire is expected to fetch £6,000 at auction on April 29th ... more Add a comment

BK are auctioning the bookshop stock of Alan & Joan Tucker on April 27th. Add a comment

Film posters up for auction at Dominic Winter had mixed success when they went under the hammer. Among them was a film poster of the Beatles film Help! It sold for £480 and was the most successful out of all the movie memorabilia … more Add a comment

*After seventeen years, Y Gelli Book Auctions in Hay on Wye will hold it's last auction on May 12th. A decline in the quality of material that the saleroom is able to attract, coupled with the decreasing number of collectors attending the sales, are the reasons given for it's closure. *Michael Bowers has asked me to point out that (despite what I was told by someone in his office) no date has been set for his retirement from the business. He has also changed the date of his May sale from the 12th to the 19th. Add a comment

Of particular interest at Bloomsbury's Illustrated Books sale on 27th April is a presentation copy of The Nursery “Alice” inscribed by Lewis Carroll and dated March 25th, 1890 which is estimated to realise £2750-3250 and a signed copy of AA Milne’s Now We Are Six (1927) estimated at £750-1000. Other familiar names include a large collection of Hans Christian Andersen works, some of which were used for the recent Andersen exhibition at the British Library. Add a comment

David Campbell was at Bonham's Bond Street saleroom on Tuesday 28th. 'At approx lot 144, a suit just popped up to announce that the Hooke Folio has been withdrawn from sale having been bought, finally, by the Royal Society. No price was mentioned. The Hooke Folio was to have been lot no. 189 so it was a case of " just in time". A ripple of applause resounded through the saleroom.
'The suit's announcement went on to apologise to the many people in the room (not that many actually ) who had come a long way to see the folio being sold and who would now be dissapointed.
According to yesterday's Times it was sold for GBP 1 million but I cannot confirm that.'. Add a comment

The Royal Society is trying to block the auction of a 17th-century manuscript that charts the beginning of modern science. Britain's premier scientific academy believes the 520-page document, by the scientist Robert Hooke, may have been stolen from its archives 300 years ago. But the decision to try to block the sale, due on Tuesday, has infuriated the auctioneer Bonhams, which has accused the society of duplicity … more Add a comment

Tring Market Auctions have a few books in their Fine Arts Sale on March 24th. Only seven lots but the signed, limited edition of Edmund Dulac's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam might be worth checking out. Add a comment

A copy of Aurora Australis, published by Ernest Shackleton while he was in the Antarctic has been found in stables in Northumberland. It is to be offered with a reserve of £10000-18000 in Anderson & Garland's Fine Art Sale, in Newcastle upon Tyne on March 22nd.
The explorer is understood to have produced about 100 copies at his Antarctic base in 1908, were it was bound in leather-backed venesta packing-case boards stencilled "MARMALADE". Add a comment

A letter from Beatrix Potter to a young fan apologising for the quality of one of her books is expected to fetch up to £2,500. It will be auctioned by Hampton and Littlewood in Exeter on March 15th, in their 400 lot Antiquarian Book Sale ... more Add a comment

Bonhams are selling the library of the late Eric Quayle on March 14 th and April 4th, at their salerooms in Oxford. A renowned collector, Quayle was also a prolific author of books about books. His collection of R.M. Ballantyne, in manuscript and printed editions, was complemented by extensive collections of Victorian and Edwardian literature, many in characteristicly decorative cloth bindings.

Knights start the first of their quarterly Sporting Memorabilia auctions, with Cricket on February 18th and Football & Sporting Memorabilia on the 19th.

Bloomsbury Auctions' Erotica sale on February 9th could truly be said to cater for most tastes ... unless of course, you happen to be a prude.

Dominic Winter's first sale to be held at Mallard House, South Cerney, is Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera, on February 1st.

Bloomsbury will finnish a bookless month with a sale of Vintage Fountain Pens on December 21st.The sale will include all the major names from the golden age of writing, as well as many new and limited edition pens that are complete with original gift boxes and would make perfect unusual presents for Christmas.

It's always a pleasure to receive Van Sabben's Poster Auction catalogues and the one for their December 4th sale doesn't disappoint. Amongst the 898 posters is one of Annie Leibovitz's picture of John and Yoko nude, taken on the day he was murdered.

Christie's South Kensington are offering the Nicholas Falletta Collection of Lewis Carroll Books and Manuscripts on November 30th. Lots of lovely things for those with deep pockets.

On 24th and 25th November Bloomsbury will be selling Continental & English Literature, History and Other Antiquarian Books and Modern First Editions.

Dreweatt Neate have a Laurel & Hardy postcard bearing the signatures for both Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, in their Collectors & Decorative Arts sale on November 17th.

Bloomsbury's sale 19th & 20th Century Photographs on November 14th includes several gelatin silver prints by Fay Godwin. Signed and dated on the print and the overmount, they are expected to fetch £200 -£300 each.

Durrants are predicting £250 to £350 for what they describe as, an "extremely rare" pair of ticket stubbs to Charles Dickens final public reading, which they will sell on 28th October.

Bloomsbury's sale on Thursday 27th October includes "one of the finest collections of books illustrated by Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham to be sold in recent years". The 57 volumes are almost all the de luxe issues, signed by the artists and bound in vellum. They are also offering offering over 200 lots of Private Press titles and a large collection of works by Cecil Aldin.

A rare sketch of the West Yorkshire poet Ted Hughes, drawn by his wife Sylvia Plath in 1957, has been bought by the National Portrait Gallery...more Add a comment

Biblion are holding a charity auction of modern children's books, modern first editions & general books on October 7th. It includes original Cat in the Hat artwork, drawn in black and red felt-tip on white card, with the legend Best Wishes! Dr Seuss. The estimate is £2500 - £3500.

Bloomsbury's map auction on 13th October will offer 400 maps, including a Korean atlas from the early nineteenth century and a defective copy of Martini's Novus Atlas Sinensis, with an estimate of £6000 - £8000.

On October 5th Woolley & Wallis are offering a set of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, first edition, 3 vols, original cloth, dust-wrappers, some tears and nicks. Estimate: £4000 - £5000.

A book of cartoons lampooning Adolf Hitler which were commended by the dictator have sold at auction for more than £200. Meanwhile, a lock of hair belonging to the Duke of Wellington along with a picture of him sold for £1,380 in a telephone bid from a private collector...more Add a comment

An extraordinary and tender series of letters from T. S. Eliot to his godson, Tom Faber, will be sold by the Faber publishing family this autumn.
Bonhams will auction the private and largely unpublished correspondence with inscribed first editions of the poet's work on Tuesday 20th September at 101 New Bond Street...more

On 8th September Bloomsbury Auctions will sell the John Sandler Library; which covers the whole Napoleonic era including his campaigns across Europe in particular the battles of Jema, Austerlitz, Eylau and, of course, Waterloo. Add a comment

A book containing a collection of newspaper and magazine cartoons lampooning Adolf Hitler is to go under the hammer on August 23rd...more Add a comment

A handwritten manuscript of the Beatles' hit song, "All You Need Is Love," has sold for over $1 million at an auction in London. John Lennon used the song sheet during the Beatles' last live television appearance in 1967. Film of the performance shows the manuscript falling to the floor as the group finished playing...more Add a comment

This autumn, Sotheby's in London will auction the first half of a collection of about 700 atlases containing 60,000 maps from the 15th through 20th centuries, valued at £5 million. ...more

A major collection of John Lennon memorabilia, including an oil painting from his student days and a handwritten All You Need Is Love manuscript, will go on sale in London on July 28th...more

Tring Market Auctions sale on 22nd July includes a handful of titles of Hertfordshire interest.

Lyon & Turnbull's biannual booksale on July 12th will include antiquarian books, maps, manuscripts, photographs and prints. Highlight of the auction is the Codex Stosch, a unique sketch book dating from the 1520’s, found in the library of a stately home in Northumberland. The book or Codex is made up of a series of architectural drawings of Roman temples and monuments and was last recorded in the 18th century in the library of Baron Philip de Stosch.

The map responsible for giving America its name sold at Christie's on Wednesday for £545,600, or $1,002,26, a world record price for any single sheet map at auction. The printed map by Martin Waldseemuller, produced in 1507, is truly groundbreaking...more

This year Tennants Summer Book Sale on June 14th features over 190 lots of antiquarian books, maps and printed material.

On June 10th Bloomsbury Auctions are selling The Ornithological Library of the late S. Dillon Ripley, which includes volume 8 of the first octavo edition of Audobon's Birds of America (£8,000 - £9,000).

One of the highlights of Christie's sale on June 8th is St.Jerome, Book of Hours Illuminated manuscript on vellum, Southern Netherlands c.1510 (£25,000-35,000).

Tennants on June 4th have collection of Rolling Stones memorabilia, formed by an obsessive fan from West Yorkshire.

Shapes auction on June 4th includes a collection of 18th & 19th century architectural books.

Compalcomics May auction runs until Tuesday May 31st. The 353 lots include a Dandy No 1, Radio Fun 1-12, original artwork by Frank Hampson and Dudley Watkins, Fantastic Four, Hulk and Tales Of Suspense first and early issues.

If posters are your thing, them Van Sabben's 25th Anniversary Poster Auction won't disappoint. To be held on May 25th, it includes 871(mostly European) posters, covering every form of human activity. Cassandre is well represented and his poster for Philips Television, is particularly striking. If you can't make it to Hoorn in the Netherlands, the full colour catalogue, which illustrates every lot, will make phone bidding a breeze.

On Thursday May 12th, Dominic Winter are selling the John Huntley Cinema Archive, which includes cinema posters, lobby cards and campaign books. Lot 3 is a favorite of mine, the poster for the Ealing classic - The Man in the White Suit.

On 20th & 21st April Bloomsbury Auctions will be holding a Children’s and Illustrated Books sale containing almost 1200 lots. A highlight for me will be significant collections of Whittington Press, Pear Tree Press and an almost complete collection of the Gogmagog Press titles. A Curwen Press collection includes works illustrated by Albert Rutherston, Barnett Freedman, Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious.

Hampton & Littlewood's Antiquarian Book Sale on March 25th includes a number of photographic lots and a collection of postcard albums, many of local interest. There are several Exeter albums which contain real photographs of the Great Fire of 1910, the construction of the tramway and a couple of traffic accidents. A highlight of the sale is an album of 33 albumen prints entitled 'Views of Delhi' by Felice Beato, with an estimate of £3,500 - £6,000.The books are various, ranging from art reference to modern firsts and natural history.

Arguably, the highlight of Bloomsbury Auctions Travel and Natural History sale on March 10th is a collection of Darwiniana. This includes a first edition, presentation copy of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection “….the most important biological book ever written” (Freeman) which is expected to realise £20,000-30,000. They also have an apparently unpublished photograph of Charles Darwin by his son, Cpt. Leonard Darwin. Darwin’s biographer, Prof. Janet Browne, suggests that this undated picture was taken in 1876 (£2000-2500).

Fine Books & Collections magazine has released its annual ranking of the top-selling rare books and manuscripts of 2004 at auction houses worldwide. The results: known as the "Fine Books 50," will be featured in the March/April 2005 edition of the magazine.
The full list of 296 books and manuscripts that sold for more than $100,000 will be available on the magazine's web site on March 1, 2005...more

Christie's New York is preparing to offer up a collection of rare documents and publications that trace the origins of computers and the Internet...more Add a comment.

A signed photograph of Adolf Hitler due to be offered at auction by Mullock Madeley was withdrawn following a complaint about the insensitivity of selling such material less than a week after Holocaust Memorial Day...more Add a comment.

The first account of the battle that turned Napoleon into a national hero has been rescued from a skip during a house clearance and will be auctioned by Mullock Madeley, in Ludlow on February 2nd....more Add a comment.

An early account of the mutiny onboard HMS Bounty is expected to raise over £5,000, when it's auctioned by Lyon and Turnbull on February 1st...more Add a comment.

"Golf in the Year 2000 or What We Are Coming To", originally valued at £200, was sold by Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull to an American collector. "It took us a bit by surprise" said golf specialist Rachel Doerr, "the worldwide publicity encouraged interest from America, Japan and Australia"...more Add a comment.

He was a Scottish professional golfer in the 19th century but he predicted bullet trains, driverless golf carts, televisions and digital watches. Now the little-known book, "Golf in the Year 2000 or What Are We Coming To" by McCullogh under the pseudonym J.A.C.K is up for auction...more Add a comment.

November saw world record prices at Bloomsbury Auctions, for two inscribed first edition Ian Fleming novels. ‘From Russia, With Love’ made £22,750 and ‘Dr. No’ reached £19,450. The collection of letters Fleming wrote to Geoffrey Boothroyd – the inspiration for ‘Q’ – also made a staggering £44,750.
Amongst the highlights in their final book sale of the year on December 14th, is a complete set of The Fleuron: A Journal of Typography. This is the extremely rare deluxe limited edition on hand-made paper containing additional material and signed by one of the editors, (£1500-2000). View the catalogue. Add a comment.

A poignant photograph of a sturdy Edwardian boy, who would provide the inspiration for Peter Pan but would die himself in an apparent suicide pact at 20, will be a star item in the auction of archives of remarkable Peter Pan material...more Add a comment.

An autographed copy of the classic poem that begins with the familiar line "'Twas the night before Christmas" will be auctioned at Sotheby's this holiday season.
The handwritten manuscript, signed by author Clement Clarke Moore, is one of just four known autographed copies. It is expected to sell for between $200,000 and $300,000 when auctioned on Dec. 3...more Add a comment.

A letter written by Ruth Ellis two months before she became the last woman to be hanged in Britain is expected to sell for £500, it emerged today....more Add a comment.

A Classic book on fly fishing, which was once part of a library owned by the Manchester Angling Association, has been sold for a record price at an auction. The book, The Natural Trout Fly And Its Imitation, by Leonard West, sold for £16,450 at Bonhams in Honiton, Devon...more Add a comment.

A book by Lord Alfred Douglas demonising Oscar Wilde, his former lover, that was never published because it also libelled the Prime Minister of the day will be sold at auction this month...more

A 15th Century copy of fables by Aesop, the mythical pre-Christian story-teller, is to go under the hammer at a Wiltshire auction house...more

New York - A newly discovered handwritten letter and short story by Ernest Hemingway will be auctioned in December, but custodians of his estate have not granted permission for the works to be published...more

The latest chapter in the life of William Tyndale has been played out in a Norfolk auction house, with a rare 16th century copy of his translation of the New Testament fetching £10,250, more than 20 times its estimate of £500...more

A rare edition of The Dandy comic book has been sold for a record £20,350 according to the auctioneers who handled the sale...more

Last week, Christie's formally announced the appointment of Philippe Garner as its international head of photographs and 20th-century decorative arts.
His departure from the troubled New York-based auction house Phillips, de Pury & Co had been widely rumoured and follows a similar defection by photographs expert Joshua Holdeman in June...more

Three volumes of an influential poem owned by Scotland’s most famous poet Robert Burns failed to sell at auction today, despite auctioneers having had high hopes of achieving a good four-figure sum for the lot...more

A Lord of the Rings book found at the bottom of a box in a charity shop raised nearly £500 for Cancer Research when it was auctioned...more

A rare natural history book called Birds of Australia, written by John Gould and illustrated by his wife Elizabeth, is to go on sale at an auction of rare horticultural and zoological books at Bonhams auctioneers on July 15th...more

An erotic letter sent by author James Joyce to his wife has fetched a record £240,800 at auction in London...more

A family photo album including a picture of Pooh author AA Milne's son Christopher Robin fetched £3,500 at auction on Thursday July 8th...more

Sotheby's describes the Macclesfield Psalter as "the most important discovery of any English illuminated manuscript in living memory" and expects it to fetch between £800,000 and £1.2 million...more

What would the famously practical Katharine Hepburn, a thrifty, no-nonsense New Englander to her core, have thought about someone plunking down $10,200 for an outdoor plant stand she never even stood a plant on, or $10,800 for a pair of well -worn address books, filled with the names and phone numbers of people long departed from this world? ...more

The British Library has ensured that a significant corpus of the papers of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - creator of the most famous of literary detectives, Sherlock Holmes - will remain in the public domain for access by scholars and researchers and the general public...more

A lost collection of personal papers belonging to Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sold for £948,546 at auction on Wednesday...more.
Concern over Conan Doyle sale...more

Timed to arrive in bookstores as the important spring auctions get under way this week, "The Art of the Steal" by Christopher Mason recounts the scandal that rocked the art world four years ago and that Sotheby's and Christie's would prefer to forget: how the longtime auction rivals colluded to fix prices...more

A lost collection of personal papers of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which have gone on view at Christie's in London ahead of an auction on 19 May, offer a fascinating glimpse into the life of the Sherlock Holmes creator...more

Alamo Documents Offered at Auction. The collection includes a nine-line handwritten note from David Crockett dated April 14th, 1834. The note, addressed to a lady, wishes her "the happiness and pleasures of the world agreeable to her expectation a lady's of her sterling worth merits"....more

Auction of James Joyce's love letter. A pulsating gusset-ripper letter from James Joyce to his lover, Nora Barnacle, has been discovered tucked into a book among an almost painfully personal collection of relics linked to the author...more

A rare copy of William Shakespeare's Hamlet has failed to sell at an auction in New York...more

The earliest surviving love letter written by Dylan Thomas to his future wife fetched more than £12,000...more

To buy or not to buy? Serious, and wealthy, Shakespeare fans will have a rare opportunity April 14, when Christie's New York auctions a third-quarto edition of Shakespeare's "Hamlet...more

The British Library is urging a halt to the planned sale of 3,000 personal papers of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in May by auction house Christie's in London, until a dispute over the papers' true owners -- one of whom may be the Toronto Public Library -- has been resolved...more

The first Beano comic has been sold for a record price of £12,100 after “enormously fierce” bidding, an auction house said...more

A fierce and foul-mouthed tirade by Ernest Hemingway against his literary rivals has surfaced after nearly 80 years and is expected to fetch up to £30,000 at auction...more

Lost personal papers belonging to Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been found. The collection, valued at about £2m, will go on display at Christie's auction house in May before being sold...more

Followers of literary fashion and risk-loving investors will do well to look at the Modern First Edition section of Bloomsbury Book Auctions' latest catalogue...more

Compalcomics auction runs until Tuesday March 16th at 8 PM UK time, and features a Beano No 1 from 1938 and some rare original artwork by Dudley Watkins and Jimmy Crichton.

Images of Winston Churchill which were believed to have been lost are set for auction after being rescued from a rubbish bin. The 70-page photo album, of some 150 black-and-white images, lays out Churchill’s time in Lord Asquith’s Liberal government between 1908 to 1915, when he was first lord of the admiralty. Many of them have not been published for more than 90 years...more

A letter sent from the Titantic realised £13,000 at Tennants Auctioneers, Leyburn today (25.02.04) in their Spring Book Sale. The informative four page letter written on the special White Star Line RMS Titanic notepaper was complete with its envelope, and was dated Wednesday 10 April 1912. It will now be displayed in a Pub/Restaurant in Dublin.

Biblion has announced that starting in April they will be holding the first of a series of regular book auctions. Their seller's commission will be 5% of hammer price, and the Buyer's 9.5%
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