Books, Maps & Manuscripts

The Book Department encompasses a broad range of collecting areas from early antiquarian books to modern first editions, which are sold alongside illustrations, private press, manuscripts, maps and atlases, early photographs, autographed letters and historic documents.

Held four times a year, the specialist Book sales incorporate both private collections and libraries, and single lots from vendors across the United Kingdom.

Notable recent sales include an album of spectacular 18^th and 19^th century botanical watercolours, including examples by George Dionysus Ehret and Ferdinand Bauer, which sold for £170,000. A very rare 17th Century Copybook sold for £35,000, which was part of the sale of Selected Contents of Forcett Hall, North Yorkshire, as instructed by the Executors of the late J.H. Edwards-Heathcote Esq.. The illustrated copybook, demonstrating calligraphy, handwriting and arithmetic, was completed by Sarah North in 1686, a student under private tutor Elizabeth Beane ‘mistress in the art of writing and arithmetic’. The Department was also chosen to handle the Roger Casson Collection, an important private library of polar exploration, travel and local history books. The single-owner sale achieved a total hammer price of £220,000.

Antiquarian books are also sold in the Country House Sales, and quantities of books are regularly sold in the fortnightly Antiques and Interiors Sales.

We are now inviting entries for our forthcoming sales. If you have items you would like to consign, please request a free valuation using the link below.

Request a free valuation >