Archives
Archive for April, 2008
35 original poems penned by William Topaz McGonagall, aka The World's Worst Poet, will go on sale at Lyon and Turnbull auctions in Edinburgh on 16th May.McGonagall was born in Edinburgh of Irish parents and gave up his job as a handloom weaver in Dundee to become a poet. Others did not value his lyricism [...]
A set of John Gould's books of bird illustrations sold for £1,252,500 at Christie's in London yesterday. The 40 volumes were largely first editions and included his celebrated The Birds of Australia. Now regarded as classics in their field, Gould compiled his series of books of bird illustrations on his extensive travels around the world.An accomplished [...]
Book collectors are a diverse bunch and the most unexpected of people can turn out to be covert bibliophiles. No such secrecy for 27 year old entrepreneur and 'The Apprentice' contestant Raef Bijayou, who openly admits his love of antiquarian book collecting on the TV series' website.Well known for his public schoolboy image, it could [...]
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, a little-known novel by about a day in the life of an English governess in the '30s, has swept the US box offices with its new film adaptation.The novel was popular in the 1940s, but has gone on to sell
far more copies after being republished by Persephone Books, which
specialises [...]
In its spring sale, Bubb Kuyper Auctions will
offer a wide collection of antiquarian and modern books and prints. Among the
approximately 120 lots of posters an outstanding and colourful group of French
art nouveau posters is on offer, featuring posters by i.a. E. Causé, J. Chéret,
H.J. Detouche, E. Grasset, J.A. Grün, A. Levy, P.H. [...]
Christie’s South Kensington is offering over 400 highlights from the library of Swedish collector Andras Gedeon, which will go on sale on the 23rd April from 2pm. Author of 'Science and Technology in Medicine: An Illustrated Account Based on Ninety-Nine Landmark Publications from Five Centuries' (2006), Gedeon's collection includes major works by Descartes, Darwin, Rutherford [...]
In the wake of Penguin's Designer Classics book series, the latest texts to get the haute couture makeover are those of the Virago Press imprint Virago Modern Classics. The trailblazing female fiction imprint has commissioned textile designers to give a new look to modern classics in celebration of their 30th anniversary this year. Orla Kiely [...]
"For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond" opens tonight at the Imperial War Museum. The first comprehensive exhibition to cover the life and works of 007's creator, it is a central part of the Ian Fleming centenary celebrations and features an 'unparalleled' blend of the literary and movie franchises ranging from Fleming's personal [...]
A mid-15th century Book of Hours set a Dutch record when it sold for €316.051 (estimate €40.000-80.000) at a Van Gendt Book Auctions in the Netherlands.This manuscript written in Latin and French, and illuminated with 11 beautiful miniatures by an unidentified master, was formerly in the possession of William Bragge (1823-1884), an English civil engineer [...]
The Paris “Salon International du Livre Ancien”, organised by the S.L.A.M., will run for its second year in the magnificent Grand Palais, from this Thursday 17 until Sunday 20.Despite
the discomfort sellers experienced last year due to the April heat
wave, which was only amplified by the glass-domed ceiling, a record
number of 156 ILAB booksellers will take [...]
A collection of fine British literary treasures will go on display at the Bodleian Library for the first time ever following a £5m donation from a publishing magnate. This is the largest single cash donation ever made to a university library in Britain, and will help finance a new hall for the Bodleian Library. The [...]
The sole surviving copy of the 15th century sacred book Sarum Missal, first published by the English printer William Caxton, is to be put on display.The book, which was bought by the National Trust for £465,000, will be displayed next year in the library of Lyme Park - the stately home in Cheshire, where it [...]
A "cheerful, fat
missionary" may not sound like the slick image of a spy as advocated by the Bond books, but it is how Baroness Daphne Park, the real face of the British Secret Service in the second half of the twentieth century, describes her appearance. A former British diplomat, she led [...]
A twenty-year correspondence between the staff of an antiquarian bookseller in London and the New York writer, Helen Hanff, is being brought to life by Cottenham Theatre Workshop. 84 Charing Cross Road, written by Hanff, was based on letters sent between herself, Frank Doel, the bookshop’s buying manager, and his staff, between 1949 and 1969.This [...]
The Paris “Salon International du Livre Ancien”, organised by the S.L.A.M., will run for its second year in the magnificent Grand Palais, from 18th to 20th April 2008. Despite the discomfort sellers experienced last year due to the April heat wave, which was only amplified by the glass-domed ceiling, a record number of 156 ILAB [...]
