Lawrences of Crewkerne Book Department

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Lawrences of Crewkerne Book Department Forthcoming Book Auction: September 2024
Now taking entries for our next sale.

I am delighted to announce that our latest Specialist Sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography Sale is now onlin...
22/08/2026

I am delighted to announce that our latest Specialist Sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography Sale is now online with bidding due to end on the 5th of September.

The sale consists of over 300 lots from a wide range of time periods, countries, genres and binding styles. Also included in the sale is a private collection of bookbinding equipment including blind stamping tools and book presses.

Highlights from the modern first and Signed editions section include Roald Dahl’s Matilda, The Starlight Barking by Dodie Smith, and Rudyard Kipling’s Departmental Ditties, and Other Verses.

Highlights from the maps and manuscripts section include Rumold Mercator’s Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio Quam ex Magna Universali Gerardi Mercatoris, 1595, John Speed’s A Newe Map of Poland done into English, 1676, and two manuscript diaries relating to service at Rorke’s Drift, Cape Town and India.

Highlights from the photography section include Cecil Beaton’s Portrait of Maharani Gayatri Devi, Rajmata of Jaipur and Henry Ponting’s photograph of the Great Wall of China.

Catalogue online now at lawrences.co.uk

In 1910, a small British expedition sailed south aboard the Terra Nova, bound for the last great blank space on the map....
27/02/2026

In 1910, a small British expedition sailed south aboard the Terra Nova, bound for the last great blank space on the map... Antarctica.

They would endure temperatures below -70°F. Total darkness, struggling with starvation, and experiencing frostbite. Some would not return.

A decade later, the youngest member of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, published what many still consider the greatest account of polar exploration ever written, “The Worst Journey In The World”.

Unlike many adventure narratives of its era, this is not a triumphant tale. A lot of it being painfully insightful. Cherry-Garrard writes about the weight of survival following the tragic loss of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his polar party.

Offered in our Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photography sale is a 1922 first edition in two volumes, complete with plates and folding maps, and with a signed note from Cherry-Garrard himself, dated December 1923, loosely inserted.

For collectors of exploration, polar history, and landmark travel literature, few titles resonate more deeply.

Bidding in the sale closes 7th March - Browse all lots here: https://auctionet.com/en/themes/3929-march-2026-book-sale

David Livingstone. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; Including a sketch of sixteen years’ residence in ...
09/02/2026

David Livingstone. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; Including a sketch of sixteen years’ residence in the interior of Africa, and a journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; thence across the continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean, 1st edition, presentation copy inscribed ‘William Lawrence Esq with the kindest regards of David Livingstone, London 2nd November 1857’, folding wood-engraved frontispiece by J. W. Whymper, 2 folding maps at end, wood-engraved plates, 8 pp. publisher’s catalogue at end, original brown blindstamped cloth, gilt, 8vo, London: John Murray, 1857.

Coming up in our specialist themed online sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography with a presale estimate of £800-£1200.

Catalogue online from the 20th of February with bidding online through Auctionet.

firstedition travelsinsouthafrica rarebooks antiquarianbooks auctioneering auctionet auctioneers lawrencesauctioneers lawrencesofcrekwerne

We are delighted to offer this iconic photograph of Audrey Hepburn and A Dove taken by world famous photographer Terry O...
20/11/2025

We are delighted to offer this iconic photograph of Audrey Hepburn and A Dove taken by world famous photographer Terry O’Neill C.B.E. (British, 1938-2019).

This silver gelatin print from an edition of 50 comes fully signed and numbered by Terry O’Neill and is framed ready for hanging on your wall.

Coming up in our specialist themed online sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography on the 7th of March 2026 with a presale estimate of £1200-£1500 plus buyers premium.

Catalogue online at the end of February 2026 with bidding online via the Auctionet Platform.

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Albert Richard Smith (1816-1860), British Author, Entertainer and Mountaineer. A pottery plate with dished centre with a...
18/11/2025

Albert Richard Smith (1816-1860), British Author, Entertainer and Mountaineer. A pottery plate with dished centre with a portrait of Albert Smith in brown, looking to his left, in a blue transfer printed border. Marked to the reverse ‘Copeland Late Spode, 160 New Bond Street, London’. 22.8cm wide.

Possibly manufactured to be sold as a souvenir at the Egyptian Hall.

Coming up in our specialist themed online sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography on the 7th of March 2026 with a presale estimate of £60-£80 plus buyers premium.

Catalogue online at the end of February 2026 with bidding online via the Auctionet Platform.

Elizabeth II (1926-2022), Queen of the United Kingdom. Christmas and New Year Card, folded signed ‘Elizabeth R’, with mo...
18/11/2025

Elizabeth II (1926-2022), Queen of the United Kingdom. Christmas and New Year Card, folded signed ‘Elizabeth R’, with mounted image of the Royal Family onboard their yacht, 215mm x 168mm, 1969; Christmas and New Year Card, folded, signed ‘Elizabeth R’, with mounted image of H.M.Y. Britannia in Sydney Harbour, 280mm x 172mm, 1970 (2).

Coming up in our specialist themed online sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography on the 7th of March 2026 with a presale estimate of £100-£150 plus buyers premium.

Catalogue online at the end of February 2026 with bidding online via the Auctionet Platform.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard. The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913, 2 volumes, first edition, half-titles, colou...
17/11/2025

Apsley Cherry-Garrard. The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913, 2 volumes, first edition, half-titles, colour-frontispieces, plates, some folding and linen-backed, folding maps, original linen-backed blue paper boards, edges untrimmed, 8vo, London: Constable and Company, 1922

AUTOGRAPH LETTER loosely inserted is a signed notecard by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, “I am very much obliged for the cutting you so kindly sent me. It’s really impossible to keep pace with these. I am also very glad you like the book. Apsley Cherry-Garrard”, dated December 6th 1923.

Coming up in our specialist themed online sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography on the 7th of March 2026 with a presale estimate of £800-£1200 plus buyers premium.

Catalogue online at the end of February 2026 with bidding online via the Auctionet Platform.

William Morris. News From Nowhere: Or, an Epoch of Rest, Being some Chapters from a Utopian Romance, one of 300 copies o...
19/02/2025

William Morris. News From Nowhere: Or, an Epoch of Rest, Being some Chapters from a Utopian Romance, one of 300 copies on paper, printed in red and black, wood-engraved frontispiece of Kelmscott House designed by C.M. Gere, wood-engraved border and initials, original limp vellum, silk ties, small 4to, London: Kelscott Press, 1892

Coming up in our specialist themed online sale of books, manuscripts, maps and photography on the 7th of March with a presale estimate of £1500-£2000 plus buyers premium.

Catalogue online at the end of this week with bidding online through the Auctionet Platform.

Rudyard Kipling. An autograph letter, on Bateman’s Burwash Sussex headed card, ‘Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for y...
15/02/2025

Rudyard Kipling. An autograph letter, on Bateman’s Burwash Sussex headed card, ‘Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your letter of the 26th and will attend to the error about the moon. As regards my idea based on having seen the planets south of the lane was that they were so big and luminous that they might fairly be called (condieoinedy?) by Jaelors who had till then only seen them in the north. Faithfully Rudyard Kipling,’ in original envelope, stamped and dated 10 April 1928.

Coming up in our specialist themed online sale of books, maps, manuscripts and photography on the 7th of March with a presale estimate of £120-£180 plus buyers premium.

Catalogue online at the end of February with bidding online through the auctionet platform.

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