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

  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025 Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025 Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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