Rare Book Monthly Articles - May - 2016 Issue

The New York Book Fair:  Great Fun

The New York Book Fair: Great Fun

  One of the great pleasures of the New York Antiquarian Book Fair in New York every April is its certainty.  Life has its ups and downs but somehow each April the leading dealers, institutions and collectors find a way to get past life’s debris to rally around the material on which the field thrives; rare, beautiful and unusual works on paper.  In some years events in the real world crowd out the joy and pleasure in the Park Avenue Armory, in others the skies are clear, the daffodils are out, and smiles are everywhere.  The 2016 NYABF goes into the records as a very strong event, as David...

An Open Letter to the Trustees of the Armory

An Open Letter to the Trustees of the Armory

Rebecca Robertson, President and Executive Producer Park Avenue Armory 643 Park Avenue New York, New York 10065   Dear Ms. Robertson;   Concerning the Armory and its relationship to the prin...

A Shakespeare First Folio, Long Lost, Is Found

A Shakespeare First Folio, Long Lost, Is Found

A long lost copy of Shakespeare's First Folio has been discovered, in just the sort of place you would most likely expect to find one – in the forgotten corner of a Scottish castle on the Isle of B...

Winnie the Pooh celebrates 90th Anniversary in 2016

Winnie the Pooh celebrates 90th Anniversary in 2016

"Winnie-the-Pooh," (a bear of very little brain) turns 90 this year. The fictional English bear and other characters created by A.A. Milne first appeared in print in 1926 in a small volume that was...

A Foundation and a Museum Battle Over Maurice Sendak's Estate

A Foundation and a Museum Battle Over Maurice Sendak's Estate

The dispute over the estate of children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak has turned from ugly to downright personal, according to an article recently published by the Philadelphia Inqui...

British Bookseller Brutally Murdered

British Bookseller Brutally Murdered

A British bookseller was brutally murdered in his Oxford home early last month. Adrian Greenwood, who was also a historian, antique seller, and writer, was found dead in the hallway of his home by ...

Cartouche, or The Thieves of the 5th Republic

Cartouche, or The Thieves of the 5th Republic

The economic crisis, the Panama Papers affair, the Protection of trade secrets law and the many financial scandals lately revealed in France have weakened the current 5th Republic and generated a g...

May 25: Landmark Abolitionist Material and Americana at Sotheby's New York

May 25: Landmark Abolitionist Material and Americana at Sotheby's New York

It's not often the autographs of nearly a quarter of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence are available in a single sale. Implausibly, this fact isn't even the biggest story of said s...

The London Antiquarian Book Fair:  Live at Olympia

The London Antiquarian Book Fair: Live at Olympia

What New York is to the new world London is to the old.  In May, Thursday -Saturday the 26th to the 28th, 180 dealers from the United Kingdom and beyond will meet again at the National convention h...

The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book & Paper Arts Fair Celebrates its 10th Anniversary

The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book & Paper Arts Fair Celebrates its 10th Anniversary

The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book Paper Arts Fair Celebrates its 10th Anniversary. The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book and Paper Arts Fair, presented by the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the U...

Tenth Annual Rose City Book & Paper Fair Set for June 3-4

Tenth Annual Rose City Book & Paper Fair Set for June 3-4

The tenth annual Rose City Book Paper Fair has been scheduled for Friday, June 3, and Saturday, June 4 this year. The City of Roses is Portland, Oregon, and every spring booksellers and collectors...

Yet Another Book Theft – This Time $200,000 Worth of Comics

Yet Another Book Theft – This Time $200,000 Worth of Comics

Another month, another book theft. The stories are distressingly repetitive. This month it is comic books, the books we collected as kids and our mothers threw away. They didn't understand. Actuall...

Laws of Baseball

Laws of Baseball

Recently SCP Auctions, who specialize in sports memorabilia, sold “Laws of Base Ball” for $3.26 million.  It’s a great price although 25% less than the same house sold, in 2012, a Babe Ruth 1920 je...

Its All in the Name

Its All in the Name

The answer to struggling booksellers' sales issues is so simple and obvious it is a wonder so few have picked up on this before. The answer comes to us from Melbourne, Australia, where high rents o...

17 Booksellers' Catalogues Reviewed This Month

17 Booksellers' Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we have 17 book catalogues to review. A wide range of subjects for collectors are covered by these selections. Dr. Jorn Gunther Rare Books offers a spectacular collection of early bibles...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    10 September 2024
    The Shem Tov Bible
  • Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    18 September 2024
    Koller, Sep. 18: Cowper, William. Anatomia corporum humanorum ab excellentissimis… Utrecht, 1750. CHF 25,000 to 40,000
    Koller, Sep. 18: Bell, Thomas. A Monograph of the Testudinata. London [1836-1842]. CHF 20,000 to 30,000.
    Koller, Sep. 18: Gould, John. A monograph of the Trochilidae, or family of humming-birds [and] Supplement completed after the authors death…, London [1849-]1861 and [1880-]1887. CHF 50,000 to 80,000.
    Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    18 September 2024
    Koller, Sep. 18: Gould, John. The birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands, including many new species recently discovered in Australia. CHF 50,000 to 80,000.
    Koller, Sep. 18: Levaillant, François. Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers, suivie de celle des toucans et des barbus. Paris [1801-]1806. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.
    Koller, Sep. 18: Pfinzing, Melchior. Die geverlicheiten und einsteils der geschichten des loblichen streytparen…, Nürnberg, 1517. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: Bible, Arabic & Latin. Biblia Sacra Arabica, 3 vol., Rome, Tipografia della Congregazione di Propaganda Fide, 1671. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Shepard (Ernest). "Wind in the Willows" Toad Escapes from Prison, original pencil drawing with watercolour, 1931. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Economics.- Smith (Adam). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 2 vol., second edition, Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1778. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: Burma.- Burmese School (1870s). Folding manuscript, or parabaik, of festivities and processions, probably from the Court Workshop at the Royal Court at Manadaly, Burma, [c. 1870]. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: More (Sir Thomas). La Description de l'Isle d'Utopie ou est comprins le Miroer des republiques du monde, first French edition, Paris, Charles l'Angelier, 1550. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Botany.- Dioscorides (Pedanius). De medicinali materia libri sex, hand-coloured throughout, Frankfurt-am-Main, Chr. Egenolff, 1543. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: World.- Blaeu (Johannes). Nova et Accuratissima Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula Auctore Joanne Blaeu, engraved map, [c.1662]. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Shelley (Mary). Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, 2 vol., [second edition], Printed for G. and W.B. Whittaker, 1823. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: [Evans (Marian)] 'George Eliot'. A complete set of first editions of her works, uniformly bound in red morocco, 1858-1885 (30). £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: Lewis (C.S.) [The Chronicles of Narnia], 7 vol., first editions, 1950-56. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Albertolli (Ferdinando). Porte di Città e Fortezze...di Michele Sammicheli, Milan, 1815. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Gregynog Press.- Euripides. The Plays, one of 25 specially-bound copies, this by George Fisher at the Gregynog Bindery, 1931. £4,000 to £6,000.
  • Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: HAMILTON, Sir William - Campi Phlegraei. Napoli: 1779. € 50,000 - 80,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: KIRCHER, Athanasius - Turris Babel. Amsterdam: 1679. € 3,000 - 5,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: EDWARDS, George.London - Gleanings of Natural History. Londra: 1758-1764. € 7,000 - 10,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: HEVELIUS, Johannes - Cometographia. Danzica: 1668. € 20,000 - 30,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: KUPKA, Frantisek - Quatre histoires de blanc et noir. Parigi: 1926. € 10,000 - 15,000

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions