Some promises are forever… Hugh McInnis, trying to escape the past and the present finds himself at an auction, his attention fixed on a Norwegian beauty intended for the highest bidder. He wished he could say what possessed him to bid on Dalla. Dalla was intended for a convent—punishment for disobeying her father—until her uncle intercepted her journey and put her up for auction. A stubborn quiet Norwegian woman and a grumpy Highlands man have no business traversing the landscape. Not together, anyway. Yet, that’s exactly what they are forced to do.

Reveals how, through auctions, early Americans learned capitalism As the first book-length study of auctions in early America, America Under the Hammer follows this ubiquitous but largely overlooked institution to reveal how, across the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, price became an accepted expression of value. From the earliest days of colonial conquest, auctions put Native land and human beings up for bidding alongside material goods, normalizing new economic practices that turned social relations into economic calculations and eventually became recognizable as nineteenth-century American capitalism. Starting in the eighteenth century, neighbors collectively turned speculative value into economic “facts” in the form of concrete prices for specific items, thereby establishing ideas about fair exchange in their communities. This consensus soon fractured: during the Revolutionary War, state governments auctioned loyalist property, weaponizing local group participation in pricing and distribution to punish political enemies. By the early nineteenth century, suspicion that auction outcomes were determined by manipulative auctioneers prompted politicians and satirists to police the boundaries of what counted as economic exchange and for whose benefit the economy operated. Women at auctions—as commodities, bidders, or beneficiaries—became a focal point for gendering economic value itself. By the 1830s, as abolitionists attacked the public sale of enslaved men, women, and children, auctions had enshrined a set of economic ideas—that any entity could be coded as property and priced through competition—that have become commonsense understandings all too seldom challenged. In contrast to histories focused on banks, currencies, or plantations, America Under the Hammer highlights an institution that integrated market, community, and household in ways that put gender, race, and social bonds at the center of ideas about economic worth. Women and men, enslaved and free, are active participants in this story rather than bystanders, and their labor, judgments, and bodies define the resulting contours of the American economy.

First published in 1962, this is the autobiography of Emma Bailey, America’s very first woman auctioneer. Describing events from the 1940s through to the 1960s, Bailey delightfully tells of her experiences in a field long dominated by men, in an era when it was still highly controversial for women to go out into the workforce.

Kelly Andrew's store, Wedding Bliss, is the one-stop for all a bride's needs. Abandoned by her own fiancé, she hopes to make it easier for brides by planning their ceremonies down to the last detail. But one little problem keeps her from being successful. Three brides have brought back the same vintage gown saying it was responsible for dashing their dreams. Brett, the nephew of the original owner of the dress, needs to get the gown back. Impossible since Kelly sold the garment and claims the gown is cursed. Brett's confusion at her words deepens when he discovers she communes with ghosts. Yet, when a contrite spirit comes forward, with a message, Brett goes along on a wild-bridegroom chase. Passions flare as they work to break the wedding hex before another bride's dreams goes up in flames.

The widespread understanding of auction structure considers auction as consisting of three contracts: contract between the seller and the auctioneer, contract between the auctioneer and the buyer and the sale contract between the seller and the buyer. The book challenges this concept, arguing that the traditional tripartite concept of auction is too narrow and does not correspond to the actual structure of auction relations. Demonstrating that an auction structure consists of a plethora of legal relationships, including noncontractual relations, this book explores the legal concept of auction sale and the structure of accompanying relations. The book provides a historical overview of auctions and different auction models. Following a brief introduction to the economic theory, auction models are examined against the following legal criteria: price formation, publicity, parties’ autonomy, legal form and applied technology to find a legal concept and nature of auction. The book explores the legal position of key auction figures and auction objects to identify the categories of legal relations that appear at auction. It explores the legal nature of the main contract, as well as the relations between the consignor and the auctioneer, the auctioneer and the bidders, the bidders themselves, the consignor and the bidders. The book covers relations arising from droit de suite, financial and bidding agreements to provide a comprehensive overview of lesserknown legal relations that commonly arise in auction practice.

Seven brothers must marry within 1874 or lose their inheritance. Meet the seven Hart brothers of the 7-Heart ranch in central Texas. Each man is content in his independent life, without the responsibilities of a wife and children—until their father decides 1874 will be the year his grown sons finally marry, or they will be cut from his will. How will each man who values his freedom respond to the ultimatum? Can love develop on a timeline, or will it be sacrificed for the sake of an inheritance? First Comes Love by Gabrielle Meyer As the youngest Hart, Hays has never been first at anything—so he’s determined to be the first to marry. He sets his sights on the new teacher, Miss Emma Longley, but he soon discovers Emma wants nothing to do with marriage, ranching, or Texas and plans to leave Hartville in two short months. Will Hays’ charm be enough to convince her to stay? The Heart of Texas by Lorna Seilstad With Texas awash in outlaws, Ranger Chisholm Hart takes his oath to protect the citizens and their property seriously. When he meets feisty, independent Caro Cardova who can face a band of vigilantes, ride as well as a man, and shoot from the hip, he must decide if he can make room in his heart for both the state he loves and the woman who’s stolen his heart. The Truest Heart by Amanda Barratt Despite his father’s edict, Travis Hart is determined never to marry. The one woman he cares for is a distant memory, and he won’t settle for a loveless union with anyone else. Yet when Annie Lawrence re-enters his life, the spark of romance he thought extinguished, bursts into flame anew. But guilt binds Annie to her past, and Travis fears that once again, he will have to watch the woman he loves walk out of his life—this time forever. A Love Returned by Keli Gwyn When Coralee Culpepper declined his proposal, Houston Hart left Texas for the gold fields of California. But when his father’s edict brings him home, will Coralee—the only woman to ever claim his heart—accept him for the man he is, or will she cling to the stubborn notion that she must marry a rancher in order to be happy? For Love or Money by Susan Page Davis Burned out of their house, Jane and her family move into a cave, where she discovers some hidden money. Crockett Hart comes to help them rebuild, and she asks for his help. When he learns where the money came from, he hopes it won’t keep their two families apart, because he’s falling for Jane. Mail-Order Mayhem by Vickie McDonough Austin’s best hope to marry quickly is a mail-order bride. But the bride who arrived seems more interested in one of the ranch hands. Her sister Rebekah, who is chaperoning, keeps apologizing. Austin is ready to send his bride packing. Could God have other ideas for a wife for him? Love at Last by Erica Vetsch When her former patient, Confederate officer Bowie Hart, shows up on her doorstep, Elise Rivers agrees to his marriage-of-convenience proposal. But as she gets to know her scarred and taciturn new husband, she realizes she has a chance to turn a marriage-of-convenience into the love of a lifetime, if only she can convince Bowie that he is worthy to be loved.

In this study of Amsterdam's Golden Age cultural elite, John Michael Montias analyzes records of auctions from the Orphan Chamber of Amsterdam through the first half of the seventeenth century, revealing a wealth of information on some 2,000 art buyers' regional origins, social and religious affiliations, wealth, and aesthetic preferences. Chapters focus not only on the art dealers who bought at these auctions, but also on buyers who had special connections with individual artists.