Rare Book Monthly Articles - April - 2017 Issue

The New York Book Fairs: opportunities for the committed

The ABAA New York Book Fair has come and gone and left lingering feelings of excitement and satisfaction in its wake.  It was a very good fair both for exhibitors and guests.  There had been some suspense in the run-up that was reflected in lighter than usual dealer-to-dealer transactions before the show opened.  This year it was a bit quiet, reflecting the uncertainties of March [versus April] dates that were initially viewed as a negative.  But lo and behold the dates proved to be golden.  The institutional and collector audiences attended on opening night [Thursday] and set the tone for ...

Lasting Excitement at this Year’s Ephemera Society of America’s annual four-day Fair

This Year’s Ephemera Society of America’s annual four-day fair in Greenwich, Connecticut has come and gone and one expects that many on both sides of the aisle, those who attended to learn and thos...

District Attorney's Investigator Sentenced to Five Years in Prison in Theft of $200,000 Worth of Comic Books

An investigator for the Harris County (Houston), Texas, District Attorney was recently convicted of stealing around $200,000 worth of comic books. Dustin Deutsch was sentenced to five years in pris...

Converting the Rare and Valuable into Cash

Three or four months ago we received an inquiry from the La Gatta Trust of Reno, Nevada about material they wanted to sell.  We receive such inquiries every week and have a straightforward response...

What Is the Fine for Returning an Overdue Book 100 Years Late?

The San Francisco Public Library recently had one of their fine forgiveness events for overdue books. They don't have them often, nor on a particular schedule. They seem to come up about once every...

A Needle in the Hay Stack

  What’s in this story?   Recently we were asked for help to find a record in the Rare Book Hub Transaction Database.  This record was for a piece of manuscript ephemera, a signed bill for the s...

The “Old” LIFE: Art, Politics & Humor - What a Difference a Century Makes

Most dealers and collectors are well aware of the American magazine LIFE, founded by Henry Luce in 1936. Luce’s LIFE became a long running showcase for photo journalism. But few are familiar with t...

Linguet’s Memoirs - In the Belly of la Bastille...

The prison of la Bastille, which once stood in the middle of Paris, is the ultimate symbol of the French Revolution. When an angry mob captured it on July 14th, 1789, it became a landmark in French...

American Textile History Museum, Closed Last Year, Will Transfer Its Vast Library to Cornell University

It is an issue today and could be a greater one tomorrow. Libraries and museums, sometimes highly specialized, may no longer be able to raise the necessary funds to stay in operation. It can happen...

Raptis Rare Books Opens in Palm Beach

While Palm Beach, Florida has been in the news more recently as the new home of the “winter White House”, for serious readers and book collectors the most interesting news has been the opening of R...

April 27: Cortés, The Book of Mormon, and other Printed & Manuscript Americana at Swann Auction Galleries

The tail end of winter and beginning of Spring have been a busy time for the New York-based Swann Auction Galleries. Having concluded no less than five successful sales in the month of March, this ...

Dinner, Beer and Wine at a Bookstore? Welcome to Barnes & Noble's Latest Survival Plan

Would you like plancha-cooked salmon with whole grain tabbouleh salad basil dressing with your books? And some Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve Champagne from Reims, France, seems like an appropriate...

April 26: A Unique Civil War Archive, Presidential Autographs, and more Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle New York

On Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at 10am, Doyle New York will hold an auction of Rare Books, Autographs Maps. The auction showcases a diverse range of material from early illuminated manuscripts to mo...

74-Year-Old Man Arrested for Destroying Kim Kardashian Books

Carl Puia is not a hero. Many have made him out to be. The 74-year-old Glastonbury, Connecticut, native is clearly frustrated by the direction of society. His frustrations are understandable. I sha...

A Study of Old Book Smell Is Being Conducted at the Morgan Library

An unusual study of old books and smells is taking place at the Morgan Library in New York, combining the library, students from the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservati...

Nineteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This was a busy month for new catalogues as many booksellers prepared selections for the recent New York Antiquarian Book Fair. John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller offers an extensive collection of ...

Old Books Still Matter - Maureen E. Mulvihill, Guest Speaker in Sarasota, Florida

Maureen Mulvihill, writer of the guest series on 17th century women writers that appeared last fall on this website, will speak in the Gelbert Auditorium of the Selby Public Library, 1331 First Str...

Rare Book Monthly

  • CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000
  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Books and Manuscripts
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane] — Isaac D'Israeli. Jane Austen's copy of Curiosities of Literature. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition in boards of the author's debut novel. 70,000 - 100,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Brontë, Charlotte. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me..." 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Eliot, George. The author's magnum opus. 25,000 - 35,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Whitman, Walt. Manuscript written upon the Death of Lincoln, 1865. 60,000 - 80,000 USD
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining, Philadelphia, 1846. $3,500 to $5,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: 17th–19th-century case maps of various locations. $1,500 to $2,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Andreas Cellarius, Haemisphaerium Stellatum Boreale Cum Subiecto Haemisphaerio Terrestri, celestial chart, Amsterdam, 1708. $2,500 to $3,500.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Vincenzo Coronelli, Set of engraved gores for Coronelli’s monumental 42-inch terrestrial globe, Venice, circa 1688–97. $18,000 to $22,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, group of four navigational charts, Antwerp, 1580s. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Thomas Bros, Block Book of Berkeley, Oakland, 1920s. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Nieuhoff & John Ogilby, An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, map of China, plan of Canton, London, 1673. $1,200 to $1,800.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Frederick Sander, Reichenbachia, St. Albans, 1888-1894. $5,000 to $7,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Two early illustrated works on horsemanship and breeding, Nuremberg, early 18th century. $700 to $800.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. Supplement to the First Edition, London, 1834; 1855. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, London, 1808–14. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Oakley Hoopes Bailey, Hackensack, New Jersey, Boston, 1896. $800 to $1,200.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions