Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2015 Issue

Thinking about Selling

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 ...

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

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...

Wanted:  A Collector with Ambition

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...

Twenty Years Ago, the Book World Was Turned Upside Down

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...

Electronic Catalogues:  their day has come

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...

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

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...

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

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...

A Baker's Eight Dozen Plus Four

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...

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

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, ...

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

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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

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...

Twelve New Catalogues Reviewed for August

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...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: MUNSTER (Sebastian). Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Basilea
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Typus Orbis Terrarum. [Antwerp, 1587]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: BRION DE LA TOUR (Louis). Atlas Monde. Paris, Desnos ou Jaillot, [1783 - An XIII-1799].
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Anvers, Christophe Plantin, 1579.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: VISSCHER (Nicolas Joannes). Theatrum praecipuarum urbium [...]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: AZARA (Félix de). Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: JOUTEL (Henri). Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: LA SALLE (René Robert Cavelier de) ; TONTI (Henri de). Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique Septentrionale
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: NOLIN (Jean-Baptiste) ; CORONELLI (Vincenzo). L'Amérique septentrionale, ou, la partie septentrionale des Indes Occidentales […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: [Caroline du Sud]. A large draft of South Carolina from Cape Roman to Port Royal.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: PÉRON (François) ; FREYCINET (Louis de). Voyage de découverte aux terres australes.
  • RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
  • 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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