Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2020 Issue

ILAB Webinar Invitation: Wrapping up 2020 - We did it! But how?

A Complex Year explained from the bookseller's perspective

A Complex Year explained from the bookseller's perspective

ILAB Booksellers meet again and look back at a year of challenges, innovation and newly found skills

 

In April earlier this year, ILAB invited to a webinar with booksellers from across the globe to look at the immediate effect of the COVID pandemic on the rare book trade. 

 

Since April, staff was furloughed, came back and was sent home again as some countries are now experiencing a new wave of infections and restrictions. 

 

Bookshops were boarded off and later reopened under strict hygienic measures. Some are closed again. 

 

Institutions shifted their budgets to 2021, some demanded much longer admin time than usual, others only recently moved their staff out of home office.


Nearly all book fairs were cancelled and the concept of virtual fairs gained momentum. Online platforms saw a major increase in traffic and customers.

 

How has the rare book trade adapted to this new landscape eight months on?


How did booksellers handle this extreme situation and what have we learned we can share with our colleagues?


Can we take some positives from 2020 and apply to a post-COVID world?

 

Sally Burdon, ILAB President and moderator of the event, will speak again to:

Mario Giupponi, Italy
Brad Johnson, US
Pom Harrington, UK
Ryu Sato, Japan
Hervé Valentin, France
and Sibylle Wieduwilt, Germany

 

DATE: 7th December 2020 at 1pm London time

Further sample times:
Los Angeles: 5am
New York: 8am
London: 1pm
Berlin, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Stockholm: 2pm
Moscow: 4pm
Tokyo: 10pm
Canberra: 00:00 midnight

 

Please use the following link and register (only name and email address necessary): https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cbV9YfCeT1-ehbIvej9cGA

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
  • Heritage Auctions
    Rare Books Signature Auction
    December 15, 2025
    Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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