Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2024 Issue

Best wishes for the New Year!

2024:  it will be a busy year!

2024: it will be a busy year!

Two hundred and seven auction houses and venues contributed 2,427 sales this year to our Transaction History.  Altogether they offered 625,248 lots and 468,565 changed hands and kept us busy every day.  Going into 2024 the pace of sales appears to be steady.

 

This said, two emerging factors may disproportionately impact the near term market.  Old paper’s sweet spot at auction has been $2,000 per lot but some of the larger houses increasingly are raising their minimum lot values to support their burgeoning business models.  In consequence, single owner collectible paper sales, that contain material that falls within a broad range of rarity and value, may find it difficult to sell their collections through houses they bought from.  So be it.

 

For the past 200 years single owner sales has been the gold standard at auction and it will continue to be so but the houses that sell them may have different names.

 

Best wishes for 2024.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby'sFine Books, Manuscripts & MoreAvailable for Immediate Purchase Sotheby'sFine Books, Manuscripts & MoreAvailable for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Ian Fleming. Casino Royale, London, 1953. First edition, first printing. $58,610.
    Sotheby’s: A.A. Milne, Ernest Howard Shepard. Winnie The Pooh, United Kingdom, 1926. First UK edition. $17,580.
    Sotheby’s: Ernest Hemingway. Three Stories And Ten Poems, [Paris], (1923). First edition of Hemingway’s first published book. $75,000.
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: L. Frank Baum. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, 1900. First edition. $27,500.
    Sotheby’s: Man Ray. Photographs By Man Ray 1920 Paris 1934, Hartford, 1934. $7,860.
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Pennant. Zoologia Britannica, Augsburg, 1771. $49,125.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly! Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!

Article Search

Archived Articles