The market for Books & Maps is vast, with passionate collectors and buyers constantly seeking out rare and unusual examples.

Our Suffolk auctions regularly offer a huge array of sought-after examples, with some of the most popular areas including:

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Antiquarian

Usually covers books dating to pre-1900. There are many popular categories within this sector, including cookery, astronomy, travel & natural history.

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Atlases

Collectors look for atlases containing hand-coloured maps, dating prior to 1850.  Popular cartographers and publishers include Henry Teesdale, John Arrowsmith and John Cary.

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Maps

Hand-coloured maps by certain cartographers are highly sought-after, in particular those by John Speed, Johannes Blaeu, Abraham Ortelius and William Kip. These maps date to the 17th Century and earlier.

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American Comics

Demand is strong for examples dating before 1970. Titles of interest include Spider-Man, Batman and Fantastic Four, to name just a few.

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British Comics

British comics from the 1970s or earlier attract robust interest.  Early copies of Beano and Dandy are the most collectable British comics. Some comic collectors also seek the first appearances of characters, for example Dennis the Menace made his first appearance in Beano issue 452 in 1951.  This puts a large premium on this particular issue.

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First Editions & Children’s Books

There are many highly collectable authors including Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carroll, and A. A. Milne to name but a few.  The most sought-after examples are the true first edition, as any later issue or print run will be worth significantly less.

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One final note -  just because a book is old doesn’t mean its valuable. Value is dependant upon collectability. Some old books can look impressive but are undesired; one of the biggest casualties being encyclopedias.

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