Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2011 Issue

Cs borgal

Collecting in Choppy Waters

The rare book business today is not the business it was or will be.  It is in a state of becoming and the pace of change accelerating as elements of the old model break down.  Complicating things there are as many and probably more people vying for a place in the trade that is at once traditional and morphing into something new.   The well-established tradition of schooling collectors in the once common used bookshop gives way to the era of the self-educated collector with fewer enduring ties to dealers.   The lament among dealers today is that there are few new collectors.  The truth is si...

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Kindlefire11-11

A Bookseller Success Story... Amazon

A couple of major, seemingly unrelated announcements came out of Amazon.com a few weeks back. We doubt they are all that unrelated, and they signify a move to a still higher level in the stratosphe...

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Chart red line

The Market Recovers - a Bit

While the market simmers, caught between continuing economic uncertainty and desire for appealing material, auction realizations continue to recover from the lows achieved in April when the market ...

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1 izzy young april 1962 credit netzorg

Great Bookmen & Bookstores: Israel (Izzy) G. Young of The Folklore Center

Izzy Young ran the Folklore Center at 110 MacDougal St. in New York City. In the early 1960s he was one of the book world’s most original, influential and at times irritating characters. Born in th...

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Choices

A World in Transition:  Make me an Offer Please

Not so long ago the book business moved from paper to the net.  The online listing sites were appealing, the costs low and the opportunities attractive.  Initially for most the net was an increment...

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Autodeskcase

Could Reselling Used Books Become Illegal?

We recently received a message from a “Ken,” self-described “Overworked Lead Blogger” at Heroic Times, a blog website. You may have seen it too as he sent the message to numerous used and antiquari...

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Bw-2006

Remembering Burton Weiss

Burton Weiss, the Berkeley bookselling flamboyant, died this past June and was buried in print a week or so ago.  His obituary in 'The Book Collector' trivialized his death.  In life he was a chara...

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Bordersemail2

Barnes & Noble Takes Over Borders' Remains... After Some Last-Minute Wrangling

There was a time when a sale of Borders to Barnes & Noble would have stirred great controversy, perhaps even an examination by the Attorney General for antitrust violations. By the time it happened...

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Northtexasfair1

North Texas Book and Paper Show a Success

The Eighteenth North Texas Book and Paper Show, held October 15th and 16th, was a great success. Heritage Auctions of Dallas and The Texas Bookseller’s Association teamed up to sponsor this show wh...

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Auctnov

Auctions in November

The auction season moves into high gear this month with 61 scheduled events and a few more yet to be posted.   It has been a complicated year with the tone of the market certain to be confirmed ove...

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Pewlocalnews

Newspapers Declining as Local News Source

The role of newspapers in the community, and with it, perhaps, their long term viability, continues to diminish, a report recently released by the Pew Research Center revealed. They may find themse...

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Cats11-11

Fifteen New Catalogues Reviewed

There are 15 new bookseller catalogues up for review this month, many focused on interesting niches. There are outstanding collections of maps offered by Daniel Crouch Rare Books and High Ridge Boo...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • 70c11db2-aeab-43a8-a304-6304cf316f01 0abb0286-7dc7-4bef-93bd-4623aee5d016 74a63725-65e7-42ba-9759-b7346bd81138 C2b01337-f07e-4b43-aa20-3d6f6ae61551 Edceb203-e045-4a54-8368-77b9556ef978 F8764dd0-ac6d-495a-8533-3f7457cf24e9 7590517b-f4a1-4fe6-bd60-68f539cdd948 4e258d92-fd88-452a-bd13-bb938b4a71f2
    <b>Bonhams, Oct. 23:</b> SMITH, CHRISTOPHER WEBB. 1793-1871. <i>Indian Ornithology.</i> [Patna, India]: 1828. $50,000 to $80,000.
    <b>Bonhams, Oct. 23:</b> DUPRÉ, LOUIS. 1789-1837. <i>Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople, ou Collection de portraits, vues et costumes grecs et ottomans.</i> Paris: Dondey-Dupré, 1825. $60,000 to $90,000.
    <b>Bonhams, Oct. 23:</b> ADAMS, JOHN. Autograph Letter Signed ("J Adams"), [to Dr. Perkins?] while recovering from his small pox inoculation, [late-April, 1764]. $30,000 to $50,000.
    <b>Bonhams, Oct. 23:</b> AUSTEN, JANE. Autograph Letter Signed ("J. Austen"), to her sister Cassandra, 4 pp, "Thursday – after dinner," [September 16, 1813,] Henrietta St. $80,000 to $120,000.
    <b>Bonhams, Oct. 23:</b> AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES. 1785-1851. <i>The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories.</i> New York & Philadelphia: J.J. Audubon & J.B. Chevalier, 1840-1844. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <b>Bonhams, Oct. 23:</b> DODWELL, EDWARD. 1767-1832. <i>Views in Greece.</i> London: Rodwell and Martin, 1821. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <b>Bonhams, Oct. 23:</b> JAMES, JESSE. Autograph Letter Signed ("Jesse W. James"), to Mr. Flood demanding Flood retract spurious accusations, 3 pp, June 5, 1875. $200,000 to $300,000.
  • 8ed26c7a-3b52-49ca-a198-4736fc1036ca 8ef6f8d7-9fa4-402e-9ece-062015b72994 Edd96054-d425-4ff9-90f1-77d04f6eebc3 C1b76f0c-7ae9-4b73-94f6-daded50aef37 7da3c92f-5f9c-475a-8a70-825fb8c55078 Cae7f5a1-5be8-4e09-936b-929b068a5713 F59139ab-f0ad-48e3-90b4-5561541b0add 2a2d6dc0-8d42-45aa-a548-6890d356d9a8 F781da80-0972-4913-95ad-d7090bff5984 522c347e-228c-4ca2-b475-815db852b0d1 82cf80c4-6a9b-48f8-ab46-eb4271370d61 7a58036b-2614-402a-aef8-c70df49ef6ee 0396054a-bc67-4a59-a976-a0e3ebe1ca8c A160d63c-a2d1-4a24-8bde-d5e49c125d79 Ee422374-eb60-4a6f-b742-db6e9fcac6db
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Textile of the Great White Fleet, with portraits of Theodore Roosevelt, Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans & successor Charles Stillman Sperry, 1908. $3,000 to $4,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> William J. Stone, <i>Declaration of Independence,</i> Force printing, 1833. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Shugart family papers including documentation of the Underground Railroad, 63 items, 1838-81. $30,000 to $40,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Records of the Dickinson & Shrewsbury salt works, over 2000 items, with extensive slave labor correspondence, legal records & receipts, bulk 1820-1865. $80,000 to $120,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Gloria Steinem, typescript for her speech <i>Living the Revolution,</i> with related letters and documents, 1941-77. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> <i>Liberty Triumphant or the Downfall of Oppression,</i> depicting the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party, c. 1774. $12,000 to $18,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, <i>Historia naturae, maxime peregrinae, libris XVI distincta,</i> Antwerp, 1635. $6,000 to $9,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Antonio de Mayorga, manuscript map of Mexico City, 1779. $6,000 to $9,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Thomas L. McKenney & James Hall, <i>History of the Indian Tribes of North America,</i> first edition, 3 volumes, Philadelphia, 1842-44. $25,000 to $35,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Samuel Walker, diary of the entire first cruise of the USS Kineo, a gunboat on the Mississippi, 1854-69. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 26:</b> Scrapbook on early Stanford football, with letters from Walter Camp, 1893-95 & 1931. $8,000 to $12,000.
  • Fab3962a-5d1a-4f29-98bd-d17efef82ec8 Af3d094a-945e-493a-b3f6-43f3625ac084 A1e56bc6-86c1-47be-8e86-1d7331c522a5 3e965209-33e9-46ed-99e6-a158d77ac9cf 1e9ddfba-fe33-466a-bf3e-a57a34988c68 335253fb-8aa9-415a-a10f-6eff5c0345f5 Fb83a416-3cd1-488f-8aaa-24c4036b7b42 D4646ebf-fee9-4f48-8969-c35abf63c11f 202107cf-6e8a-468f-9cd4-b9a986624526 Ef42ed3b-8264-41fa-ac5b-c1b7e69906b8 494fcf73-2bf8-4780-ac71-db0a732c0237 37eab080-19c2-44d9-a28d-aff4b40f1680 D24d0314-8ddc-4016-93fe-7d94997daf7f A3d2c5cc-5550-4bad-bf6f-a71126667eb5 A96cfa86-ee4f-4a7a-8649-92c28eca31c2 9c36dfcc-b55d-4ce4-850a-a64386983e17
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Roberts, David. Twenty Lithographs of the Holy Land, 19th Century. $2,000 to $4,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Declaration by the Reps. of the United Colonies of N.A. 1775. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Composer Jerome Kern personal Letters, Albums and Other. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Paine, Thomas. <i>Common Sense,</i> London 1776. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Stowe, Harriet Beecher. <i>Uncle Tom’s Cabin,</i> Cleveland 1852. $4,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Hobbes, Thomas. <i>Leviathan,</i> 3rd edition, London 1651. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Anno Regni Georgii III. Intolerable Acts and other Bills, 1774. $15,000 to $20,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Wilberforce, William. An Abstract of the Evidence, 5 Letters, and two books. $6,000 to $9,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Nursing and Signed Letters, ca. 1860 $4,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Tolstov, Leo. <i>War and Peace,</i> 5 volumes, 1886. $3,000 to $5,000.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Dickinson, John. Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, 1768. $1,500 to $2,500.
    <b>Lark Mason Associates, Aug 8-27:</b> Twain, Mark. <i>Tom Sawyer,</i> 1877 [and] <i>Huckleberry Finn,</i> 1885. $4,000 to $6,000.

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