Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2012 Issue

A Case for Buying from Dealers

Material from both dealers

Material from both dealers

The History of North America containing a review of the Customs and Manners of the Original Inhabitants;… by the Rev. Mr. Cooper, embellished with copper plate cuts.  Lansingburgh.  Printed by Silvester Tiffany, for, and sold by Thomas Spencer, at his book-store, Albany 1795.

Keate, George:  An Account of the Pelew Islands, situated in the Great South Sea, composed from the journals of Capt. Henry Wilson and his officers; who in August, 1783, were there ship-wrecked in the Antelope Packet.  Stanford, N. Y. 1802.  An unusual chapbook edition possibly done for the promotion of missionary activity.

For both dealers each item was individually priced, a discount for ‘all’ impossible to resist.

Day in and day out I tend to buy the grout that binds the bricks.  Their material, with some exceptions, are the bricks and my collection of Hudson Valley history better today for what they have provided.

Altogether, an interesting group and confirmation of the importance of dealers in building deep and potentially remarkable, and perhaps someday re-marketable, collections.

The William Reese Company www.reeseco.com

Peter Luke:  oldluke50@hotmail.com

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare.
    The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens.
    A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Golding.
    Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll.
    Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien.
    The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: John Milton.
    Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD

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