Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2015 Issue

Thinking about Selling

I have suggested to collectors for years that they plan to dispose in their lifetimes.  Collections in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera fields now fall into the traditional form of known, well documented material or, as is the case increasingly, into a more sprawling, complex form that is built at least in part on ephemera, letters and other previously unknown material that have no pricing history.  My first two collections fell clearly into the traditional form, my current collection into the latter.   Over the past month I’ve been trying to understand how my current collection ...

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One-Two Punch – Independent Report Critical of Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library has released the results of a year-long review of its Print Department. It was something of a one-two punch, coming on the heels of June's strange and embarrassing case of...

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Wanted: A Collector with Ambition

Because booksellers' catalogues randomly appear and because there are thousands of booksellers the sheer magnitude of catalogue production has long gone unrecognized and unreported.  There have bee...

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Twenty Years Ago, the Book World Was Turned Upside Down

It's been just 20 years. On July 16, 1995, a buyer purchased a copy of the ever-popular Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. The book was...

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Electronic Catalogues: their day has come

The wheels of progress turn slowly.  Over the long haul change can appear inevitable but nearer by seems much less conclusive.  Such are the changes in cataloging that have been transforming the ra...

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FEET OF CLAY: Harper Lee and/or Atticus Finch? "Go Set A Watchman" sells over a million copies its first week

Whoever said "There are no second acts in American literature," was not working for the marketing department of Harper Collins which released "Go Set a Watchman" on July 14. The publisher introduce...

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In The News: Tons of Old Books Thrown Away; Two Stolen Manuscripts Recovered

Libraries lose books, sometimes through theft, sometimes through carelessness, never for a good reason. A library in Thailand lost tons of books, quite literally, for the worst reason we've come ac...

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A Baker's Eight Dozen Plus Four

Will [W. C.] Baker is, among other things, a graduate of the William Reese Rare Book School.  He worked there for several years and gained a perspective on scholarship, presentation, and rarity tha...

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Abbé Prades, the Little Heretic. Or, Muddy Chaff and Golden Wheat

I love eBay in the summer. Just the other day, I bought a very nice copy of Abbé Fleury's Histoire Ecclésiastique abrégée (Berne, 1767)—a handsome two volumes sets bound in full contemporary calf, ...

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Prints Stolen from French National Library Recovered – It was an Inside Job

Forty-three prints, stolen from the Richelieu-Louvois branch of the French National Library, have been recovered. The prints have been valued at roughly $200,000. The thief reportedly has confessed...

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August 5th: Leslie Hindman Auctioneers presents Fine Books & Manuscripts

This month Leslie Hindman Auctioneers is pleased to present a sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts. Taking place in Chicago on August 5th, the auction includes 276 lots of books, maps, manuscripts, a...

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August 5th: A Pirate's Bounty at the Arader Galleries Auction

On August 5th Arader Galleries will be holding an auction on site at their Madison Avenue location. Featuring sixty five lots, The History of Caribbean Pirates Treasure as told through Maps, Atlas...

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Apple Loses Its Legal Appeal (No Pun Intended) – Will Pay Ebook Buyers $450 Million

Apple Inc., the computer/iPhone maker that is now the world's most valuable company, lost its appeal of a lower court ruling that it had engaged in price fixing of electronic books with five publis...

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Twelve New Catalogues Reviewed for August

This month 12 new bookseller catalogues are reviewed. Some are highly targeted, others feature a wide variety of material. A few are location centered. The William Reese Company and David M. Lesser...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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