Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Stolen Harry Potter edition found in carrier bag

Ibookcollector - newsletter
 no.237

Last week we reported the theft of a limited first edition Harry Potter book stolen from an Oxfordshire art gallery. Thames Valley Police would now like to speak to a man captured on CCTV regarding the theft after the book was found in a carrier bag in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

The rare copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, worth almost £6,000, was taken from the Creative Art Gallery in Woodstock on 30 October 2010.

Police said the book was discovered in a plastic bag outside Boots the chemist. A 36-year-old woman from nearby Woodstock was arrested last week on suspicion of theft and is being questioned. Officers say they would still like to speak to a man seen on CCTV in the gallery.

The book's owner, Adrian Greenwood, a rare books dealer from Oxford, said: "I'm very happy to discover the book has been found and I want to wholeheartedly thank Thames Valley Police for all the work it has done, and is still doing, in connection with this investigation."
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Copy of Television sold at auction


A charity shop in Scotland received an anonymous donation of the earliest book about television, signed by TV's inventor John Logie Baird. The book, Television, published in 1926, sold for £1,440 (including Buyer’s Premium) when it was auctioned by Bonhams on 23 November.

It was found by an Oxfam volunteer at their store on Morningside Road, Edinburgh. The book chronicles the story of television up to 1926, ending with an explanation of Logie Baird's work and inventions. The account includes the first public demonstrations of moving silhouettes, which he gave at Selfridges in London in 1925.

It is unclear how Logie Baird's signature came to be in the book but experts believe it could be the inventor's own personal copy. Andy Crosby, manager of Oxfam's Morningside bookshop, said: "One of our volunteers found the book and when I saw the signature inside it, it was one of those moments where I had to check that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. We thought at first it was just a regular sort of signed copy but when we took the book to Bonhams they said it was more likely to have belonged to Baird himself because of the location of the inscription, so that makes it a pretty special donation.

Logie Baird died in June 1946 in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex.

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