• <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> Charles Monroe Schulz, <i>The Peanuts gang,</i> complete set of 13 drawings, ink, 1971. Sold June 15 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Family Archive of Photographs & Letters. Sold June 1 — $60,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Victor H. Green, <i>The Negro Motorist Green Book,</i> New York, 1949. Sold March 30 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> William Shakespeare, <i>King Lear; Othello;</i> [and] <i>Anthony & Cleopatra;</i> Extracted from the First Folio, London, 1623. Sold May 4— $185,000.
    <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> William Samuel Schwartz, <i>A Bridge in Baraboo, Wisconsin,</i> oil on canvas, circa 1938. Sold February 16 — $32,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Lena Scott Harris, <i>Group of approximately 65 hand-colored botanical studies, all apparently California native plants,</i> hand-colored silver prints, circa 1930s. Sold February 23 — $37,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Suzanne Jackson, <i>Always Something To Look For,</i> acrylic & pencil on linen canvas, circa 1974. Sold April 6 — $87,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Gustav Klimt, <i>Das Werk von Gustav Klimt,</i> complete with 50 printed collotype plates, Vienna & Leipzig, 1918. Sold June 15 — $68,750.
  • <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>September 27<br>The Library of the Late Christopher Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey: Part One</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Bible, Dominican Use, in Latin. Illuminated manuscript on vellum, [France: probably Paris, c. 1240]. £10,000-15,000
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Book of Hours, <i>in French with Latin cues.</i> Illuminated manuscript on vellum [France, Normandy, early(?) 15th century]. £10,000-15,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Book of Hours, <i>Use of Rouen, in Latin and French.</i> Illuminated manuscript on vellum, [France: Rouen, c. 1480]. £30,000-40,000
    <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>September 27<br>The Library of the Late Christopher Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey: Part One</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Mary I (1516-1558). <i>Queen of England, 1553-1558.</i> Letter signed, ‘Marye the Quene’, Greenwich, 7 January 1558. £15,000-20,000
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Jonson (Ben). Works, 1st collected edition, 3 volumes, 1640. £7,000-10,000
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Essex. A sammelband of 27 English Civil War pamphlets mostly relating to the siege of Colchester, Essex, 1648. £5,000-8,000
    <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>September 27<br>The Library of the Late Christopher Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey: Part One</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Latham (Simon). Latham’s Faulconry, or the Faulcons Lure and Cure, 2 parts in one, 1658/. £2,000-3,000
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Exquemelin (Alexandre Olivier). The History of the Bucaniers of America, 2 volumes in 1, 2nd edition, 1695. £1,000-1,500
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Campbell (Patrick). Travels in the interior inhabited parts of North America..., 1st ed., 1793. £5,000-8,000
    <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>September 27<br>The Library of the Late Christopher Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey: Part One</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Burton (Richard F.). Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, 3 volumes, 1st edition, 1855-56. £5,000-8,000
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Cosway-style binding. Napoleon and the Fair Sex, 1894. One of 9 similar lots. £1,000-1,500
    <b>Dominic Winter, Sep. 27:</b> Shepard (Ernest Howard, 1879-1976). Pooh and Piglet, original pen and ink drawing, 1958. £20,000-30,000
  • <center><b>Sotheby's<br>English Literature and History<br>Available for Immediate Purchase</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, Available Now:</b> William Shakespeare. <i>A Midsummer-Night's Dream,</i> 1908. 7,500 USD
    <b>Sotheby’s, Available Now:</b> Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. <i>Brontës' Novels,</i> 1922. 2,400 USD
    <b>Sotheby’s, Available Now:</b> Lewis Carroll. <i>Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,</i> 1872. 25,000 USD
    <b>Sotheby’s, Available Now:</b> Charles Dickens. Collection of Fiction including <i>Oliver Twist</i> and <i>Sketches by Boz,</i> 1838-1865. 6,250 USD
    <b>Sotheby’s, Available Now:</b> Mary Shelley. <i>Frankenstein,</i> 1839. 4,250 USD
    <b>Sotheby’s, Available Now:</b> James Joyce. <i>Ulysses,</i> 1925. 2,500 USD
    <b>Sotheby’s, Available Now:</b> Jane Austen. <i>The Complete Works of Jane Austen,</i> 1901. 5,250 USD

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2022 Issue

The Rare Book Hub Top 500 Auction Prices for Books and Works on Paper for 2021 – It Was a Record Year

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America's founding documents the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, were in the top 4 (Freeman's/Sotheby's photos)

Another year has come to a close, meaning it is time to look back at the Rare Book Hub Top 500 prices paid at auction in the books and paper field for 2021. This was a spectacular year, unlike any we have seen before. Prices were skyrocketing across the board, while ephemeral types of paper continued to see an astonishing growth in prices. At the very top, the most expensive item sold for over $43 million, the highest ever for something in the collectible paper field. More amazing was the increase at #500, as this is more indicative of the high end of the field than one single item at the top. Number 500 sold for $119,700. In 2020 #500 was $75,000. That is a year-to-year increase of 60%!

 

It will come as little surprise to those who follow the works-on-paper field that items other than traditional books now dominate the high end of the market. This is an evolution that has been ongoing for several years. None of the top 10 highest prices last year was for a printed book. Manuscripts and shorter forms of paper tend to bring the highest prices. We have also seen a head-scratching growth in the prices of two types of collectible paper – comic books and sports cards. Every year we debate whether they should be included. A decade ago they were an insignificant presence. Now they hold 40% of the listings. We retain them because they are collectible paper, and their inclusion helps to clarify what forms of paper are most collectible in these times.

 

This past year there were 78 listings of comics or original artwork created specifically for use in comics, such as storyboards and cover art. Even more surprising, there were 129 sports cards, mostly baseball cards but many for basketball, some for football, a few for hockey, and one for soccer. I don't know if you are ready for this but there were also 11 Pokemon cards, up from four the previous year. They sold for prices from $156,000 - $408,000. Your children hate you for throwing out their Pokemon cards like you did your parents for throwing out your baseball cards.

 

Here's where we should mention what sort of paper is included or excluded. We do not include original artwork unless it was created specifically to illustrate a book or its cover. We also exclude prints if they were created for artistic purposes rather than to convey information or are of historic value. If art prints were included they would totally dominate the list. Banksy would have made the list 59 times, Andy Warhol 49 times, Pablo Picasso nine. I've never been that fond of Warhol or Picasso but I do like the self-effacing Banksy, though not at these prices. On the other hand, prints by Currier and Ives are included.

 

Single pages from a book are tallied. These are usually plates from Audubon's double-elephant folio Birds of America. They are beautiful. A single page from the Gutenberg Bible also made the cut this year.

 

Some traditional writers and major leaders still make the list but not as much as they used to. Charles Darwin still has 7 appearances. Shakespeare has 4. George Washington is down to 3, Abraham Lincoln 2. Charles Dickens, a long-time favorite, is down to only one. At least it was good year for Einstein with 5. On the other hand, Mickey Mantle appears 17 times, Michael Jordan, 12, Babe Ruth 11. He isn't real, but Spider-Man is on the list 11 times. Even some ballplayers who, while outstanding, are not great celebrities make the list, including Al Kaline, Warren Spahn, Mike Schmidt, Ozzie Smith, Duke Snider, Rod Carew, Ricky Henderson, Scotty Pippin and George Mikan. Even a basketball card for Zion Williamson, who has not established greatness, has barely even played yet due to injuries, brought $348,000.

 

Are Mantle and Jordan more important than Washington and Lincoln, Spider-Man a greater literary giant than Shakespeare? Should I be bothered that their appearances kept a first edition of Sense and Sensibility, an autograph manuscript by Isaac Newton concerning issues in the Principia, a four-volume Blaeu atlas and a Shakespeare Second Folio out of the Top 500? Here is where we are treading on thin ice. The market has made its choice and those of us who disagree will be charged with elitism. Is there some standard for saying one is more important than the other or is it all a matter of taste? Good and bad, right or wrong, who determines? Something inside tells me Shakespeare is a better writer than whoever created Spider-Man, but what is that based on? Somebody help me here, or is this just elitism, PC, being “woke?”

 

Before we reach the Top 10, we will mention a few other interesting items, and after the Top 10 provide a link to the entire Top 500.

 

497. A broadside announces that Texas has seceded from the Union on February 1, 1861. $119,700.

 

483. Looking back, a retired George Washington writes, “To have steered my Bark amid the intricacies of variegated public employment, to a haven of rest with an approving conscience; and while receiving the approbation of my own country for the part I have acted, to meet similar proofs of it from many of the moderate & virtuous of other countries consummates my greatest wish and all my ambition and in my eye is more precious than any thing that Power or riches could have bestowed.” That sums up who Washington was in one sentence. $125,000.

 

428. Galileo's Dialogo that got him in so much trouble. $137,500.

 

403. Buzz Aldrin's lunar landing checklist. $143,740.

 

360. A sheet of paper with Mohandas Gandhi's signature and fingerprints. $150,152.

 

275. A musical manuscript by Mozart. $186,857.

 

173. $100,000 reward poster for John Wilkes Booth. You get a bigger reward for the poster. $275,000.

 

121. Rochambeau's copy of a manuscript map of Yorktown by French military engineer Desandrouins. $352,800.

 

92. Earliest obtainable printing of the Emancipation Proclamation. $403,200.

 

14. A group of 71 salt prints by photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot given to his sister. $1,956,000.

 

And here is the Top 10.

 

10. An autograph manuscript with Isaac Newton's revisions of his Principia for the second edition. $2,362,049.

 

9. A 1909 Sweet Caporal Honus Wagner baseball card, the most desirable of all cards (#11 is another 1909 Honus Wagner). $2,520,000

 

8. Dune. Materials gathered for the film adaptation of this science fiction classic that never came to be. $3,000,946.

 

7. Amazing Fantasy #15. Comic featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man. $3,600,000.

 

6. An illuminated manuscript Book of Hours in Latin and French, circa 1440s. $3,630,000.

 

5. Les Aventures de Tintin Reporter en Extrême-Orient, adventures of Tintin in the Far East. Hergé's (Georges Remi) comic character is known to bring astronomical prices. $3,862,074.

 

4. Signer Charles Carroll of Carrollton's copy of the Declaration of Independence. This is the 1824 William Stone facsimile. Carroll was the last survivor of the signers, living until 1832. $4,420,000.

 

3. The Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor. This is a circa 1300 illuminated manuscript Ashkenazic Hebrew prayer book for the Jewish High Holidays. $8,307,000.

 

2. The autograph Einstein-Besso Manuscript discussing the general theory of relativity, 54 pages written by Albert Einstein and Michele Besso in 1913-1914. $13,184,172.

 

1. The first printing of the United States Constitution from 1787. One of only 12 known copies. It was purchased by multi-billionaire hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin. $43,173,000.

 

This is your link to the complete Rare Book Hub Top 500.


Posted On: 2022-01-01 15:31
User Name: arnet1

Perhaps the time is right to segregate the markets into separate top 500 lists, with comic books and sports cards in a “tulip” category, and maybe one for NFTs...they're coming.


Posted On: 2022-01-01 20:34
User Name: savitale

I agree. Though I very much appreciate the list as-is, separate lists would also be valuable. For example the remark that #500 increased from $75,000 to $119,700 is now difficult to interpret. Does it mean all areas increased by 60%? Books increased by 60%? Sports cards increased by 200%? Few people care about all areas of “paper” equally and interchangeably. As a first step it would not be too much work to take the existing list of 500 and parse it into 3 or 4 separate lists as well, even if the number of items in each list is not the same.


Posted On: 2022-01-01 20:42
User Name: savitale

Alternatively, though I don’t recommend picking and choosing auction houses in general, if there were a filter to remove the Heritage Auction listings that would by and large eliminate the sports cards and comic books.


Posted On: 2022-01-14 18:57
User Name: briteness

Interesting list! I like throwing all the sales together and not segregating by categories, although the results can be rather dismaying. Still, the whole game has always been filled with obsessions and rules which can seem a little ridiculous from the outside. Whatever people want to spend their money on, let them spend; I will not judge them. I will make a judgement that manuscripts or letters by people like Einstein, Newton, or Washington are likely to do better over the long term than comics featuring Tintin or Spiderman (or any baseball card), but the long term is longer than any of us will be around. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!


Rare Book Monthly

  • <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Alken (Henry), Thomas Egerton et al. <i>The Melange of Humour,</i> first collected edition, Printed by W. Lewis, [c.1835]. £2,000 to £3,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> [Cheny (John) and Thomas Butler, publishers]. <i>[Horses & Their Pedigrees],</i> Cheny & Butler, 1740-1746 or 1751-1753. £4,000 to £6,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Dikenman (R.) Voyage en Suisse, Zurich, [c.1830]. £2,000 to £3,000.
    <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Eckert (H.A.) Monten (Dietrich) and F. Schlever. <i>Das K.K. Russische Militair aus dem grossen Werke Saemmtliche Truppen von Europa,</i> first edition, Wuerzburg, 1840 [but c.1842]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Havell, Junior (Robert). <I>Costa Scena, or a Cruise along the Southern Coast of Kent,</I> hand-coloured aquatint panorama with original boxwood drum, 1823. £3,000 to £4,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Heideloff (Victor). <i>Ansichten des Herzoglich Württembergischen Landsitzes Hohenheim,</i> first edition in original 6 parts, Nuremberg, 1795-1800. £4,000 to £6,000.
    <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Jones (Owen) and Jules Goury. <i>Views on the Nile: from Cairo to the Second Cataract,</i> first edition, Graves and Warmsley, 1843. £3,000 to £4,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Meyer (Johann Heinrich). <i>Der Rigiberg in Zeichnungen nach der Natur,</i> Zurich, Fuessli, 1807. £3,000 to £4,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Nichol (Andrew). <i>Five Views of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway,</i> first edition, Dublin, William Frederick Wakeman, 1834. £5,000 to £7,000.
    <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Schetky (J. C.) A series of four sketches, illustrative of various situations of His Majesty's Ship Pique, Portsea, Trives & Maynard, 1835. £4,000 to £6,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Stackelberg (Otto Magnus von). <i>Costumes et Usages des Peuples de la Grece Moderne,</i> first edition, Rome, 1825. £20,000 to £30,000.
    <b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Stucchi (Stanislao). <i>Raccolta di Scene Teatrali eseguite o disegnate dai più celebri Pittori Scenici in Milano,</i> 3 vol., Milan, 1817. £6,000 to £8,000.
  • <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>28th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Asia.- Mandeville (Sir John). <i>Tractato bellissimo delle piu maravigliose cose & piu motabile che sitrovino nelle parte delmondo,</i> Florence, [Lorenzo Morgiani], [?1505] or possibly, 1496-99. £40,000 to £60,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Arabic ms.- Ghazaliyaat Kan'at al-Arabi [Divan of Poetry written in Arabic], illuminated manuscript in Arabic, Safavid Persia (probably Isfahan), [second quarter of 16th century]. £12,000 to £16,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Foxe (John). <i>Actes and monuments of these latter and perillous dayes, touching matters of the Church…,</i> first edition, dwellyng ouer Aldersgate, [20th March, 1563]. £15,000 to £20,000.
    <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>28th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Barrie (J.M.) <i>Peter Pan or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up,</i> first play edition, signed presentation inscription from the author "To my dear Jane Pan", 1928. £3,000 to £4,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Gillray (James). John Bull taking a Luncheon: -or- British Cooks, cramming Old Grumble-Gizzard, with Bonne-Chére, etching with hand-colouring, 1798. £1,500 to £2,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Middle East.- Roberts (David). <i>The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia,</i> 6 vol. bound as 4, first edition, 1842-49. £12,000 to £18,000.
    <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>28th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Greenwood (C. & J.) <i>Map of London made from an Actual Survey in the Years 1824, 1825 & 1826...,</i> first edition, engraved map, 1827. £15,000 to £20,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Newton (Sir Isaac). <i>Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light…,</i> first edition, 1704. £15,000 to £20,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Smith (Percy John Delf). Collection of 19 original preliminary drawings for "Twelve Drypoints of the War 1914-1918", circa 1914-1918; together with 11 drypoints from "Twelve Drypoints of the War 1914-1918", 1925. £15,000 to
    <b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>28th September 2023</b>
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Guild of Women Binders.- Watts (Alaric A.) <i>Lyrics of the Heart: with other poems</I>, in a stunning richly gilt green crushed morocco by the Guild of Women Binders, Longman, 1851. £12,000 to £18,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Cosway binding.- Dodgson (Charles Lutwidge). "Lewis Carroll". <i>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,</i> in a Cosway binding with miniatures by Miss C.B. Currie, 1868. £10,000 to £15,000.
    <b>Forum Auctions, Sep. 28:</b> Fleming (Ian). <i>Casino Royale,</i> first edition, first impression, 1953. £18,000 to £22,000.
  • <center><b>Jeschke Jadi Auctions Berlin<br>Rare Books, Prints, Historical Photography<br>29 September 2023</b>
    <b>Jeschke Jádi, Sep. 29:</b> Jan Theodor de Bry. <i>Anthologia magna sive Florilegium novum.</i> 1626. 9,000 €
    <b>Jeschke Jádi, Sep. 29:</b> John Locke. <i>Epistola de tolerantia ad Clarissimum Virum T.A.R.P.T.O.L.A.</i> 1689. 9000 €
    <b>Jeschke Jádi, Sep. 29:</b> F. T. Marinetti, Boccioni, Pratella, Carrà, a.o. <i>Collection of 35 Futurist manifestos.</i> 1909-1933. 7000 €
    <b>Jeschke Jádi, Sep. 29:</b> Johann Elert Bode, Rare engraved celestial globe. (1804). 6000 €
    <b>Jeschke Jádi, Sep. 29:</b> Sebastian Brant (ed.). <i>Tertia pars huius operis in se continens glosam ordinariam cum expositione lyre litterali et morali.</i> 1498. 5000 €
  • <center><b>Christie’s<br>Charlie Watts: Literature and Jazz<br>London and online auction<br>15–29 September</b>
    <b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940). <i>The Great Gatsby.</i> New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925. £100,000–150,000
    <b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). </i>The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes.</b> London: George Newnes, 1902. £70,000–100,000
    <b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>Agatha Christie (1890–1976). <i>The Thirteen Problems.</i> London: for the Crime Club Ltd. by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1932. £40,000–60,000
    <b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961). <i>The Maltese Falcon.</i> New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. £30,000–50,000
  • <b><center>CONSIGN NOW</b>
    <b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br> H. Scherer, <i>Atlas novus exhibens orbem terraqueum,</i> 1702-10.<br>Est: € 15,000
    <b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br> L. de Varthema, <i>Die Ritterlich und lobwirdig rayß,</i> 1515.<br>Est: € 60,000
    <b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br> G. Heym, <i>Umbra vitae,</i> 1924.<br>Est: € 8,000
    <b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br>F. de Wit, <i>Orbis maritimus ofte Zee Atlas,</i> around 1680.<br>Est: € 15,000
  • <center><b>Gonnelli: Auction 46 Books<br>Autographs & Manuscripts<br>Oct 3rd-5th 2023</b>
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Tilson - Zanotto, Il vero tema. 2011. Starting price 150 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Munari, Storia di un filo. Starting price 400 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Debord, Contre le cinéma. 1964. Starting price 150 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Futurism books and ephemera
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Travel books
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Medicine books
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Levaillant, Histoire naturelle des perroquets. 1801-1805. Starting price 52.000 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Carrera, Il gioco de gli scacchi. 1617. Starting price 3200 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Vergilius, Opera. 1515. Starting price 800 €

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