Edinburgh's Lyon and Turnbull auction house has five lots of books relating to T & R Annan from the estate of the late Eric Sloane. Amongst the lots is a first edition of Glasgow Improvements Act 1866. Photographs of Streets, Closes, etc. taken 1868-71, with albumen prints (estimate £10,000-15,000). The photographer Thomas Annan, who had a studio in the city and who specialised in architectural photography, was appointed to record, between 1868 and 1871, the character and conditions of the area prior to demolition.A few copies (probably around 4-8 volumes) of 31 albumen prints from Annan's original negatives were collected together for the City Improvement Trust in c. 1871. Bound in green morocco leather, the album bore Glasgow’s coat of arms with the motto ‘Let Glasgow Flourish.’ These copies were probably distributed to members of the delegation, led by Lord Provost Blackie, which included Glasgow’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr William Tennant Gairdner, and John Carrick, which had visited the Continent in early 1866 to see examples of slum clearances and rebuilding in European cities.
Other lots include: The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry First edition,1870, one of 120 copies only (estimate £400-600), Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow, first edition, 1871 (estimate £400-600), and University of Glasgow Old and New, 1891, one of 50 deluxe copies on large paper (estimate £500-800).
Books & Manuscripts auction
16 June 2026
Lyon and Turnbull, Ediburgh
See: https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auctions/books-and-manuscripts-905 (search Annan)
