Recently at the New York Book Fair I saw two Albany maps that, although expensive, were very appealing. I wanted to buy them. As I often do when considering important material I asked others for their opinion and the endorsements were warm but somewhat cautionary. This then inadvertently brought into focus what the final years of my collecting may entail, having to say no for no other reason than that there may not be enough time on the clock to overcome the markups I pay to buy. Long ago I established the theory [and subsequently proved it] that the difference between what many dealers...
"Work hard for 20 years and then only buy things you've never seen before," says William (Bill) Reese, who will be 60 in July. Reese is one of the premier dealers in antiquarian Americana and consi...
A valuable book was somehow stolen from a locked case at a book fair in Bogota, Colombia, recently. How it was removed is a mystery to police. The book is a first edition of One Hundred Years of So...
One of the tabs you will see at the top of the page is for the “Rare Book Transaction History.” The name may be unfamiliar. Here is an explanation of a service that no one who buys/sells (spends) a...
Most, if not all, auction houses have general and subject sales. A subject sale has one or more focus; general sales include material across a spectrum of categories and subjects. Subject sales e...
There are 13 new bookseller catalogues reviewed in this month's edition of Rare Book Monthly. There is a wide variety of material offered, and some of the presentations are as spectacular as the bo...
Inherently unique and collectible, autograph letters and documents represent a special segment of the rare books, maps, manuscripts, and ephemera world. One auction house has built their business a...
The former owner of a textbook selling website and operator of a massive bribery and theft scheme has been sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison. Corey Frederick, 44, of Los Angeles, pleaded ...
There is nothing quite so appealing as a collection of bibliographies and auction catalogues that took a lifetime to collect and soon, over a scant few hours, will be again dispersed. Such materia...
“I had loved the French Revolution with a passion,” confesses Jean-Jacques Aymé in his book Déportation et Naufrage de J.J Aymé (Paris, chez Maradan). But that was before being arrested following ...
In the broad categories of books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera there are many ways to parse available material. The most common ones are by subject, author, form and date range. Less common are...
The British Library is sponsoring a major conference this month to tackle the large, though often under-the-radar problem of theft of rare books and related material. Scheduled for Friday, June 26,...
Featuring 159 lots, Bonhams New York’s sale of Voices of the 20th Century paints an interesting and compelling picture of an era that saw massive change worldwide. With a scope as wide as the 20th ...
In an era when it seems too often we hear about libraries needing to sell off rare material as they can no longer afford to maintain it, an announcement from the University of Washington is most we...
