Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2017 Issue

Exiting the Bookseller Business

Exiting the Bookseller Business

  An Editor's Introduction by Bruce McKinney   New dealers are a healthy sign for the rare book field and often enough new men and women enter the trade, often having apprenticed with established dealers and found the process and the prospects appealing.  For retiring dealers the process is more somber for what began as a hopeful venture often turns out to be more difficult and complicated than was earlier envisioned.  Nevertheless, many weather the process and find success.   Marc Sena Carrel became a used and rare book dealer in 2003 and is wrapping up his bookselling enterprise in 2...

Used Bookstores Are Back: The Published Page - Large Bricks & Mortar Shop Opens Near Ft. Worth.

Used Bookstores Are Back: The Published Page - Large Bricks & Mortar Shop Opens Near Ft. Worth.

Move over Amazon, starting November 1st, Jim and Connye Hart open a big olden days style used bookstore in Cleburne, Texas outside of Fort Worth. When fully built out the Published Page expects to ...

One of the Earliest Printings of the Declaration of Independence to Be Sold in An Unexpected Location

One of the Earliest Printings of the Declaration of Independence to Be Sold in An Unexpected Location

A major piece of printed Americana will go up for sale on November 11. It is a very rare, very early, and very valuable printing of the Declaration of Independence. It was printed in New York on Ju...

William Reese:  Honored by the American Antiquarian Society

William Reese: Honored by the American Antiquarian Society

On October 27th Bill Reese received the Christopher Columbus Baldwin Award at the AAS Annual Meeting in Worcester.  He is only the fourth recipient in the 205 year history of the society.   All f...

AbeBooks' New Top 10 Highest Prices Range from the Classics to the Strange

AbeBooks' New Top 10 Highest Prices Range from the Classics to the Strange

AbeBooks has released their list of the Top 10 highest prices reached on their site for the third quarter of 2017, July-September. We find books noted for their content, others for their illustrati...

The Boston Book Fairs in November

The Boston Book Fairs in November

It is a right of passage that book collectors whose hearts are beating will cross the rivers, mountain ranges and fading purple loosestrife’d meadows to get to New England’s largest book fairs in B...

Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair December 2nd and 3rd

Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair December 2nd and 3rd

  News Release:  Northampton, Massachusetts – This American region’s leading used antiquarian booksellers and fine letterpress printers, book binders, paper makers, and artist book makers will be...

Nov. 4: Maps, Letters and More at Leland Little

Nov. 4: Maps, Letters and More at Leland Little

Leland Little Auctions, the house based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, offers to your discerning eyes this month a single-owner sale of approximately 590 lots. The sale opens with 130 lots of mat...

The Memoirs of the Sansons, A French History of Violence

The Memoirs of the Sansons, A French History of Violence

Sanson is a creepy name in the history of France, borne by a notorious dynasty of executioners. They operated in Paris from 1688 to 1847. So many broken bones, severed heads and spilled blood deser...

Doyle New York:  Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on November 7th

Doyle New York: Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on November 7th

On 7 November Doyle New York will hold an appealing sale of material that is both rare and unusual.  Two hundred and thirty-three lots will traverse the written, printed and photographic landscape ...

Shapero Rare Books Sells Half Interest in its Russian Books to Former Employee

Shapero Rare Books Sells Half Interest in its Russian Books to Former Employee

Scholium Group, the publicly traded company that owns Shapero Rare Books, recently announced the sale of approximately 50% of their Russian stock to PY Limited, a company controlled by former emplo...

Nov. 20: Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg

Nov. 20: Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg

This month, Hamburg-based auction house Ketterer Kunst is hosting a sale of Rare Books that features an interesting array of material. With atlases, manuscripts, photographs, and of course, books, ...

Nov. 21: Books, Manuscripts and Engravings at Il Ponte Casa d'Aste in Milan

Nov. 21: Books, Manuscripts and Engravings at Il Ponte Casa d'Aste in Milan

Il Ponte Casa d’Aste, based in Milan, is putting on an impressive sale on November 21st containing 253 lots of Books, Manuscripts and Engravings. This is a sale composed primarily of European mater...

Are Books a Bargain?

Are Books a Bargain?

Are books a bargain in the collectibles field? Prices for art have long been astronomical compared to even the greatest and most important of books or other examples of works on paper. It is not su...

A Busy November in Books for Sotheby's London

A Busy November in Books for Sotheby's London

It’s a busy November for Sotheby’s, and their London office is no exception. Three noteworthy sales may pique your interest: The Library of an English Bibliophile Part VII - November 7 Travel, ...

Dear Mrs. Trump – A Librarian's Snarky Attack on the First Lady and Dr. Seuss Not a Great Moment in Library Science

Dear Mrs. Trump – A Librarian's Snarky Attack on the First Lady and Dr. Seuss Not a Great Moment in Library Science

A Massachusetts librarian managed to deliver an embarrassing blow to what was presumably her cause, tolerance and racial justice, with one of the more inept public attacks you will ever see. Her ob...

eCatalogues:  the transition continues

eCatalogues: the transition continues

As the economics of rare book catalogues continues to decline many dealers have shifted from printed paper to electronic eCatalogues.  Here is a snapshot of the most recent fifty catalogues we have...

Eight New Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed

Eight New Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed

We have eight new catalogues up for review this month. Read 'Em Again Books features correspondence from the 18th and 19th century. The Pages of Yesteryear hasn't been in business since quite the 1...

Rare Book Monthly

  • SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ROALD AMUNDSEN: «Sydpolen» [ The South Pole] 1912. First edition in jackets and publisher's slip case.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: AMUNDSEN & NANSEN: «Fram over Polhavet» [Farthest North] 1897. AMUNDSEN's COPY!
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON [ed.]: «Aurora Australis» 1908. First edition. The NORWAY COPY.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON: «The heart of the Antarctic» + SUPPLEMENT «The Antarctic Book», 1909.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: SHACKLETON, BERNACCHI, CHERRY-GARRARD [ed.]: «The South Polar Times» I-III, 1902-1911.
    SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: [WILLEM BARENTSZ & HENRY HUDSON] - SAEGHMAN: «Verhael van de vier eerste schip-vaerden […]», 1663.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION | LIEUTENANT HENRY ROBERTSON BOWERS: «At the South Pole.», Gelatin Silver Print. [10¾ x 15in. (27.2 x 38.1cm.) ].
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ELEAZAR ALBIN: «A natural History of Birds.» + «A Supplement», 1738-40. Wonderful coloured plates.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: PAUL GAIMARD: «Voyage de la Commision scientific du Nord, en Scandinavie, […]», c. 1842-46. ONLY HAND COLOURED COPY KNOWN WITH TWO ORIGINAL PAINTINGS BY BIARD.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: JAMES JOYCE: «Ulysses», 1922. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
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  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.

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