Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2015 Issue

This Year's ABAA West Coast Show in Oakland, a qualified success

This Year's ABAA West Coast Show in Oakland, a qualified success

Bookseller’s are by their nature, argumentative.  They split hairs; see black and white where the rest of the world sees shades of grey.  They are a talmudic breed, tending to dispute rather than agree.  Why is your copy better? It’s a question whose answer can bend light beams to both shine on a competitor’s defects and this seller’s virtues.  After all these dealers are selling so much more than printed materials.  Inclusion in their world, introductions to the best collector organizations, and first opportunities to buy the rare and special are as much the currency of the trade [at the h...

Antiquarian Auctions – Bookseller-Focused Online Auction Moves Forward

Antiquarian Auctions – Bookseller-Focused Online Auction Moves Forward

AntiquarianAuctions.com, the bookseller-run auction house, recently upgraded their website, making it more user-friendly, particularly for use with mobile devices. The upgrade gives us an opportuni...

All is well that ends well

All is well that ends well

Two lifetimes ago Clare Van Norman’s father, Clarendon Van Norman Sr., was a serious and respected Lincoln specialist in Illinois.  His business, the Van Norman Book Company, founded in Peoria in t...

Foxe News:  A Leaf from a Rare but Influential 16th Century English Book

Foxe News: A Leaf from a Rare but Influential 16th Century English Book

Recently we received a newly published magnificent leaf book. We will stay away from vagaries of official book sizes to note that it is 10” x 14”, bound in full calf leather, and ornamented in intr...

A busy month for Dreweatts & Bloomsbury with 6 relevant sales

A busy month for Dreweatts & Bloomsbury with 6 relevant sales

As winter gives way to spring, and the pace picks up for things in the northern hemisphere, so too does the auction game for works on paper. For Dreweatts Bloomsbury Auctions, no less than eightee...

55 Years Later Harper Lee to Publish Second Novel

55 Years Later Harper Lee to Publish Second Novel

Some authors take a while to write that second book. Sophomore slump, writer's cramp, any number of reasons can make that second book hard to write, even, maybe especially, if the first was a great...

Dr Seuss Still Going Strong at 111

Dr Seuss Still Going Strong at 111

On March 2, 2015 Dr. Seuss will be 111 and readers young and old will celebrate.   When history looks back on American writers and illustrators of the 20th century it may well turn out that the c...

A Record Price for a Book Sold on AbeBooks

A Record Price for a Book Sold on AbeBooks

AbeBooks, the world's largest book listing site, set a record price for a book purchased through their site recently. They didn't just set a record, they blew the old one away, with a price almost ...

The Pear of Anguish, or the evil genius of Mr. Paioli

The Pear of Anguish, or the evil genius of Mr. Paioli

The devilish “poire d’angoisse” (pear of anguish, or choke pear) is an iron instrument of torture invented by Palioly, a French villain of the 17th century, who sure had a big bag of tricks. One or...

In The News:  A Couple of Book Burnings

In The News: A Couple of Book Burnings

Among the atrocities committed by the self-styled Islamic State, ISIS, or whatever its name, book burning sounds rather tame. The horrific slaughtering of people conducted by this group long ago re...

Library “Disposes” of 240,000 Books

Library “Disposes” of 240,000 Books

Two years ago, we reported on a reprieve several hundred thousand library books were granted from a sentence of destruction (click here). It turns out the reprieve was temporary. In late 2012, the ...

133 Auctions in March

133 Auctions in March

It is common now for a hundred auctions in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera fields to be scheduled in a single month.  It seems, in fact, that we’ll see a two hundred-auction month in the ...

Princeton University Given $300 Million Book Collection

Princeton University Given $300 Million Book Collection

Princeton University has received its largest gift ever, and it comes in the form of books and manuscripts. The gift has been appraised at approximately $300 million, and as you look at what is in ...

Over 500 Stolen Antiquarian Books Returned to Owner

Over 500 Stolen Antiquarian Books Returned to Owner

Over 500 stolen books are making their way back to their home in Italy, just one of many pieces to one of the largest book theft cases ever. The books are estimated to have a value €2.5 million (US...

Eight Catalogues Under Review for March

Eight Catalogues Under Review for March

Eight new catalogues are reviewed in this month's edition of Rare Book Monthly. Erasmushaus offers a selection of superlative antiquarian books, dating as far back as the 15th century. Peter Harrin...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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