"In doing this I'm finding there's a clear distinction between history and nostalgia. Older collectors think about history, younger collectors feel nostalgia. The online audience is younger and their nostalgia translates into comics, videos, reel to reels, and images that were new 35 years ago. Collectible it turns out is what stimulates memory and pleasure. A book collector may think of the Civil War, the new collector the memorabilia of Martin Luther King."
"For my shows to succeed I focus on maintaining a clear view of both the exhibitor and the attendee. I can see them both. My job is to get them into the same room. If can keep them both in sight Flamingo will prosper."
Another show organizer, Myron West, speaking on behalf of the Rocky Mountain Map Society, recently suspended the Rocky Mountain Antique Map Fair that had been scheduled for September 18th and 19th. This would have been the 9th annual. Its focus was more toward the traditional collector. Without a transition to the new collector, such events will struggle. This fair and others may suffer for a while.
I asked Dan Weinberg of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop for his view. "The current market is tough. We peaked ahead of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth [1809]. The run up was brisk and exciting, the downturn in the economy disappointing. In the past few years, we have focused both on building an online presence and on creating opportunities for collectors to visit our shop in Chicago. The most innovative step we have taken is to create 'Virtual Book Signings.' In this presentation anyone online can join our in-shop author presentation and request a personally inscribed copy of the author's book. It works and it's gratifying to be extending the bookshop-author-collector experience in a new direction."
As to the business generally, "while I'm personally pessimistic about the future of run-of-the-mill material I continue to see strong interest for the best examples. The great pieces are of course difficult to buy while the lesser material is ever harder to sell. This means we constantly have to refresh the inventory. Collectors won't continue to visit online or in the shop if the material is unchanging."
"So the future is a challenge and I'm reminded of someone whose words I know well, that this is not the first time times have been tough. Abraham Lincoln, in a speech given in 1859 in Milwaukee to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, in speaking of the then unsettled times said, 'This too shall pass.' I believe this applies today and I work everyday to make it so."
I also spoke to Bill Ewald of Sacramento. Bill is a show man. The alchemy of material, price, event and place all somehow fit neatly into his personal DNA. When you ask him about shows his voice rises a bit, the tone inflects. "I do shows. You know that. This year I'm doing fewer, last year 10, this year six." I'll probably start to list online. I'm determined to build a new clientele. I have great material but in the downturn not enough people are looking at it."
High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19: Lot 212. Kelsey Letterpress
High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19: Wood & Metal Type. Many fonts and faces.
High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19: Print Shop Miscellany including type, tools, and equipment.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €5,500 to €7,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…, 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Signed by author, limited edition. €1,250 to €1,750.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Literal Translation into English of the Earliest Known Book on Fowling and Fishing, Written originally in Flemish and Printed at Antwerp in 1492. London (Chiswick Press) 1872. €1,500 to €2,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Blacker's - Art of Fly Making, etc., Comprising Angling & Dying of Colours..., Rewritten & Revised. Lond. 1855. €250 to €350.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Joyce (James). Finnegans Wake,, London (Faber & Faber Ltd.) 1939, Lim. Edn. No. 269 (425) copies, Signed by the Author (in green pen). €3,000 to €4,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Synge (J.M.) & Yeats (Jack B.) illus. The Aran Islands,, D. (Maunsel & Co. Ltd.) 1907, Signed Limited Edn. €4,000 to €5,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Meyer (Dr. A.B.) Unser Auer -, Rackel-Und Birkwild und Seine Abarten, Wien (Verlag Von Adolph W. Kunast) 1887. €2,500 to €3,500.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Carve (Thomas). Itinerarium R.D. Thomas Carve Tripperariensis, Sacellani Maioris in Fortisima iuxta…,, Moguntia (Mainz) impriemebat Nicolaus Heyll, 1639. €1,500 to €2,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. First Edition. €3,000 to €5,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Heaney (Seamus) & Le Brocquy (Louis) artist. Ugolino, D. (Dolmen Press) 1979, Signed Limited Edition No. 87 (125) Copies. €3,500 to €4,500.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Discover Upcoming Auctions
Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Coronelli, Vincenzo Maria. "Epitome Cosmografica." With the 6 circular celestial and terrestrial charts. 7,000 – 10,000 USD
Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Hurley, Frank. Collection of 69 photographs taken during Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Expedition. 80,000 – 120,000 USD
Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: Sendak, Maurice. Original artwork for the inaugural "New York is Book Country" poster, 1979. 300,000 – 600,00 USD
Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD
Bonhams, Dec. 18: A Very Fine Composite Atlas Magnificently Illuminated and Heightened with Gold in a Fine Contemporary Hand Throughout. $300,000 - $500,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Saint-Exupéry's Revised Ending for Wind, Sand and Stars. $40,000 - $60,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Edith Wharton's Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1924. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Salinger on the Glass Family and on Detachment. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Fanny Burney's Groundbreaking First Novel. Evelina, Or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Kafka's Earliest Extant Piece of Writing. Autograph Note Signed ("Franz Kafka"). $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Wagner Signed "Ride of the Valkries." $6,000 - $9,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Dickens on the Death of Little Nell. $5,000 - $8,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Sylvia Plath's Copy of Joy of Cooking. $4,000 - $6,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: Whitman to James Russell Lowell. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: The Genesis of his Lincoln Lectures. $6,000 - $9,000
![<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] <i>Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…,</i> 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/2bfa5105-2bf9-4a52-8ab5-45f3ef7b1eb4.jpg "<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] <i>Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…,</i> 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.")
![<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Heaney (Seamus). <i>Eleven Poems,</i> Belfast (Festival publications - Queens University) [1965], First Edn., (First Issue) Signed. €2,500 to €3,500.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/d8cd5291-2e7d-4a24-8d22-f316554ec8f8.jpg "<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Heaney (Seamus). <i>Eleven Poems,</i> Belfast (Festival publications - Queens University) [1965], First Edn., (First Issue) Signed. €2,500 to €3,500.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 10:</b> [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/b074d0c9-0c77-4e80-a457-f59c4262ea72.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 10:</b> [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD")
