If you want to have collectors of books manuscripts, maps and ephemera collecting today and into the future this community will have to have time, interest and money. Education plays an important part as well but many collectors are self-educated so I don’t feel it’s an absolute requirement, in fact I think collecting is sometimes a compensation for having less education. Taken as a group [or category] collectors are complex, many of them intensely interesting, a fair number of them over-the-top eccentrics. They are also the bedrock of collecting in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephem...
In the summer of 2014, some people at the Boston Public Library realized that a valuable print was missing. The missing item was Albrecht Dürer's Adam and Eve (some call it The Fall of Man), estima...
A compelling show of Contemporary Bindings of Private Press Books is on display June 6th to July 5th at the San Francisco Center for the Book on the south side of the San Francisco at 375 Rhode Isl...
For forty years, the Newtown Book Sale has been an annual event taking place in Newtown, CT, where an increasingly larger amount of material has appeared for sale over the years. In 1975, it began ...
An arrest has been made in the case of a major theft of prints and books in Pennsylvania. This is not the typical case of library theft, or stealing from a collector. These prints and books were st...
The "culture wars" is a phrase that is bandied around a lot in the news. Current American battleground issues include legalized recreational drugs, the gender spectrum, sometimes abbreviated to LBG...
Collecting can take years but in a few cases just a few minutes. Those who treasure the hunt need not read further for if you want a day by day, month by month accumulation of objects purchased at...
Two more books, discovered missing from the National Library of Sweden over a decade ago, made their way back home this past month. They are among at least 56 old and valuable books taken from that...
Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Brunk Auctions has been offering sales of fine and decorative art for over thirty years. Their upcoming sale, running from Thursday, July 16th to Saturday, July ...
In 1767, a peculiar book entitled Voyage Autour du Monde fait en 1764 1765 (Paris, 1767) reached the shores of France. This first edition of Commodore Byron’s voyage around the world shut the mout...
The 31st annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, July 31 and August 1 in Denver this year. On Friday, doors will open at 2:00 and stay open until 8:00. On Sa...
Dr. Timothy Bolton, late of Sotheby’s and now head of Western Manuscripts Miniatures at Dreweatts Bloomsbury is conducting his first sale since joining the firm. It is an auspicious beginning. T...
This month we received eight new catalogues to review. This time, most could be described as varieties or miscellanies, rather than the highly focused subjects we often see with booksellers' catalo...
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 51. Ortelius' Influential Map of the New World - Second Plate in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $5,500 - $6,500
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 165. Reduced-Size Edition of Jefferys/Mead Map with Revolutionary War Updates (1776) Est. $4,750 - $6,000
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 688. Blaeu's Superb Carte-a-Figures Map of Africa (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 105. Striking Map of French Colonial Possessions (1720) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 98. Rare First Edition of the First Published Plan of a Settlement in North America (1556) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 181. Important Map of the Georgia Colony (1748) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 547. Ortelius' Map of Russia with a Vignette of Ivan the Terrible in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $1,400 - $1,700
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 85. Homann's Decorative Map of Colonial America (1720) Est. $1,600 - $1,900
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 642. Blaeu's Magnificent Carte-a-Figures Map of Asia (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 748. The Martyrdom of St. John in Contemporary Hand Color with Gilt Highlights (1520) Est. $1,000 - $1,300
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20): Lot 298. Scarce Early Map of Chester County (1822) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 37: Archive of the pioneering woman artist Arrah Lee Gaul, most 1911-59. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 66: Letter describing the dropping water level at Owens Lake near Death Valley, long before it was drained, Keeler, CA, 26 July 1904. $3,000 to $4,000
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 102: To Horse, To Horse! My All for a Horse! The Washington Cavalry, illustrated Civil War broadside, Philadelphia, 1862. $4,000 to $6,000
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 135: Album of cyanotype views of the Florida panhandle and beyond, 224 photographs, 174 of them cyanotypes, Apalachicola, FL and elsewhere, circa 1895-1896. $1,200 to $1,800
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 154: Catalogue of the Library of the United States, as acquired from Thomas Jefferson, Washington, 1815. $15,000 to $25,000
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 173: New Englands First Fruits, featuring the first description of Harvard in print, London, 1643. $40,000 to $60,000
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 177: John P. Greene, Original manuscript diary of a mission to western New York with Joseph Smith, 1833. $60,000 to $90,000
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 243: P.E. Larson, photographer, Such is Life in the Far West: Early Morning Call in a Gambling Hall, Goldfield, NV, circa 1906. $2,500 to $3,500
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 261: Fred W. Sladen, Diaries of a WWII colonel commanding troops from Morocco to Italy to France, 1942-44. $3,000 to $4,000
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 309: Los mexicanos pintados por si mismos, por varios autores, a Mexican plate book. Mexico, 1854-1855. $2,000 to $3,000
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 8: Diaries of a prospector / trapper in the remote Alaska wilderness, 5 manuscript volumes. Alaska, 1917-64. $1,500 to $2,500.
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lactantius, Lucius Coelius Firmianus - Opera, 1465
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - Le terze rime di Dante, 1502
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Boccaccio, Giovanni - Il Decamerone. Di messer Giouanni Boccaccio, 1516
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Giordano Bruno - Candelaio comedia del Bruno nolano achademico di nulla achademia; detto il fastidito. In tristitia hilaris: in hilaritate tristis, 1582
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Petrarca, Francesco - Le cose volgari di Messer Francesco Petrarcha, 1504
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Legatura - Manoscritto - Medici - Cosimo III de' Medici / Solari, Giuseppe - I Ritratti Medicei overo Glorie e Grandezze della sempre sereniss. Casa Medici..., 1678
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri con varie annotazioni, e copiosi Rami adornata, 1757
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lot containing 80 printed guides and publications dedicated to travel and itineraries in Italy