AntiquarianBookNews.com

A rare first edition of ‘Emma’ sold for a record £180 000 in auction at Bonhams this week. The three-volume edition was estimated at around £70 000 but turned out to be the most profitable Jane Austen novel to be sold at auction yet. The book was one of 12 copies [...]

The Otago Daily Times reports that a bookseller in Dunedin, NZ has decided not to sell the recently-rediscovered journal of an early settler to an overseas buyer. Malcolm Moncrief-Spittle (whose name sounds like something from an Evelyn Waugh book) first said that he had accepted a bid “for a five figure sum” from a prospective buyer outside New Zealand; he later revised that statement, to say that “having subsequently checked further on the contents of the Protected Objects Act, he had changed his mind.” He’s now looking to sell the diary to the Alexander Turnbull Library (the National Library of New Zealand).

Edward Jerningham Wakefield’s journal covers the period from 1850-1858, when Wakefield was serving as a representative in the NZ parliament and on the Provincial Council. He had previously visited the area in 1839 with his uncle William Wakefield, and published an 1845 book Adventures in New Zealand. The journal had been presumed lost until it appeared for sale at auction last year.

The contents of the journal will be published next month by Kilmog Press.

[h/t Shelf:Life]

“Liber Chronicarum” by Hartmann Schedel, hand-coloured by Johannes Cincinnius, fetched the top price of €120,000 (€40,000 over the estimate) at Ketterer Kunst’s auction from the 19th – 20th May. The overall proceeds from the two-day auction, held in Hamburg, amounted to an astonishing €1,200,000 (£962,000). This included the sale of a wide variety of items, [...]

I knew I was missing one yesterday! Rare Books Review caught it, though. A first edition copy (12 July 1493) of the Nuremburg Chronicle in Latin (Liber Chronicarum) sold at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg this week for $170,400. This copy was colored throughout by Johannes Cincinnius (c. 1485-1555).

The
portrait titled “A Royal Portrait of Elizabeth the Queen Mother and her
daughters Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret” is to be sold at
auction with an accompanying letter of commission.
The letter is
dated 13th November 1933 from HRH Queen Mother to commission a family
portrait by Charles Edmund Brock. The letter reads: “I do not like to
mention prices etc. [...]

“‘We will have first edition books, signed books, collectibles and other kinds,’ said Bob Russell, a book sale volunteer who will also be running the auction. ‘Every collector has (their) specialty.’” Read this article.