Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2019 Issue

Site Changes Coming on Rare Book Hub: the only constant is change.

Looking Ahead

Looking Ahead

For Americana Exchange and more recently its successor Rare Book Hub change has always been part of the equation.  Change online is necessary as the structure of the Internet evolves, speeds increase, and underlying assumptions about how websites function and are used, change.  Early on the focus was on duplicating print services electronically. The idea was to create a great portable library that researchers could access at their desks.  For those who tried it in 2002, it worked but most did not need it because the post-World War II structure of the rare book business was still, if wavering, intact.  Shows were robust, dealer catalogues flowed off presses every day, institutions were significant acquirers and dealers still running shops.  It was an understandable world even as enormous changes were occurring on the Internet.

 

These changes profoundly affected the rare book business.  More and more people posted material on line to sell and simultaneously the number of listing sites began to decline as the rule, be No. 1 or be gone, took hold.  As importantly, book collectors began to buy on these listing sites, thereby undermining the need for open shops, thereby weakening the field’s traditional structure, a weakening that continues today.

 

Since 2002 AE/RBH has built three databases and along the way, moved from stand-alone servers to the cloud while increasing the Transaction Database from 151,000 records on day 1 to 9.4 million full text records today.

 

This January we’ll introduce a fresh version of the site and an hour by hour Newsfeed for the rare book, manuscript, map and ephemera fields and then, a few months later, dedicated apps to turn your phone into a combination work station and daily newspaper for the field.

 

In taking these steps we look to help the field continue to transition, to keep the field relevant to the emerging next generation of collectors who see the world in a fresh way and we hope become enamored by collectible paper’s appealing complexity.

 

2020 will be an important year as we try to make the case to the next generation that what has been highly collectible for hundreds of years should be equally important to them once they see the view through the prism that the internet has made possible.

 

In closing, we at Rare Book Hub appreciate the broad support we have been receiving and want to thank all who, as visitors or paid services members, have used the site to advance their knowledge and understanding this past year.

 

Bruce McKinney

Managing Partner

Rare Book Hub


Posted On: 2019-12-01 03:08
User Name: cartog

Hello Bruce,
Thank you for working hard to remain current and provide us, your subscribers with timely market information. I have not yet learned how to use this service to its full capacity. I often also consult Abe Books which does something a little different than Rare Book Hub. . There does seem to be room on Rare Book Hub for a means of identifying and directing attention to shops. It might be a directory, for example. Without actual shops, the computer listings really become a commodities exchange. Not a desirable result.

I do not have a shop, and at this time participate in shows. This means I can only meet a very small sample of collectors, new browsers and institutional staff. I wonder whether you have any interest in being a show sponsor at some point. The shows are also faltering because booth fees for commercially produced shows are beyond what makes economic sense for the most part, and this trend will only continue without a new sponsorship model for dealer shows. The collective "profession" and those interested in preserving knowledge and maintaining a public marketplace of books, maps and letters do have to create either a new model, or engage new participants. The internet model is not a success if it ultimately challenges the primacy of browsing books, maps and other printed or manuscript works in person.
Any thoughts on your part?
Have a good end of the year.
Carol


Posted On: 2019-12-02 02:24
User Name: mairin

Impressive news on these upcoming initiatives,
especially the redesigned Rare Book Hub website
and the hourly Newsfeed. I'll be watching.
Every success with this, and thank you for continuing
commitment to responsible & timely data-collection,
Maureen E. Mulvihill, collector.
___


Posted On: 2019-12-11 16:26
User Name: Fattrad1

Bruce,

Wishing you every success in this technology transition.


Rare Book Monthly

  • GonnelliAuction 59Antique prints, paintings and mapsMay 20th 2025 GonnelliAuction 59Antique prints, paintings and mapsMay 20th 2025
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    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 BooksAuction May 26th Ketterer Rare BooksAuction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    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'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    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

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions