A rare print of a 396-year-old map of Canada made by French explorer Samuel de Champlain has sold at an auction in England for nearly $250,000, three times the estimated price.

It was described by Sotheby’s as “perhaps the most important single map” in Canadian history.

On November 13, 2008 Sotheby’s London will auction a large, finely-engraved map of the northeast part of America, drawn by “The Father of New France”, Samuel de Champlain (est. £30,000-40,000). Champlain’s very rare map of 1612 is considered the most important single map in the history of Canada, and can be regarded as a foundation document for Canada.

The map is a highlight of Sotheby’s sale of Natural History, Travel, Atlases and Maps, and was drawn from his personal observations, made in over twenty voyages to Canada and New England. It is also the first printed map to allude to the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes system based on factual (rather than hearsay or imaginary) evidence.

Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts department Catherine Slowther describes Champlain as “The driving force behind the initial success of French attempts at gaining a foothold in America”. The map accompanied the publication of Les voyages du Sieur de Champlain, which included large-scale plans for potential harbours, an important description, and promotional account, of Canada.

A.Y. Jackson’s 1937 oil painting, Alberta Foothills, is expected to fetch $125,000 to $175,000 during the next Heffel Fine Art Auction.

The 25 x 32 in signed landscape depicts Alberta’s prairie.

The auction takes place Nov. 19 at Toronto’s Park Hyatt Hotel.

Preview at: Heffel Gallery Montreal

Auction info www.heffel.com

Auctions International Inc., a technology company that owns and markets proprietary software that enables real-time online auctions of virtually any commodity in the wholesale market, announced today that there is significant interest in licensing its wholly owned proprietary Auction Software.

Doug Mann, President and CEO of Auctions International Inc., said, “For the last year, we have focused on the development of the www.AutoBidLive.com site for car dealers and now that we have had sales activity, we can begin to promote the software for other industrial markets. We have proven that the software is user friendly, and works flawlessly. Given the state of the economy throughout North America, there will be an increasing number of auctions for all types of products, especially industrial. Our auction software provides any industry seeking to expand their markets with a real-time Internet-based auction platform to build exposure for their products.

“Given the developing ‘green’ trend, it makes sense to use the Internet for transactions and marketing to decrease the costs to the environment and enhance consumer benefits. Our auction software will be made available as either a licensed package, or will be operated as a back office system hosted on our servers. Our model is designed to enable signed up users to post products for free and buy online. Once a deal has been made, the buyer and seller complete the details of the transaction and Auctions International Inc. receives a small fee from the buyer and seller,” concluded Mann.

In a recent currency auction conducted September 17th - 19th 2008 by Heritage Auction Galleries in conjunction with the Long Beach Coin Expo, Canadian Paper Money history was made on Wednesday night when a DC-19 1911 $500 “Queen Mary” graded Very Fine 20 by PMG, one of only three examples of its kind known, achieved the astonishing price of $322,000 after a bidding war between several determined phone bidders outlasted a strong Internet bidder with the bid opening at the $140,000 level. This realization is an all time record for a piece of Canadian paper money.

Canadian notes have shown marked increases in value in recent years, with rarities starting to generate higher prices, which are now standard south of the border. Heritage Auction Galleries next Signature auction featuring rare Canadian currency will be held as the official auction of the Florida United Numismatists show in Orlando, Florida in January of 2009. Those interested in consigning notes to this auction can phone 800-872-6467, ext. 1001.

Auction info www.HA.com

Quilts are being sold at eight live auctions and over 15 exhibitions. As well as Ottawa’s first auction at La-Z-Boy on Hunt Club Road, there are auctions in Toronto, Calgary, Stratford, Halifax, Kamloops, Victoria, and the first U.S. auction in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Ottawa Quilt Auction takes place Tuesday October 28th, at 5:30 p.m., at
La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, 545 West Hunt Club Road.
Admission is $50 per ticket. To
purchase tickets visit La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, 545 West Hunt Club Road, 613-228-0100 or visit the east end location at 1750 Cyrville Road, 613-749-0001.
For additional information please visit www.TheQuilt.com.

Toronto, CA, - Auctionwire.com, the leading online auction management company, has announced that it has launched the Auctionwire Platform. A leading auction platform providing corporations, entertainment companies, and charities the ability to run and control their own fully branded auction sites while tapping into the Auctionwire Network, consisting of over 1 million bidders worldwide. The Auctionwire Platform provides a new auction strategy for multi-channel retailing, fundraising and brand building. To learn more or take a test drive visit www.auctionwire.com/awplatform.html.

Auctionwire Platform allows clients to establish a personalized online auction site that integrates online bidding, live-to-air bidding and broadcast auction, through a network of privately branded auction sites residing on the platform.

Auctionwire is the first company to provide a fully managed auction solution for businesses and charities. Clients can run and control their own online auction site or broadcast auctions in real-time over the Internet and cater to both in-room and online bidders simultaneously.

By integrating the Auctionwire Platform into the Auctionwire Network, Auctionwire is able to instantly connect sellers to buyers’ at auction events globally.

Auctionwire is the go-to online auction agency that has managed and produced some of the largest auctions on eBay. Bringing with them years of experience in producing highly successful auctions, some of Auctionwire’s successes include some of the largest online auctions, including the Barry Bonds Home Run Baseball, Singapore Airlines First to Fly A380, Dukes of Hazzard’s General Lee and many more. This experience has now been focused on helping companies and power sellers who are looking at alternative auction marketplaces or looking to bring auctions into their existing business go it themselves.

About Auctionwire:
As the leading online auction agency, Auctionwire works with the world’s largest corporations, foundations, ad agencies and non-profit organizations to create and manage successful online auctions that make money, increase brand awareness and generate positive publicity.

For more information visit: www.auctionwire.com

Auctions International Inc., a technology company that owns and markets proprietary software that enables real time online auctions of virtually any commodity in the wholesale market, announced today that the first sale was registered and completed at wwwAutoBidLive.com on August 18, 2008.

Doug Mann, President and CEO, said, “The first sale was longer in coming than was anticipated, but the software worked flawlessly and reported all the bidding activity to management. The fact that this milestone sale went through automatically and without any intervention can be attributed to the excellence of site design and software quality.”

“This is the solid proof that we needed. At least two dealers have decided it was more cost effective to use our process than a physical auction. We are extremely pleased and look forward to additional sales running through the site as dealers become aware of www.AutoBidLive.com and its unique auction platform that allows dealers to expose all inventories at virtually no risk and minimal effort — the seller ultimately decides how and when to transact the sale. There is no cost to the dealer to get this added exposure to help move product. As long as the selling dealer obtains his price, it really doesn’t matter where the car is sold. When a trade is completed, the buyer and seller each pay a $100 fee. Today there are 1,200 vehicles posted on the site from various dealers in USA and Canada,” added Mann.

CONSIGNMENT AND OUTLET STORE LLC, LOCATED AT 15700 MIDDLEBELT ROAD, LIVONIA, MICHIGAN, IS PROUD TO LAUNCH A NEW, INNOVATIVE AUCTION WEB SITE. BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 21, 2008. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO VIEW AND BID ON OUR LARGE AND VARIED INVENTORY AT resalestuff.com OR usliquidatorpros.com.

More than 4,100 people from 21 countries registered to bid on CA$41 million of construction, transportation, forestry, agricultural and other industrial equipment sold at an unreserved public auction in Alberta. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, conducted the auction at its permanent auction site in Edmonton on September 3 & 4, 2008. Day Two of the auction coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Company’s incorporation in B.C.

Almost 590 consignors sold more than 3,400 used and unused equipment items at the unreserved auction. William Lougheed, the owner of Keewatin, Ontario-based William Lougheed Trucking Ltd., sold a large selection of forestry equipment and trucks at the Edmonton auction as part of a retirement dispersal.

Auction info www.rbauction.com