Rare Book Monthly Articles - April - 2011 Issue

On the Road to Damascus

For someone who will visit a book fair it may be an act of premeditation or whim.  Plans will be made and unmade, commitments adjusted, weather and health considered.  Some collectors will fly across the country and others take a subway.  Once inside the Park Avenue Armory at 67th in New York they will become part of a sprawling mass of enthusiasms that leap to life as thousands of the faithful and addicted make their way in.  For collectors the New York Antiquarian Book Fair is a measure of their year.  Made money, sold some investments?  The fair is a place to reap tangible rewards conver...

Auctions in New York in April

A cottage industry of Newport Mansions has grown up around the ABAA Book Fair in New York over the past twenty years.  The leading dealers, collectors and institutions come together in April for a ...

AbeBooks Purchases ZVAB/Choosebooks

A major combination, and contraction in terms of the number of companies engaged in the book listing business, occurred on March 2 when AbeBooks announced that its European division had purchased G...

Two Generations in the Book Trade - Looking back with the dealer’s daughter

Part I – Eighty Years and Counting On April 1, 2011, perhaps just as you are clicking on this file, I will celebrate my 32nd year as antiquarian dealer based on Maui. It was not my original goal ...

eBay:  Innocents Abroad

A recent article in Kingston, New York’s daily newspaper, the Freeman about an early [1777] copy of the New York State Constitution offered on eBay ignited the passions of members of the Ulster Cou...

Court Strikes Down Google Settlement and Part of Google Books

"The benefits of Google's book project are many.  Books will become more accessible. Libraries, schools, researchers, and disadvantaged populations will gain access to far more books. Digitization ...

Let the Bunting unfurl  in April:  an auction for charity

On April 20th, in Los Angeles and New York, the collections Charles Williamson and Tucker Fleming go up for bid.  Mr. Williamson was a long time PADA member and sometime actor.  Anyone who has ever...

My Account:  Here's Your Scoreboard for AE Services

This month we are going to take a look at your "My Account" page here at AE. Everyone is entitled to one. Access comes by signing up for any level of membership, including free, and then logging in...

Old Guides as Maps to the Future

Ten years ago, David Gerstel of Montreal, Canada, a long time collector of travels and voyages, searching for a less costly collecting opportunity began to collect American Stranger’s Guides, books...

Books and Libraries:  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

These are apocalyptic times in the book and library world as we know them. The year 2000 may not have been the beginning of end of the world for humanity, but for the book and library world, in hin...

Sixteen Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review 16 catalogues in Section Two of AE Monthly. Peter Harrington offers 75 important works. Pages of Yesteryear has some uncommon items, Garrett Scott, Bookseller, unusual ones. Jo...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions