Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2013 Issue

"An Upstate New York State of Mind"

Most AE Monthly readers know Bruce McKinney as founder of the American Exchange and its impressive database of book auction records (AED); but the 66-year-old bibliophile also has an impressive record as a collector. In 2009 and 2010 two of his personal collections of early Americana sold at auction for a combined total of over $7 million.

McKinney calls his current collecting focus “An Upstate New York State of Mind.” It comes from the days when America was “tall and narrow” and the emerging nation clustered along the East coast. A small portion of his extensive holdings was on view recently at his home in San Francisco in conjunction with the February ABAA Antiquarian Book Fair.

Attending the special event were about 40 members of the Grolier and the Roxburghe Club of northern California who took a self-guided ramble through three floors of interesting and visually unusual materials consisting not only of books but paintings, maps, broadsides, prints, flags, models and ephemera of all sorts. McKinney estimated he has collected upwards of 3,000 items. “And,” he added, “When I say I have two hundred watercolors by a particular artist, well, that counts as one in the inventory.”

He dates his interest in collecting to 1955, when at the age of 9, his mother advanced him $4 to invest in book acquisitions (“That was a lot of money for a kid back then.”) and sent him on a visit to local historian Bill Heidgerd who advised that there was a future in local imprints.

A native of upstate New York himself, McKinney was a successful businessman both at home and abroad. His many ventures have been as diverse as publishing the Orange County (NY) Free Press in the early 1970s, organizing several firms to act as Asian trade broker in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea; the development of Tradex Orient in Hsinchu, Taiwan as an important Disa-based source for quality castings, the building of Consolidated Dutchwest in the United States into a national woodstove retailer in the 1980s.  The financial rewards of these enterprises enabled him to take early retirement. Since, after becoming an asset manager, he has invested some of his resources in his enthusiasms for a variety of subjects. He identified “the last fifteen years, since the advent of the internet” as banner years for collectors.

In his opinion, those with a very specific focus, such as the Hudson River Valley – have been able to access a much broader spectrum of material besides the printed page on sites such as eBay. He finds these new tools “encouraging.”  And of course it doesn’t hurt the quest at all that he keeps millions of book auction records in the basement. For his own interest and the interest of other collectors he reiterated that the AED (Americana Exchange Data Base) is the largest source of pricing and valuation for the field ever undertaken.  “I’ve built and continue to build the database I need to collect intelligently.”

It was clear to visitors that he’d put a significant amount of time and effort into the display. The entire home served as a gallery for prime examples from his holdings and guests had the benefit of an 87 item dated checklist to use in the self-guided tour.

Asked to comment on a few of the remarkable items on display McKinney put the period in context. “There was a moment when the Hudson River was the Broadway of American commerce,” he said pointing out that the area has some of the most continuously occupied real estate in the country. In the early 19th century, before the advent of the railroad, the steamer and canal boat were the dominant modes of transporting goods and passengers. Though the display included items both earlier and later the focus is on this era.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.

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