Rare Book Monthly

Articles - April - 2018 Issue

A New Look for Old World Auctions

The homepage of Old World Auctions' brand new website

The homepage of Old World Auctions' brand new website

Many of you have been members of Rare Book Hub for years now, and over that time, you have surely witnessed the site change and evolve. But we are certainly not the only business in the industry innovating and undergoing redesigns! Old World Auctions, the online-only auction house specializing in maps and cartography and run by Eliane and Jon Dotson, has just released a brand new iteration of their website and auction platform. I had a chance to catch up with Eliane on the phone this past month, and she walked me through some of the biggest changes they’ve made.

 

Old World Auctions’ previous website was built in the 1990s, so to say it was due for an overhaul is a major understatement. For Eliane, the age of the site was felt most in its lack of flexibility to add features or to fix things when inevitable bugs cropped up, but her customers had different issues with the original site. So, two years ago, the Dotsons surveyed their members asking for feedback, and with the new site’s deployment, buyers and sellers at Old World have been heard. Before I go into detail about what’s changed though, I should mention that some things remain the same. Their auctions still operate in the same manner, with an online catalog open for bidding for one to two weeks before auctions close at 10pm eastern time. Browsing and searching auctions, adding items to a Watch List, and a Bid Status List have all been carried over as well (though they’ve also been updated and overhauled). Existing login details have also not changed.

 

The most striking difference you’ll immediately notice when going to oldworldauctions.com is the aesthetic change. The site is modern, with a large and eye-catching slideshow of highlight lots from the current or most recently past auction. This works particularly well because of Old World’s map-centric offerings that are inherently visual. Going past the initial impression, the site has been vastly decluttered. Clear links for the company’s newsletter, registering to bid, and consigning material present themselves on the homepage, while links related to auctions and the user’s account are kept in dropdown menus accessible in the top right corner.

 

A wealth of new features has been added to the site, and this is a direct response to member feedback. Global keyword and advanced searches of both the current auction and past auction archive are now available. Eliane told me that the motivation for this, especially in providing a transparent and searchable auction archive, stems from the fact that “our goal is always to be as open and honest as possible to build trust with our customers.” Over sixty thousand previously auctioned lots are searchable going back to 1998, with estimates, prices, and images included for each. As an employee of a service that prides itself on providing transparency to all elements of the rare book field, I believe this is a great move for the industry.

 

The Bid Status List that existed on the old site remains, but it has been updated to provide real-time data and a live count-down clock for individual lots is now present. Color coding has also been added as clear indicators of status, whether above or below the reserve, or simply outbid. Members’ invoice histories are also now easily accessible back to 1999. And finally, the site is mobile friendly!

 

As someone who periodically handles tech support requests for Rare Book Hub, I am keenly aware that when websites undergo major change, there can be a bit of a learning curve. Old World Auctions knows this too, and they’ve created a YouTube channel with several information videos on important subjects: How to Bid, Managing a Watch List, and Bidding the During the 10-Minute Rule. If you have bid on their auctions in the past, or plan to in the future, I recommend watching their videos here. They total less than 15 minutes combined.

 

Website development and evolution is a process, and Old World Auctions is not done. In the coming months, more features will be added to the new site:

  • Additional search functionality, including searching within a price range, condition range, or date range (for the past auction archive)
  • Additional browse functionality to allow you to select how many lots are visible on a page at one time (currently the maximum is 50 per page)
  • Adding over 80,000 high-resolution images to the past auction archive

 

Old World Auctions’ next auction is scheduled to begin May 23rd and end June 6th. Their most recent sale ended March 28th, but they are currently conducting a post-auction sale of unsold items for reserve prices through April 4th.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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