The Virtual Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair: September 11th -14th
- by Bruce E. McKinney
It seems only a year ago that book fairs were in-person experiences. Ah, for the old days. Covid-19 changed the stakes and the rare book field has had to actually answer the question; you want your money or your life. And the answers are: they want both - their lives and interesting printed material.
The solution has quickly become the electronic book fair.
Marvin Getman, the show promoter, now month by month, is developing this selling approach into an art form.
For this month’s iteration Marvin is presenting his Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair in the fully electronic form he has been developing. As is now standard, until it’s considered safe, book fairs are electronic until sometime in 2021 when and if dealers and collectors venture out of their homes to meet in person. For now electronic affairs seem to be satisfying both sides of the market.
As well, now here are some changes and new features as well as an additional day with some fresh inventory to reward the attentive:
Up until now, Mr. Getman had been limiting his monthly fairs to 150 dealers, with a growing waiting list, demand was so high for the Brooklyn Fair that he decided to raise the limit to 200+. That means that with a limit of 15 items each, there will be 3,000 items to browse.
“With so many items to browse I made the decision recently to add a fourth day and to make things exciting for the last day, dealers will be loading 3 fresh items into their booths for a total of 600 fresh items. The show will now end on Monday September 14th at 6:00 pm EDT.”
Dealers represent The United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Australia. Getman’s Virtual Book Fair is truly becoming an international affair. His platform will soon be used by shows across the U.S. for RareBooksLA, The Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar benefit Book Fair, The Fox Valley Antiques Show in Chicago, The Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair, and The Amsterdam International Antiquarian Book Fair.
The Brooklyn Book Fair will open at noon EDT on Friday September 11th and continue around the clock through Monday September 14th at 6:00 pm EST.
Admission to the show and webinars are free with registration. Link here.
The webinars are:
Special Guest: Michael Horse, aka Deputy Hawk, from the cult television series “Twin Peaks.”
Michael Horse will appear live at the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book and Paper Fair to give a seminar on American Indian ledger art and alternate worlds in his artwork. A small exhibition of his art and jewelry will be on display as well at the fair as well.
Horse is of Yaqui, Mescalero Apache, Zuni, European, and Hispanic descent. His mother trained him in the flat style of painting promoted by Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School known as ledger art. (She was also a potter and a kachina carver.) As a young man, Horse studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts (also in Santa Fe) with painter Fritz Scholder, sculptor Allen Houser, and potter-turned-jewelry-maker Charles Loloma. He eventually built a successful career of his own as a sculptor and jewelry-maker, working the fairs, markets, and Native American arts festivals, and has also built an impressive catalog of ledger art that includes an alternate history of America and a symbol-heavy map used in “Twin Peaks: The Return” (2017).
Exclusive Exhibition:
“Appeal to the Great Spirit: Designing the Beach Boys”
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.
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
Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000