Another year has come to a close, which means it's time to look back at the year just past with the annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 highest prices paid at auction for books and related collectibles. It was a very good year for the trade. If there was any fear that inflation and the American election would lead collectors to hold back, those fears were misguided. The money flowed freely, at least at the top end. The previous year, reticent buyers guarded their wallets. In 2024, they bought with abandon. Five hundred lots sold for $120,000 or more. In 2023, only 270 lots reached those heights. Number 500 sold last year for only $81,250. That represents an astonishing 48% increase in the price of the 500th most expensive lot in 2024. In 2023, 12 items sold for over $1 million. In 2024, that number was 29.
Within the field of books and collectible paper, books play a decreasing role. The list can be divided into three categories, comics, trading cards, and everything else. Of the top 500, 100 were comics and 131 trading cards. The remainder consists of books, manuscripts, prints, broadsides/posters, and a few exceptions. For the record, we only include prints of historic value rather than artistic value as the latter would overwhelm the top 500. Currier & Ives makes the cut, Picasso and Warhol do not.
Before we get to the top 10, we will mention a few interesting items that didn't reach quite that high. At the end of this article is a link to the entire top 500 list.
502. (Just missed the top 500). A ship's passport dated April 30, 1841, signed by President William Henry Harrison. An unimportant document signed by an obscure President shouldn't be worth much except Harrison was the President who died a month after taking office. Part of that month was spent in the sickbed, so Harrison signed very few documents as President. This one is dated almost a month after Harrison died, which is not a testament to his recuperative powers but to the practice of signing a few blank passports in advance for future use. University Archives. $118,750.
477. A letter from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain dated May 10, 1940, the day he resigned in favor of Winston Churchill, saying “the next two or three days will probably decide the fate of mankind for a hundred years.” RR Auction. $125,000.
445. Unscrew the locks from the doors!
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!
First edition Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Sotheby's. $132,000.
421. This is marginal for a book site, but it is a previously undisclosed 8mm silent film of the day President Kennedy was assassinated, the only one showing his limousine rushing down Stemmons Freeway to Parkland Hospital. For those old enough to remember that awful day, the written account will move you and create a feeling of deep sadness. I know. RR Auction. $137,500.
371. President James Buchanan justifies his decision to call troops to Washington to guard the counting of ballots after Lincoln's election in 1860, fearful Southerners might attempt to interfere with the counting. His call was issued 160 years too early. Christie's. $151,200.
274. 1955 Grand Ole Opry concert poster lists Elvis Presley, “New RCA Victor Recording Artist,” below headliner Hank Snow, Rod Brasfield (who?), and others. Heritage. $187,500.
248. Inscribed close-up photo of the moon taken from Apollo 13, inscribed by Commander James Lovell, “Houston, we've had a problem!” Sotheby's. $204,000.
127. First class luncheon menu from the Titanic for April 14, 1912, the day it sank. They had a spectacular last meal. Christie's. $340,200.
108. Mozart writes from Augsburg to his father in Munich in 1777 (translated from German ) “...the music here is wholeheartedly bad.” Hopefully, he improved upon it. RR Auction. $375,000.
83. Jesuit Relations from New France, an almost complete run of the most important primary source for early Canadian history. 1634-1673. Christie's. $504,000.
17. An ink drawing of the Bastille prison in Paris, shortly after being attacked by the people to start the French Revolution, but before it was demolished (1789). The drawing was presented to George Washington by his old friend and comrade in arms, the Marquis de Lafayette. In charge of the Parisian militia, Lafayette ordered the prison's final destruction. The drawing hung in Washington's home for the rest of his life. Freeman/Hindman. $1,996,000.
Next we proceed to the Rare Book Hub Top 10 auction prices for 2024.
10. The Declaration of Independence. A very early copy, printed by John Holt's New-York Journal on July 11, 1776. Sotheby's. $3,360,000.
9. Sealed box of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, only known case from Wayne Gretzky's rookie year. Heritage. $3,720,000. But, wait... The “buyer” did not pay the bill. The result was this item went back to auction at Heritage 10 months later where it sold for $2,520,000. It is number 11 on this list.
8. The Crosby-Schoyen Codex, a Coptic manuscript on papyrus from the middle of the third or early fourth century, created in Upper Egypt. Christie's. $3,911,844.
7. Draft Albert Einstein letter created August 2, 1939, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pointing out successful tests of nuclear reactions and the possibility that the Germans might use this power to create a bomb. A longer, more detailed letter was actually sent to FDR. Christie's. $3,922,000.
6. Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake, published in 1794. This copy was loaned to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote of it, “I have this morning been reading a strange publication—viz. Poems with very wild and interesting pictures, as the swathing, etched Blake. He is a man of Genius … certainly, and a mystic emphatically.” Sotheby's $4,320,000.
5. Placard posted throughout New York City on October 23, 1765 in reaction to the arrival of a shipload of stamped paper to enforce the hated Stamp Act. Promulgated by the Sons of Liberty it reads, “Pro Patria. The first Man that either distributes or makes use of Stamped Paper, let him take care of His House, Person & Effects. Vox Populi, We Dare.” Christie's. $4,527,000.
4. A Ten Commandments tablet, from circa 300 CE – 800 CE. Not a “work on paper” but paper was hard to come by in ancient times. While not the original, first edition, it is the oldest known Ten Commandments tablet. 24 7/8” x 22 1/8” x 2 3/8”. 115 lbs. These Ten Commandments are not identical to the ones you know as they are the Samaratin version. Sotheby's. $5,040,000.
3. Action Comics #1. This is the one that introduced Superman to the world. It spawned all the other imaginary superheroes that populate the comic universe today. This one is condition rated 8.5, very good but not up to the 9.5 of a copy that sold a few years ago for $12 million, so it had to settle for a “lesser” price. Heritage. $6,000,000.
2. The Shem Tov Bible, from Castile (Spain), created in 1312. It was copied by Rabbi Shem Tov, noted scholar. Sotheby's. $6,960,000.
1. The United States Constitution. “We the people...” This is one of 100 copies of the Constitution, as proposed by the Constitutional Convention and approved by the Confederation Congress and signed by the Congress' Secretary Charles Thomson, to be sent to the states for ratification. Brunk Auctions. $11,340,000.
The entire Top 500 can be found at this link: Rare Book Hub Top 500
