Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2011 Issue

The Once and Future Catalogue

The Once and Future Catalogue

The book catalogue for three centuries has been both the workhorse and thoroughbred of the rare book business.  Material discovered by dealers, later described and set into print would in time journey, in the company of other appointed titles, in well-wrought catalogues conveying a dealer’s best thinking.   For those anticipating such catalogues - expectant hands, primed by experience, would quickly plumb the incoming mail seeking to be first to locate a gem and respond, “I’ll take it.”  For those with the love and passion for printed history catalogues hold a special place in memory and ex...

The Library of America: Where the 19th Century Meets the 21st

The Library of America: Where the 19th Century Meets the 21st

I have come to expect all types of goods to be advertised on the internet. Occasionally, one might even see something sort of book related, such as an electronic reader or some phenomenally popular...

Works on Tissue Paper

Works on Tissue Paper

In the shortening days of November a super hero charges in to raise the spirits of book collectors everywhere.  This is not the rodent of Orlando and Anaheim, thank you.  Mickey is in fact out of h...

Collecting Pop-Up Books & Movables: An Old Field with New Fans

Collecting Pop-Up Books & Movables: An Old Field with New Fans

Pop up books and paper ephemera with movable parts can be one of the most interesting and delightful genres of all the book arts. Endlessly fascinating and diverse they are situated at the intersec...

B&N – Back from the Grave?

B&N – Back from the Grave?

Last month we wrote about the enormous steps forward by the largest online bookseller, and now everything else seller, Amazon.com. Click here. Amazon is using its Kindle eBook reader to catapult it...

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words so here goes

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words so here goes

Good pictures. [Click on the image link] What with the book business experiencing malaise here are two charts that will warm some hearts. The first shows the percentage of lots at auction sold by...

A Follow Up – Probate Court Examining Expenses of Wealthy Heiress

A Follow Up – Probate Court Examining Expenses of Wealthy Heiress

This month we have an update on the case of Huguette Clark, the wealthy heiress who left the bulk of her estate, including her library and works of art, to a museum to be created to display her col...

Bonhams To handle the Dispersal of the Serendipity Book Shop

Bonhams To handle the Dispersal of the Serendipity Book Shop

Bonhams has been given the responsibility of dispersing the stock of Serendipity, the Berkeley, California used and rare bookseller that for many years was located at 1201 University Avenue.  The d...

British Library's Promotion of Amazon Listings Draws Ire of One MP

British Library's Promotion of Amazon Listings Draws Ire of One MP

The recent decision by the British Library to reinstate links from their electronic catalogue to the Amazon website was brought before Parliament last month by one of the opposition members. The Li...

Auctions - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, ...

Auctions - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, ...

With the shortening days of December in the northern hemisphere come the busiest days of the year for auctions.  Most sales are scheduled by the 15th.  Fifty-three events this year, some of them mu...

Finally... Repayment for Victims of the Nigerian Scam

Finally... Repayment for Victims of the Nigerian Scam

It was the granddaddy of all email spam scams, one surely you have seen dozens of times since you opened your first email account. It's the Nigerian scam. The widow of some former Nigerian ruler, b...

Fourteen Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Fourteen Catalogues Reviewed This Month

For December, we review 14 new booksellers' catalogues. We start at the beginning – the first catalogue issued by Yesterday's Muse Books of Webster, New York. On the other end of the scale, Pages o...

Rare Book Monthly

  • High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare.
    The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens.
    A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Golding.
    Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll.
    Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien.
    The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: John Milton.
    Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD

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