Chance encounters are an important aspect of collecting
On a recent day on eBay there was an interesting mix of Hudson River Valley material.
Post card of Zepf’s Hotel & Restaurant [near Poughkeepsie]. Buy it now $18.50
An engraving of Esopus Landing [1853]. Buy it now $39.99
Village of Newburgh, New York Bond for Sewer Work on Smith Street [1888]. Auction start: $14.99
The Origin and Signification of Scottish Surnames [1862]. Buy it now $99.95
Antique Daguerreotype, D T Lawrence, Newburgh NY. $14.95 Auction start: $14.95
Native American Arrow/Point, Greene, Late Woodland Leaf, Ulster County, NY Auction start: $10.29
Vintage St. John’s Costume Dance Photograph, Kingston, Ulster County. Buy it now $34.95
The Beginnings of New York by Mary Isabella Forsyth [1909] Buy it now: $49.95
Vintage 1930s Kingston NY Boxing Photo. Buy it now: $43.96
The material is interesting because it generally closely relates to what I collect, is random and continuing. There is no particular holiday or event to prompt these listings. They are simply, more or less, what regularly shows on eBay in searches relating to the Hudson River Valley. I’m sure the same is true for the gamut of collecting possibilities. The first time you look you’ll be quite impressed. Over the next month you’ll see the possibilities slowly change and occasionally, perhaps once a month, see a few things that are remarkable. And once a year you’ll make a spectacular find.
In time you’ll accumulate some categories that you had never thought about. Post cards are sometimes interesting, particularly early photographic cards. They tell a story that is otherwise difficult to know.
Broadsides are more difficult to find and when they come up they tend to come in groups. Years ago I bought roughly a dozen broadsides advertising travelling shows in the 1850s and 1860s that decamped at Kingston, New York for a few days. Kingston, then also known as Rondout, was one of the stops for itinerant acting companies who plied the towns and landings north and south on the Hudson.
And then there are the once in a lifetime possibilities. Perhaps ten years ago a group of early bound volumes of the Poughkeepsie Journal [1804-1820] were posted on eBay. Some were bound expensively in the best bindings, individual issues placed between protective sheets. Others were more conventionally bound. These volumes, as I recall about eight of them, were stunning rarities in impossibly good condition. Later, at a country a stack of bound 1820-1850 Poughkeepsie newspapers were offered. They cost $90, the shipping two or three times that much.
The point here is that eBay searches are worthwhile. They do not replace dealers or traditional auctions but if you are prepared to prowl the weeds you’ll sometimes find gems.
As to what such items cost they are sometimes unbearably cheap and other times expensive. You have to know both what they are worth and what they are worth to you.
At book fairs some of the most interesting booths have racks of ephemera and often long lines of the interested waiting their chance to look. De Wolfe and Wood provide occasional emailed lists of premium ephemera. Others do too. The minutia of collecting is very desirable.
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.