Auction News Archive

20.12.09. Wotton Auction Rooms on December 30th is the only remaining date for 2009, so it seems an appropriate moment to wish you a happy Christmas, and sign off. We have more dates than ever before in next year's diary, which is a very good way to start the New Year. Better reporting and more detail are the objectives for 2010, and I will make a start on January 2nd.  Add a comment

16.12.09. There's little book auction news at this time of year, and anything relating to the new year will be found here.  Add a comment

10.12.09. A rare comic book featuring Ian Fleming's James Bond dating back to the 1960s has sold in a London auction ... more  Add a comment

10.12.09. A Simpsons fan from Aberfoyle has sold his rare original script of a 1990 episode of the popular cartoon ... more   Add a comment

27.11.09. A naval logbook detailing the first glimpse of the Bounty mutineers on a remote Pacific island sold for £40,000 at auction ... more  Add a comment

25.11.09. A first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, which was kept in a toilet in Oxfordshire, has sold for £103,250 ... more  Add a comment

24.11.09. Chorley’s forthcoming sale on Thursday, 10th December 2009 at 10.30am includes a number of books of local interest. Most famous of these are the Histories of Gloucestershire by Sir Robert Atkyns (1647-1711) and Samuel Rudder (1726-1801) ... more  Add a comment

16.11.09. The family of the actor Denholm Elliott is auctioning an archive of his memorabilia including a book of Shakespeare’s plays sent to him at a prisoner of war camp in Germany during the Second World War. The sale is at Christie's on November 24th ... more  Add a comment

11.10.09. Beatles memorabilia given to schoolgirl fan fetches £2,200 ... more And a rare Jacobean manuscript found in an old trunk stored in a castle attic sold at auction yesterday for £84,000 ... more  Add a comment

10.11.09. The November 18th Bloomsbury Auctions Bibliophile Sale at Godalming, will once again be tempting literary James Bond collectors with another set of first edition 007 novels penned by Ian Fleming ... more  Add a comment

29.10.09. A rare Jacobean manuscript of a play about women's liberation, which was found in a trunk at a castle, is expected to fetch £90,000 at Bonhams auction on November 10th ... more  Add a comment

26.10.09. The first road atlas of its kind in western Europe, a 17th century book showing a highway network in England and Wales of just 73 roads, is to be sold for up to £9,000 at Cheffins on on October 29th ... more  Add a comment

22.10.09. The Cotswold Auction Company is holding their final Books and Collectables sale of the year on 27th October at the Chapel Walk Saleroom. The first printing of Charles Dickens ‘Martin Chuzzlewitt’ in its original wrappered parts is likely to attract considerable interest, and is estimated at £600 - £900.  Add a comment

20.10.09. I'm sure many of my generation who were involved in radical politics in the 60s will find much to interest them in Bloomsbury Auctions Mao and the Arts of New China sale on November 5th.  Apart from the posters, what caught my eye were the various editions of Mao's Little Red Book, including the first Hebrew edition.  Add a comment

15.10.09. I'm pleased to say that we have already received some auctioneers dates for the 2010 diary. Many dealers and collectors are starting to plan buying trips now, so I would urge all those who can, to let us have next year's dates as soon as possible.  Add a comment

08.10.09. A highlight amongst the first editions at Bloomsbury Auctions on October 15th will be a jacketed first edition of The Great Gatsby. Described as having library stamps, partly erased ink numbers on title, new endpapers, and being recased with a repair to foot of spine. The first state dust-jacket is in two fragments with most of upper panel intact but trimmed down and the lower panel cut down to the text block. It also lacks the backstrip and flaps. Despite its condition the estimate is £4,500 to £5,000.  Add a comment

04.10.09. 04.10.09. Rehousing aged mother in Stroud and hope things will be back to normal by midweek. She's much better, thanks for asking.   Add a comment

28.09.09. Distant mother hospitalised again so out of office until the end of the week.  Add a comment

18.09.09. An important collection of letters from Lawrence of Arabia has been discovered after they were thought to have been burned on a fire. They will be sold by Duke's auction house in Dorchester on October 1st ... more  Add a comment

15.09.09. Leading regional auctioneers Dreweatts have formed a strategic alliance with London antiquarian book specialists Bloomsbury Auctions ... more  Add a comment

12.09.09. Railtons in Alnwick are holding their first specialist book sale on September 19th, and the catalogue is now online.  Add a comment

02.09.09. On September 16th Bonhams is to auction one of the most significant items of memorabilia from the Edwardian era of Antarctic exploration to come on the market for 20 years: Edward Wilson's 40-page handwritten account of the 1911 journey.  Add a comment

29.08.09. My mother has been rushed into hospital 130 miles away, so no news or updates until I can get back to the office.  Add a comment

21.08.09. I'm out of the office between August 22nd and the 31st, so no news or updates until then.  Add a comment

20.08.09. A collection of unpublished letters written by members of the Bloomsbury Group is expected to fetch up to £80,000 when they are sold by Gorringes Auctioneers in Lewes, East Sussex, on 3 September .... more  Add a comment

18.08.09. An extraordinary hoard of rare rugby and football programmes collected by a Welsh sports enthusiast were yesterday described by experts as a “once-in-a-lifetime” find. The complete collection will go under the hammer at Dreweatts Auction Rooms, Bristol, on Tuesday, August 25th .... more  Add a comment

13.08.09. One of sport’s rarest books is to go under the hammer next week. The golfing tome is widely expected to fetch more than £30,000 at Bonhams in Edinburgh on August 20th. The Goff; An Heroi- Comical Poem was first published in 1743 and was written by Thomas Mathison, a Scots legal writer. The book was the world’s first publication to be devoted entirely to just one game.... more  Add a comment

06.08.09. The Bible used by Robert Burns in his last few weeks of life is set to go up for auction on August 20th at Bonhams in Edinburgh ... more  Add a comment

27.07.09. An extremely rare copy of Mein Kampf, signed by author Adolf Hitler and dedicated to a fellow inmate at Landsberg prison, is being sold at auction. Auctioneers Mullock's will sell it at Ludlow Racecourse on August 13th where it is expected to reach in excess of £20,000 ... more  Add a comment

20.07.09. A plastic disc-shaped star chart used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on their 1969 Apollo 11 moonwalk fetched $218,000 at a Bonhams auction in New York. The navigational chart, estimated to fetch up to $90,000 at yesterday's sale, was bought by Stephan Loewentheil, a Maryland-based rare-book dealer who collects Apollo artifacts. "It's been to the moon and made it back with the boys," said Loewentheil ... more  Add a comment

06.07.09. The original manuscript of one of the world's best-known songs could fetch £50,000 when it goes under the hammer at Bonhams' 10th annual Made In Scotland Sale in Edinburgh, which will run from August 18-21 ... more  Add a comment

29.06.09. A rare collection of newspapers and memorabilia chronicling the history of Cumbria and the Lake District has raised thousands of pounds at auction ... more  Add a comment

29.06.09. Sotheby’s London sale of Western Manuscripts on Tuesday 7th July 2009 has a combined total sale estimate of £3 million and will include the sale of Medieval Illuminated Miniatures from the Collection of the Late Eric Korner ... more  Add a comment

26.06.09. Millionaire financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild is demanding that an auction house who unwittingly sold dozens of stolen rare volumes should be brought to book ... more  Add a comment

24.06.09. A Sgt Pepper souvenir poster bearing the signatures of all four Beatles has sold for $52,500 (£31,720) at a pop memorabilia auction in New York. Among an array of 300 musical items that went under the hammer were a set of Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics, which made $25,000 (£15,090 ... more  Add a comment

15.06.09. Simon Chorley's Art & Antiques sales usually contain at least a few books of interest. The auction to be held on June 25th is no exception and contains 27 book lots, including Calvert's The Isle of Wight Illustrated, with aquatinted plates by P Roberts. It carries an estimate of £150 - 200.  Add a comment

29.05.09. I'm out of the office until 11.06.09, so no news or updates until then.  Add a comment

26.05.09. I know it's online rather than live but the Compal Comic Book Auctions remain one of the best ways of finding scarce comics and annuals in exceptional condition. The Summer 2009 auction is open and will run until Tuesday June 9th. The British contingent includes Beano propaganda war issues from 1944, a well-loved Dandy Comic No 1.  Add a comment

13.05.09. Ellwood Auctions are holding their first sale in Salisbury Guildhall on Monday May 19th. There will also be a small associated book fair and it's hoped that their buyers and sellers commission of only 10% will prove attractive.  Add a comment

01.05.09. A letter written by William Wordsworth in which he gave advice to fellow poet Robert Southey has sold for £8,825 ... more  Add a comment

30.04.09. A first edition, first issue of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection has been sold at auction in Norfolk for £35,000. And A signed photograph of Darwin sold for £22,000 at the same auction ... more  Add a comment

28.04.09. The largest privately owned collection of books, manuscripts and pictures associated with Samuel Johnson and the 18th-century “Bluestocking” circle of writers is to be sold in New York next week. The nearly 500 lots are estimated to fetch £1 million. But while the life and works of these writers, from Fanny Burney to Jane Austen, are well known, less is known about Paula Peyraud, the quiet librarian from Chappaqua, New York, who obsessively assembled this collection for more than 30 years ... more  Add a comment

20.04.09. Original sketches for the Harry Potter books are to be displayed and put up for sale at the Glasgow Art Fair. The early drafts by artist Cliff Wright are expected to fetch five-figure sums when they go under the hammer in the next week. Mr Wright illustrated the book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ... more  Add a comment

11.04.09. Join Sotheby's experts and Jack Lunzer, custodian of the Valmadonna Trust Library, for an intimate tour of this fabled collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts. The library, currently offered for private sale, was exhibited for the first time in its entirety at Sotheby's New York in February ... more  Add a comment

01.04.09. A series of hand painted botanical colour drawings have been discovered in a rare 18th century book hidden in an old trunk. The book is to be sold by Charterhouse Auctioneers in Sherborne and is expected to fetch £2,500 ... more  Add a comment

28.03.09. Bookdealers are turning auctioneers and fair organisers in a bid to generate new income ... more  Add a comment

26.03.09. The score to Alfred Hitchcock's horror movie Psycho, failed to be sold recently, Bonhams auction house said. The 20-page work has been withdrawn from a sale after it failed to make its minimum price of £30,000 ... more  Add a comment

23.03.09. A first edition, first issue of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is up for auction in Norfolk ... more  Add a comment

18.03.09. The writing desk on which Agatha Christie wrote some of her greatest work is to be sold. It will form part of a lot of Christie belongings going under the hammer at an auction in Cambridge next week ... more  Add a comment

12.03.09. Rare letters written by George Orwell, including missives to his secret lover, are to go on sale for the first time ... more  Add a comment

09.03.09. A seminal document from 18th-century Canadian history -- the long-lost, hand-written journal of William Coats, one of the early British explorers of Hudson Bay -- has come to light under mysterious circumstances and will be auctioned later this month in London ... more  Add a comment

04.03.09. The heart-stopping score to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," including the screeching music to the film's famous shower scene, is being put up for sale by Bonhams ... more  Add a comment

03.03.09. A rare 17th-century book of advice to landowners – including how to punish their workers – is to go under the hammer this month at a Derby auction ... more   Add a comment

24.02.09. An autographed thank you note from Beatle Paul McCartney and other stars fetched £2,000 at an auction on Saturday ... more  Add a comment

23.02.09. The Spring 2009 auction at Compalcomics is now open and runs until March 10th. Super-heros abound but the star of show is Sub-Mariner Comics #1 from 1941. The UK section includes a strong collection of war years comics from DC Thomson, good runs of early bound volumes of other classic comics, and original artwork.  Add a comment

18.02.09. Hundreds of old and rare books which paint a picture of the fascinating history of Bradford are to go on sale ... more  Add a comment

17.02.09. Die hard music fans are going to have to get their chequebooks out if they want to grab a piece of Beatlemania at the Wessex Auction Rooms on February 21st ... more  Add a comment

13.02.09. A collection of Victorian Valentine’s cards will be put up for auction later this month. Love will be in the air at Chippenham Auction Rooms on the Ivy Lane Industrial Estate on February 28, when the cards are due to be sold. Some of the cards are worth in the region of £60-£80 ... more  Add a comment

06.02.09. Book prices at auction tumbled sharply in 2008, as the collectible book market fell victim to the steep economic recession. While sales prices, as opposed to listing prices, tend to be obscure for want of a clear, visible record, AE tracked over 220,000 books and related items at auction last year for its AE Bibliographic Database. Those numbers reveal that the median price at auction dropped over $100, from $486 to $384, a decline of 21% ... more  Add a comment

03.02.09. A Dublin restaurant manager has found a 70-year-old signed copy of John F Kennedy’s Harvard thesis, worth up to €5,000, in a box of old books he bought for €8 at an auction ... more  Add a comment

31.01.09. A rare medical book dating back almost 300 years is set to go under the hammer in Lichfield. The pocket-sized book, which was printed in 1712, was unearthed at an antiques valuation day in Kings Bromley, and is expected to attract international interest at auction next month ... more  Add a comment

26.01.09. Gloucestershire County Council is giving specialist collectors the chance to buy spare and unused books and texts that are gathering dust in the county’s libraries ... more  Add a comment

22.01.09. Bloomsbury Actions have announced the death of David Stagg, one of the three founding members of the company in 1983 ... more  Add a comment

20.01.09. A letter by Charles Darwin in which he rails against stupid questions being asked by "half the fools throughout Europe" has been sold in Somerset.It was predicted to make about £2,000 at an auction at Lawrences in Crewkerne but actually sold for £3,800 ... more  Add a comment

07.01.09. Books illustrated by artist Marc Chagall are expected to fetch £300,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions on January 29th ... more  Add a comment

01.01.09.  Welcome the the 2009 Book Auction Diary. Nothing much in it beyond January I'm afraid -- but we will be adding dates just as soon as they are made available by the auctioneers.
    The good news is that at next year end we should be able to give you a much better idea of of what's in store, at least for the first quarter.  Add a comment

News from 2008