Fifteenth-century bookbinding includes ninth-century bible fragment in front and back covers | Cultural Compass.

Sotheby’s today announced it was to sell what its specialist Peter Selley described as “the most impressive collection of English literature assembled by any British collector in the last 30 or 40 years. Certainly the finest collection of its kind that I’m aware of, unless someone has been squirrelling things away – and that’s highly unlikely.”

Selley said the collection was notable for its breadth of range and more or less all of the greats were there. “In terms of the canon of literature, from an Anglo-Saxon perspective, this is the greatest collection of its kind. Every book is a knockout.

Sothebys to auction knockout collection of first-edition books | Books | The Guardian.

An “extremely rare” inscribed copy of the book in which supersleuth Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance is expected to fetch up to £400,000 when it goes under the hammer in London.The copy of A Study In Scarlet, the debut novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of only two inscribed examples known to exist.Sothebys will auction the work, which it described as “one of the rarest books of modern times”, this summer. The book was published in 1887 and took fewer than three weeks to write.

via The Press Association: Rare copy of Sherlock Holmes debut for sale.