Softly
spoken, with wisps of white hair framing his bespectacled face, Peter Bellwood
looked every inch the donnish enthusiast as he requested rare and valuable maps
from the library’s collection of antiquities. However,
hidden up the sleeve of his loose-fitting knitted jumped was a sharp craft knife.
No sooner had he established his credentials of respectability - often by handing
in a £50 note which he claimed to have found on the reading room floor - than
he set to work gently razoring priceless plates from their leather bindings...
Eight
important 17th and 18th century books stolen from a German library have been recovered
with the help of a British bookseller and Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Squad...more
News WORLD 17.03.04
Rare
books detective Ken Sanders mingles happily with the crowd, if not quite inconspicuously.
His bushy beard, which stretches to his chest, sets him apart from his rather
staid-seeming colleagues...
Ronald
Jordan has been described as a latter-day Fagin. He's the man behind the biggest
book-stealing operation Britain has ever seen. But how did his very public criminal
activities go unpunished for so many years...
Stolen from Bonhams Bath
sale. Part of lot 78. Three pamphlets bound together, royal octavo, unlettered
calf binding.
i. An Appeal to the Parliament, or Sion's Plea Against the Prelacie... n.d. [1629],
xvi + 344pp. Page edge repairs to the first few leaves.
ii. The Justice
of the Present Established Law.. title + 56pp, London, 1703. 111. Killing No Murder,
briefly discussed in three questions.. 1689 reprint, iv + 27pp
Contact:
Patterson Liddle 01225 426722
Stolen UK 21.08.03
Rudder,
S. A New History of Gloucestershire 1781. Plain leather binding, no spine label,
lacks frontis of Gloucester Infirmary.
Sandby,
Paul; The Virtuosi's Museum; Containing Select Views in England, Scotland and
Ireland; G. Kearsley; London; 1778. 91 of 108 engravings of the work of Sandby
and engraved by M. A. Rooker; Sprinkled leather cover; (220mm x 270mm); Covers
worn and hinges weak. 15 plates missing with the text of 3 remaining - 2 plates
detached and cropped - 1 plate loose. Nearly all the plates are in a remarkable
good condition with no foxing or staining. A few have foxing or have darkened.
(Valued at £2800).
Adams,
George (Snr.); Micrographia Illustrata, or, The Knowledge of the Microscope Explain'd:
Together with an Account of a New Invented Universal, Single or Double, Microscope,
either of which is capable of being applied to an improved Solar Apparatus; Printed
for and sold by the Author; London; 1746. 63 folding and 2 full page engraved
plates; Leather covers (225mm x 180mm); First signature is undone (to page 9 including
introduction) with loose pages. Edges soiled. In need restoration. First 4 plates
are loose and damaged. The rest is in very good condition and tightly bound. The
contemporary leather binding is very worn with loss to head and tail of spine.
Very scarce indeed. It also includes a catalogue in the back of scientific items
made and sold by George Adams. (Valued at £2200).
