Rare Book Monthly Articles - February - 2017 Issue

Auction Prices for Books and Paper Rose 1.5% in 2016

Prices at auction for lots in the book and paper field inched up 1.5% in 2016. In a year that was most notable for looking essentially like the year before, the median price rose from $266 to $270. The average price dropped an infinitesimal $19 from $2,030 in 2015 to $2,011 in 2016. That represents a decline of less than one-tenth of one percent. For reasons explained in the footnote below*, median price is a better gauge of the market than average.   Even a small increase will be welcome news to those in the trade. It's well known that book prices have been under pressure, with last year...

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Daniel Crouch Rare Books Opens in New York

Daniel Crouch Rare Books of 4 Bury Street, St. James, London has recently opened a shop in New York at 24 East 64th Street.  The firm is a specialist in antique atlases, maps, plans, sea charts and...

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The Dealers’ Daughter Revisited

I grew up in a family where book selling was a well established business. By the time I was a little girl I was drafted into it.   From the 1950s through the mid-60s I was introduced to all the t...

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Italian Auction House Il Ponte Appoints Stefania Pandakovic to Head Expanded Books, Manuscripts and Engravings Department

A venerable Italian auction house is making a major move into the field of books, manuscripts, and engravings. Il Ponte (the Bridge) Auction House has been conducting sales in Milan since 1974. Its...

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California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Oakland February 10-12

California International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to Oakland, California February 10th-12th   The most important rare book fair in California returns to Oakland February 10-12 after its ever...

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A Spectacular Collection Emerges from the Shadows

Once in a while, a long-forgotten collection of books emerges from its hiding place, usually after the death of a very old, unknown collector. Such a collection recently emerged in England, and it ...

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Edward Eberstadt & Sons: a story by Michael Vinson

Edward Eberstadt Sons was in the 20th century, to quote William Reese who wrote the forward to Mr. Vinson’s interesting book, Edward Eberstadt Sons, Rare Booksellers of Western Americana, “the la...

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Who Skinned James Allen? The “Skin Book”

There is, in the vaults of the private library Boston Athenaeum (BA), a peculiar book with a creepy sentence written in Latin on its front cover: Hic liber Waltonis cute compactus est—this book is ...

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Jay Kislak: Generosity

Newspaper headlines don’t always do their subjects justice and the Miami Herald was in this predicament recently when it celebrated the continuing generosity of Jay Kislak as he continues to place ...

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Feb. 14: Icons & Images, a Sale of Photographs and Photobooks at Swann Auction Galleries

As technology has transformed the world of works on paper, the value of collectible items has shifted towards things that are aesthetically pleasing. One reason for owning books—the knowledge conta...

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There is always more: Edwin Whitefield

Recently I was reading Antiques Arts Weekly and chanced upon a 3-column ad for a Poughkeepsie print.  As it’s within my collecting focus I called the advertiser, Holden Antiques, to inquire and Ed...

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Feb 8: Books and Manuscripts including Ultra Rare Rimbaud items at Sotheby's Paris

Livres et Manuscrits is Sotheby’s Paris’ upcoming sale on February 8, 2017 that features a healthy mix of material. From rare autograph documents by French poet Arthur Rimbaud, to medical manuscrip...

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A Large Heist Far North

Canadian police have asked the public for help in locating a collection of prints and original art. The theft was reported back on September 22, 2016, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have not...

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Feb. 7 & 8: U.S. and Worldwide Banknotes, Scripophily, and Security Printing Ephemera at Archives International

Focused collectors of banknotes, stock and bond certificates, coins, and security printing ephemera are likely already aware of the 2-day event taking place this month. But for the person just gett...

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A Library Theft That Will Not Go Into the Annals of Great Crimes

Here is a story of a library book theft that is a bit of a head-scratcher. The security must have been slightly lax at the Flower Memorial Library in Watertown, New York, on January 4. Before sound...

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Eleven Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we have 11 new bookseller catalogues to review. Most have highly targeted subjects, rather than general catalogues or miscellanies. Jonathan A. Hill Bookseller features science, medicine...

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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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