1233 Sutter, a block over from Van Ness in San Francisco
As the population in San Francisco increases, new buildings are being wedged into the available space. So too these buildings are taller and their rents higher. Internet madness has fully taken hold and the city’s residents and its businesses are forced to recalibrate their expectations of what will work. Most hard pressed are the twenty somethings that are looking to buy a home. These days paper millionaires are thick as cordwood and their appetite for renting right up there with their taste for castor oil. They want to buy and almost certainly will, even if the prices are high. These days asking prices are actually starting prices and bidding 10 to 20% over quite common.
San Francisco businesses have similar but not identical problems. Businesses tend to rent and to have 5, 7, 10 and 20 year leases. While these arrangements are in place their rents become progressively cheaper as the prices around them adjust to the market. At lease termination many companies move or simply disappear. Pacific Book Auction Galleries, long term tenants at 133 Kearny Street, wanting to stay in the city and facing a July deadline, executed an interesting and successful move uptown to 1233 Sutter, a scant mile to the west but sufficiently removed from the white hot downtown to get beyond the cauldron of writhing prices. In a somewhat fitting coincidence, the new premises are just across the street from the one-time location of Butterfield & Butterfield, the age-old San Francisco auction company that was absorbed by the British auctioneer Bonhams.
Their old 4th floor location was deep in the downtown, within walking distance of high-end shopping, entertainment and lawyers. The new location is ground level, a stand-alone building, a block off Van Ness and a few blocks the other way from what was for many years a high crime area. But that area is changing, multi-millionaire gentrification now reaching into every crack of what was until a few years ago transitional turf. It’s a very smart move that assures the company’s continuing city presence and invites both consignors and bidders to visit.
Within the new space the section set aside for the auctions is limited as the high majority of bids now flow through the phones and over the Internet. Sales will still occur here but the bids will arrive mostly from across town and from around the world.
They have been in the new space since July 1st and the transition is well underway, and in fact, although it is summer, the regular pace of sales continues.
Come fall the house will begin to sell the exceptional Warren Heckrotte collection of Rare Cartography, Exploration and Voyages, that will be dispersed in what is expected to be four sales over the next eight months. I had a chance to view the material and saw some beautiful examples of important voyages, early maps, and other rarities. [link to pba press release]
So you’ll have good reason to stop by. The new location has a nice feel and ample nearby parking and the material coming up for sale is very appealing. It turns out both the management of PBA and Mr. Heckrotte have a good eye. And that’s a good thing. Just as book dealers move out of cities so too auction houses may. But book auctions in San Francisco are a very old thing and PBA’s decision to remain here provides an ongoing vital link between past and future.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: APRES DE MANNEVILLETTE Le Neptune Oriental
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSAS Eaux fortes de la Sicile et quelques vues d’Espagne
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSINI DE THURY Carte générale et particulière de la France.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: JOUY; GARNERAY Vues des côtes de France dans l'Océan et dans la Méditerranée
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LA PÉROUSE Voyage autour du monde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LE GENTIL DE LA GALAISIERE Voyage dans les Mers de l’Inde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LICENT Hoang Ho, Pai Ho, Loan Ho, Leao Ho. Itinéraires suivis dans le bassin du golfe du Pei Tcheuly
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: FRENCH SCHOOL FROM THE 19th CENTURY Panorama d’Athènes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PEETERS Description des principales villes, havres et isles du golfe de Venise
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PÉRON; FREYCINET Voyage de découverte aux terres australes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: STACKELBERG La Grèce : vues pittoresques et topographiques.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: VALENTINER Atlas des Sonnensystems.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). The Thirteen Problems, first edition, The Crime Club, 1932. £15,000 to £20,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Dumb Witness, first edition, 1937. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Cards on the Table, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £2,000 to £3,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Carr (John Dickson)], "Carter Dickson" and John Rhode. Drop to his Death, first edition, Heinemann, [1939]. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Berkeley (Anthony). Jumping Jenny, first edition, Hodder and Stoughton, 1933. £800 to £1,200.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Marsh (Ngaio). Overture to Death, first edition, The Crime Club, 1939. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Day-Lewis (Cecil)] "Nicholas Blake". The Beast Must Die, first edition, 1938. £750 to £1,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Brand (Christianna). Green for Danger, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, John Lane the Bodley Head, 1945. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Murder is Easy, first edition, signed by the author, 1939. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Sayers (Dorothy L.) Lord Peter Views the Body, first edition, Gollancz, 1928. £6,000 to £8,000.
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RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
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Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 11,135 USD
Sotheby’s: Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845. 33,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Leo Tolstoy, Clara Bow. War and Peace, 1886. 22,500 USD
Sotheby’s: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1902. 7,500 USD
Sotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and Others, 1920-1941. 24,180 USD
Freeman’s | Hindman Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana November 14
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: LEROUX, Gaston. The Phantom of the Opera. FIRST AM. ED, FIRST ISSUE IN THE VERY RARE DUST JACKET. 1911. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD, John. A Monograph of the Trochilidae...Humming-Birds. L., [1849-] 1861. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: A COMPLETE RUN of Limited Editions Club publications, v.p. [mostly New York], 1929-2010. $50,000 – 60,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Lon., 1949. FIRST EDITION IN A VERY FINE DUST JACKET. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD. A Monograph of the Ramphastidae...Toucans. L., [1852-] 54. SECOND ED. $35,000 – 45,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14:The Federalist. NY, 1788. FIRST EDITION, THICK PAPER COPY. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: SELBY. Plates to Selby’s Illustrations of British Ornithology. Edin., [1833-] 34. $20,000 – 30,000.