• Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2022 Issue

“NFT” Is the Word of the Year. But What Is It?

This is not a real (as in physical) baseball card.

Collins Dictionary has named its Word of the Year, and it's one that collectors of all stripes will need to know in the years ahead. The “word,” though it isn't really a word, is “NFT.” It's an abbreviation for two words and one prefix, “non-fungible token.” That's a mouthful and probably half the people who are familiar with NFTs don't know what it stands for, even if they understand the concept. For many others, they don't understand the concept even if they have read the definition. It is not easy for people who grew up in a physical world to understand the digital one. I know.

 

NFTs, which have only been around a few short years and were unknown to most a year ago, broke into the public consciousness last spring when a digital NFT artwork sold for $69.3 million. Say what? An artwork with no canvas, no physical being, just an electronic memory converted to a digital image by computer chips sold for $69.3 million. Nice job “Beeple,” aka Mike Winkelmann, the artist. You aren't going to hang that on your wall unless its via an electronic computer monitor attached to a computer.

 

Before we get to describing the relationship between NFTs and collectible paper, here is a brief explanation from someone who actually has no idea what an NFT is. First, “non-fungible.” “Fungible” means there are many like items that can replace each other. For example, a dollar bill is fungible. They are interchangeable. It doesn't matter which one you have. So, non-fungible means unique, such as an original painting, or the first handwritten manuscript of a book.

 

“Token” here means something that is “attached” to a digital copy. Like an inscription written in a book, the token is “attached” to the digital image. It stays with the image forever. Since it is non-fungible, the token is unique, one of a kind. Attach this unique token to an artwork or anything else in digital form, it now becomes unique, the only one with this token. Therefore, if your digital copy of an artwork has this first token “attached” to it, it means you have the first. It's as if you had the painting and everyone else had prints or photographs of it. So, while others may have digital images of your artwork that look the same on their computers, you have the only one that has been established as the first, the original artwork. Naturally, that is worth a whole lot more.

 

An associated word you have probably heard, particularly with regard to digital (or crypto) currencies like bitcoin, is “blockchain.” Like me, you may have no understanding of this either. Rather than NFTs and their digital works being stored in a database, in one place, controlled by one entity, it is stored on a “blockchain.” That consists of “blocks” of sealed, unchangeable data in private computers all over the world. They are attached to each other, so to speak, to create a chain of blocks. Since these blocks are sealed and cannot be changed, no one can ever change or remove the token. It is like that inscription in the writer's unique handwriting. It guarantees authenticity. Your ownership becomes guaranteed in the blockchain (though you can sell it to another who registers their ownership, sort of like a chain of property ownership documents at the county courthouse). This is how your ownership of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is guaranteed until you transfer it to another.

 

Now you may still be wondering what all this has to do with collectible books and paper. If artwork can be converted to NFTs, why not other forms of paper? We are already seeing it with baseball and other sports trading cards. Tampa Bay (and formerly New England Patriot) wide receiver Rob Gronkowski sold a collection of 349 of his digital NFT trading cards for $1.2 million. Just imagine how much his long-time buddy and teammate, Tom Brady, will be able to get for his. Topps, long the maker of tradition paper baseball cards, is now offering NFT versions.

 

Jack Dorsey, the founder to Twitter, sold an NFT of his first “tweet” for $2.9 million. What is a “tweet” but a digital version of a paper memo? An NFT of an original email could replace collectible old handwritten letters. And books? How about an NFT marked original manuscript of a book? Most authors are writing digitally on computers these days rather than creating paper manuscripts. This may be the only way to get an original manuscript in the future.

 

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's one-time attorney and fixer, has offered a one-page manuscript as an NFT. He wrote it in prison and it looks like it may have been a draft of the opening statement for his tell-all book. It begins, “The President of the United States wanted me dead, or, let me say it the way Donald Trump would: he wouldn't mind if I was dead. That was the way Trump talked. Like a mob boss...” In case you're concerned you'll be bumped off if you buy it, it is priced in etherium, an untraceable digital currency like bitcoin. The price is 2.17 Eth, which as of a few days ago was worth $8,500 (by now, that could be worth twice as much or half as much the way those values fluctuate).

 

So long as there is money to be made, these things will be created. While no one can say this will be a lasting passion rather than a fad, the prices indicate the seriousness of interest so far. Could this be the future of collecting?

 

Two of the other words that made it to Collins' top 10 were “crypto” and “Metaverse.” “Crypto” is short for cryptocurrency, the digital currency. “Metaverse” is that land combining reality and fantasy, a land where real people can live and converse in a digital world, where their avatars have virtual experiences, and what they display and trade are not their physical possessions. No, they will be digital ones, their NFTs. If you want to be a big man or woman in the Metaverse, you will need to have important and valuable NFTs. Just like the rich person today shows off his Picasso hanging on the wall, the rich one of tomorrow will have a Picasso NFT to show off in the Metaverse.

 

Sounds exciting? A lot of people think so. Facebook didn't change its name to “Meta” for no reason. Apple and others aren't devising AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) glasses for people who want to live only in the “real” world. Young people, so we hear, can only afford to live in tiny apartments that have no room for physical objects anyway. And Covid has taught us how to live in confined settings where our only connections to others is in the digital world. Is this sufficient? I don't know. To me, there seems to be something missing. The physical world can be experienced through five senses, sight, sound, touch, smell and taste, the digital world but two, sight and sound. Does this matter? I need a hug.


Posted On: 2022-01-04 09:26
User Name: 19531953

If enough idiots buy into a bad idea, it (lamentably) becomes a good idea!

Eric C. Caren


Posted On: 2022-01-31 02:31
User Name: bukowski

“NFT” is an acronym, isn’t it?


Rare Book Monthly

  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000

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