This is an original old Colonial document from New Paltz, New York dated 1734/5. $455
By Bruce McKinney
It’s 5:05 am on a Sunday morning and I’m up early to review the auctions on eBay I’m bidding at today. The material I’m focusing on only came to my attention during the past week. Much of it is obscure. Recently there’s been a nice run of upstate New York lots and I have a representative selection of it heaped around my desk this morning. Boxes and envelopes have been steadily coming over the transom all month. My collecting focus is the Hudson Valley and I’ve been buying interesting, generally inexpensive unpredictable material. For today and tomorrow there are twelve items I’m following. Week to week the numbers go up and down and I can always look more widely if I have an itch that needs to be scratched. Identifying interesting material isn’t difficult.
On Æ I use MatchMaker keywords as scouts to identify interesting objects. Right now I’m using 39 keywords and linked terms and I continue to add to them and in time will probably eliminate some. So far I’m only adding. Eventually I’ll have a hundred or more. These keywords are place names such as New Paltz ,Poughkeepsie, Mohonk and Minnewaska, printer names such as Paraclette Potter, Josiah Priest and Munsell, and categories such as almanac and “poetry nineteenth century” and Huguenot.
Every night AE runs each member’s keywords against all listings in the old and rare book category on eBay and immediately reports every match it finds. The title line on each eBay lot is shown as are the matched keyword(s) found in this lot, the bid price at the time, the day and time the lot was posted to auction and finally the day and time the auction will end. Lots are listed in the order of “closing date and time” and I can click on the heading to reverse the order.
All keywords are not equally effective. Poughkeepsie is the perfect keyword because it doesn’t show up by accident very often. Milton, as in Milton, New York, does. I have nothing against John Milton but I see a steady flow of his material because he shares his name with the Hudson Valley community I’m interested in. It amounts to about 3 listings a day. Fortunately I can easily see that the match isn’t what I want and delete it. It doesn’t take any time. I just wish there were some Milton, New York items.
When I see a match in the eBay Auction Keyword Matches on AE that looks interesting and click on it the full eBay listing comes up. I then can save it to either my eBay wish list on eBay or simply mark the record (select) on my MatchMaker screen. On eBay this is a free service they provide to registered bidders and it is very easy. Saving it in MatchMaker has two advantages. On eBay there is a limit of 30 items you can have in the “items I’m following” category at any one time and it isn’t always enough so I keep a portion of my listings in MatchMaker. The second reason is that I’m searching the AED as I’m reviewing auction listings and linking into ABE to compare listings and prices. It’s an effective home base.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
