Old books - especially cookery books - maps and letters continue to be sought after by collectors, with single items worth hundreds, even thousands, of pounds.
Mr Luke Batterham, a book specialist at Bonhams auctioneers in London, says cookery and confectionery books from the first quarter of the 20th century can be very elaborate.
For instance, a Bonhams auction including books, maps and letters on September 12th contains cookery books - mostly German - dating from 1910 to 1925.
But it's not only the old books that are valuable. Of more recent currency is a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosophers' Stone by J.K. Rowling. It is expected to fetch £800£1,200 sterling (€1,300 - €1,960), even though it is "a bit battered" he says. The first edition was limited to 300 copies, of which half went to libraries.
One of the German cookery books in the sale dates from 1925, and is elaborate and amusing. "It's a book on decorative art and confectionery sold in a box. It's rather like buying the complete kit `how to decorate your cake' because with it come cut outs - tracing patterns so you can trace the pattern on top of the cake - and stencils so you can also stencil on. That one also comes with a tin of cocoa - the cocoa is definitely there: we opened the lid."
Perhaps wisely, he declined to taste the cocoa. The book also comes with a brush and a flat metal sieve and is expected to fetch £300£350 sterling. Says Mr Batterham: "It's quite high. It's a fair amount to pay. I mean, if you were just buying the cocoa it would be very expensive."
Early 20th century cookery books with high-quality coloured pictures can be worth in the region of £200£300.
Meanwhile, Mrs Beaton's cookbook, first published in 1864 and thereafter well into the 20th century, can be worth £500-£800 for a first edition or £20-£40 for early 20th century editions, he says.
The forthcoming auction has an early Irish cookbook, circa 1760. "This is a manuscript cookery book, which has approximately 200 recipes all hand-written in 18th century hand." Inscribed by the author, a Miss Taylor of Coleraine, Co Derry - who may have been associated with the Taylor family who were distillers of Coleraine whiskey - it includes recipes for eel soup, calves feet jelly, oyster loaves and bogberry fort and is expected to fetch around £200.
Given the recent controversy over its status, the denizens of Kilkenny will be pleased to hear that an 1758 town plan of Kilkenny confirms its designation as a city. "It's a very nice Kilkenny map, which is quite unusual. It's a Survey of the City of Kilkenny by John Rocque. It's like an engraved town map, approximately 500 x 700 millimetres. It's an engraved double page town map.
"It's quite unusual. It's definitely a city in 1758," he says. It is estimated to go for between £400 and £500. u400-u500)
Some other maps but of less significance include a 1762 map of Co Dublin by the same map maker (estimate: £120-£180), while a 1690 map of Munster is estimated at £100-£200.
A "very nice" map of the whole of Ireland by Blaeu circa 1645 is estimated at £350-£400. "That's very attractive," he says.
"We've got a great Darwin letter. That's quite fun. It's a letter he wrote to a geologist, David Forbes. And he's thanking him for his various criticisms and contributions. And specifically he's asking for confirmation on a point about a new edition of The Origin of Species - obviously his most famous book.
"Collectors are always interested if they get letters by famous authors or famous figures when they're actually talking about their most famous work. He's asking whether he should change anything for the second edition."
A five-page letter dated 1860, it's expected to fetch between £3,000 and £4,000.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
