Swann didn't misspell Shaespeare, this book's author did (see highlight), but this still makes the book hard to find.
This brings us to another point. Ebay sellers aren’t the only people who can be spelling-challenged. If you go to Abebooks and type in “Shakespeare” as the author, you will get back 40,000 results. However, there are another 539 listed under “Shakespear.” At the top end is one priced for $7,880 which will never be found in a search for “Shakespeare.” The seller is from England, no less. There are 226 more for “Shakspeare” and 2 for “Shakspear.” One of these is in German and the German bookseller has dutifully added “sic” after the name “Shakspear,” but you are still not going to find his book unless you search for the misspelling.
Now here’s another one. The Bard’s name is even spelled “Shakespear” on some live auction listings. Now this isn’t a Shakespeare book itself, but an associated item. It’s a 1704 work called “The Tragedy of Jane Shore. Written in Imitation of Shakespear’s Style.” Hopefully, the author, Nicholas Rowe, did a better job of imitating Shakespeare’s style than his name. The auction houses, in this case both Christie’s and Swann’s, with copies for sale in April, faithfully copied Rowe’s spelling. Those searching for old imitation Shakespeare might well have been stymied in their searches. That brings up another point. Not all “misspellings” are truly misspellings. Some are simply ancient or alternative spellings. Still if you don’t seek them, you will not find.
Now, despite being a writer for the Americana Exchange, I don’t like to blatantly push the site’s service in my articles. Something about objectivity and ethics and things like that. So, if you are offended by this, please skip ahead to the next paragraph. But, the AE does offer a search program as part of the MatchMaker/Auction Notice service which searches on a daily basis dozens of live auctions along with eBay for whatever keywords you select. I was able to find the “Shakespear” items at auction by entering that spelling into my keywords and waiting for the matches. I’m not aware of any other practical way to locate listings by keywords at so many different auction houses, even correctly spelled keywords let alone misspelled ones. It really is an amazingly useful tool. It’s available with an Octavo or higher membership. You can learn more by visiting “Become a Member” or “AE Tour” on this site’s top toolbar. Now back to the story.
Let’s look at one more word: “dinsey.” What is “dinsey?” Unlike the others, this misspelling is so bad many people won’t even know what it was supposed to be. The real word here is “Disney,” like Walt. Someone who writes “dinsey” is not likely to believe this is the correct spelling. More probable, they just accidentally reversed two letters and didn’t notice it. Yet as seemingly obvious as this misspelling is, there are still 27 “dinsey” items being sold on eBay as I write. Perhaps that’s because there are 93,125 “Disney” items currently for sale.
We’ll close with an example of how you might use these lessons to build your own collection, as it applies directly to someone like you or I, in this case, I. I grew up in the small town of New Paltz, New York. Many of you have heard of it recently when the village’s Green Party mayor became the first official east of San Francisco to marry gay couples. My, but times have changed. When I left three decades ago, you couldn’t be elected dogcatcher if you weren’t a Republican. But back then, none of you had heard of New Paltz either. And due to this anonymity, many visitors confused the name. It was forever being referred to as “New Platz.” “Platz” just rolls of the tongue easier than “Paltz.” Occasionally, sellers make the same mistake. There won’t always be something from “New Platz” on eBay as there are only a handful of items with the correct spelling for sale. However, if you watch carefully, once in awhile they will show up. On Abebooks, there are 69 “New Platz” listings, mostly German books where that spelling is correct. Mixed in with them are 3 titles from New Paltz, the name misspelled, invisible to the world, their invisibility totally unknown to their would-be sellers.
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.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
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.