Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2014 Issue

Brooke-Hitching:  a collector's collector

Brooke-Hitching: a collector's collector

When dealers sell at the end of their careers a few are celebrated for their knowledge, intuition and judgment.  When the sale or sales are at auction the ordinarily private process becomes a public one.  One such dealer enjoying the acclaim of his peers, is Franklin Brooke-Hitching, the private English dealer now in his early 70’s, whose material has been the subject of two successful sales at Sotheby’s in London this year and the subject of two more in 2015.  Mr. Brooke-Hitching, by all reports, sold many very good items during his career but the best examples he apparently kept for himse...

Mystery Resolved

Mystery Resolved

Recently, in a discussion with Bob Schwartz of Archives International Auctions, I mentioned that some of his upcoming material was going to be of interest to those who follow or subscribe to AE.  O...

How Can Collectors Save $14 Million on Their Estate Taxes?

How Can Collectors Save $14 Million on Their Estate Taxes?

Well, for starters, you better begin with a lot of money. A recently decided appeals court case has been labeled a major victory for wealthy collectors with regards to reducing their estate tax lia...

Bookish Brooklyn with Heather O’Donnell

Bookish Brooklyn with Heather O’Donnell

A few years ago Heather O’Donnell of Honey Wax Books left her job selling rare books on Madison Avenue to launch Honey Wax Booksellers in Brooklyn. At that time she found “There was no establishe...

Does a Bookshop Closing Really Mean Much Anymore?

Does a Bookshop Closing Really Mean Much Anymore?

A bookshop recently announced it will be closing its location in an English shopping mall after almost 40 years at the same place. It plans to continue, but most likely only online and through the ...

The Annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair Set for Nov. 14-16

The Annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair Set for Nov. 14-16

The annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Hynes Convention Center on November 14-16 this year. This ABAA sponsored show is likely the biggest such attraction on the east ...

Blessed Mr. TIGER, or the Pilier Littéraire

Blessed Mr. TIGER, or the Pilier Littéraire

At the turn of the 19th century, when printing went through major changes, one bookseller made a name for himself by publishing dozens of popular titles. Simple, short and of lower quality, they me...

Booksellers Speak in a Recently Released Book – A Book Review

Booksellers Speak in a Recently Released Book – A Book Review

Here is a book you will want to read if you are a bookseller, collector, or most of all, one of those in between – a collector contemplating a venture into the bookselling field. Bookseller Sheila ...

Electronic Catalogues for the Holidays

Electronic Catalogues for the Holidays

Not so long ago the gold standard for presentation in the collectible paper field was the printed catalog.  Dealers prepared them and institutions, collectors and other dealers read them.  But time...

Books In The News:  It Was the Erebus, and More...

Books In The News: It Was the Erebus, and More...

It's the Erebus! The recently discovered ship that disappeared in Canadian Arctic waters over a century and a half ago is the Erebus, not its sister ship the Terror. As a pair, there are few ships ...

Christie's London in November: Cricket, Adult Material, and An Atlas of Epic Proportion

Christie's London in November: Cricket, Adult Material, and An Atlas of Epic Proportion

This month three auctions from Christie’s London pertain to AE’s focus on books, maps, manuscripts, and ephemera. Beginning with November 5th, Two Important Sporting Libraries will take place over ...

Auction Preview: Sotheby's Bibliothèque Carlo de Poortere

Auction Preview: Sotheby's Bibliothèque Carlo de Poortere

Among Sotheby's upcoming sales in November, Sotheby's Paris is holding one that should appeal to many of AE’s monthly readers and subscribers. Taking place November 6th in Paris, Bibliothèque Carlo...

Ah Hum-dinga in Fairfield, Maine on November 18th

Ah Hum-dinga in Fairfield, Maine on November 18th

Poulin Antique Company is a busy auction house that occasionally sells rare books.  Their sales are well presented with estimates that tend to be on the low side as evidenced by their total realiza...

Michaan's Auctions, A New Addition to AE and a Sale in November

Michaan's Auctions, A New Addition to AE and a Sale in November

This month AE welcomes a new auction house on to the site. Going forward, Michaan’s Auctions, based out of Alameda, CA, will have their auctions with printed material included in AE’s Upcoming Auct...

Auctions in November

Auctions in November

For the month of November, as we enter the month, there are 124 auctions on the calendar.  Others will be added over the next few weeks.  The selections are broad and complex.  All who look will fi...

Thirteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Thirteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we are reviewing 13 new bookseller catalogues. Many different subjects are featured this time around. Andersons Books and Prints has issued their first catalogue, and it's about time!......

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.

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