Leslie Hindman Auctioneers Acquires Cowans of Cincinnati
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Thomas Galbraith CEO, Leslie Hindman and Wes Cowan
We have, for years, seen more and more auction houses appearing online. Some are new, others long established but only recently embracing the internet. And so overall, year after year, the number of auction houses joining the world-wide auction market has increased. Inevitably, some houses would combine. Sotheby’s famously acquired Parke-Bernet in 1964 and more recently, eBay jettisoned their support of traditional auctions and have since struggled to establish a marketplace for the high-volume, lower-priced material that overhangs the market today. None of these moves were made exclusively to ensure or preserve the rare book component. This category, in all such marriages and maneuvers, sits in the backseat if not the trunk. Books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera matter but the sales of furniture, jewelry, art and cars [to name a few categories] is where the money seems to be today.
At the same time, the internet has made it easier to identify and understand interesting material wherever it shows up. On Rare Book Hub we cover over three hundred houses and see 2 or 3 new ones join our services every quarter. This has made it possible to see relevant material world-wide in a single search, a frankly revolutionary development, that continues to intensify.
The logic of combination is a function of money, fatigue and marketing. In the auction field additional volume tends to improve the bottom line before accounting for the costs of acquisition so the logic is apparent. However, it’s never certain that the acquirers will be able to hold onto the many relationships on which such business depends. Stated simply, it’s complicated.
Perhaps the driving force for combination is the way these business are elaborating. Today, some firms have many locations that seem to be more for securing consignments than holding sales. Perhaps that’s a good strategy. Consignors certainly look every day for firms to consign to so having nearby places to visit will increase contacts. The problem of course is the extraordinary number of tire-kickers who think anything old must be very valuable. I doubt the auction houses want those contacts.
What will be a clear win for auction house mergers will be the reduced costs of online presentation. Every house, to be effective, has to substantially invest online to make a good impression. Joining forces both saves money and increases possibilities for that component of the auction house presentation that is the public interface. The quality of such interfaces range widely and no doubt affect bidder participation. And there is another factor.
The net is not static. It is in constant motion, and in good years and bad, relentlessly necessary to keep all aspects of the presentation up-to-date. And this is a tall order.
So net-net, I imagine that the Hindman-Cowan transaction will prove beneficial but I see it as a relay race and this simply one of the inevitable handoffs that must be handled perfectly but will not, of itself, insure success. For that, it will take continued artful handling of the internet challenges. And I’m convinced both parties know this. So, I look forward to see what they do. Both have done very well and I expect now, as they merge, they’ll do ever better.
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.
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.