First Scotland atlas for sale
A 362-year-old copy of the first ever atlas of Scotland is expected to fetch up to £7,000 when it goes under the hammer.
The book was published in 1659 and contains 49 hand-coloured maps covering the whole of Scotland as well as six maps of Ireland.
It will be among the highlights of Lyon & Turnbull’s sale of rare books in Edinburgh this month.
They are the sort of gadgets that would not look out of place in a James Bond movie.
But this collection of devices – including cameras hidden in cigarette packs, microphones in pens and even cyanide-filled fake teeth are in fact real-life equipment once issued to KGB agents. The collection was being auctioned by California-based Julien’s Auctions this weekend.
Historian Julius Urbaitis, 57, amassed the remarkable group of gadgets over a 30-year period, procuring almost 400 items in that time.
The auction of Scottish seabed plots for wind farms has been delayed after runaway bids for leases in England and Wales handed the Queen and the Treasury a multibillionpound windfall.
Crown Estate Scotland paused to review the process after bidding in an auction for England and Wales lease options last week reached new record highs.
Crown Estate Scotland manages the Queen’s properties but, unlike the Crown Estate – which acts in the rest of the UK – it does not return its profits to the Treasury or the Queen. Instead the money ultimately goes to the Scottish Government.
Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary for environment and climate, said: “In light of the significant changes that we are now seeing in the wider UK offshore wind market, ministers have agreed with Crown Estate Scotland that it would be sensible to review our leasing process.”
Critics say allowing sealed bids has encouraged aggressive tactics by oil companies to skew the market.
The Queen and the Treasury could receive a windfall of up to £9 billion over the next decade after energy companies including BP offered to pay five times more than expected.