Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2017 Issue

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Collections can get Complicated

I’ve known for many years that book collecting, if it was ever only books, is rarely books alone today.  Book collecting was once a huge field that required decades of experience.  Today informational databases approach Einstein levels of volume and complexity providing clear pictures of rarity and value while selling databases such as Abe Books and Biblio show enormous availability.  The word rare has always been a general term but the best databases today show it item by item, selling sites to tell you how many are available and RBH to tell you what the market is sayi...

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On Rare Book Hub: a reconsidered approach to Books for Sale

Over the past 15 years listing books on line has moved beyond the future into something embedded, like wallpaper, in the unfolding everyday reality of old and rare books.  Superlatives were co...

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The Hobby Lobby Case – Illegal Importation of Some of the World's Oldest Writings

A settlement has been reached in a smuggling case involving approximately 5,500 items from antiquity, some of the earliest "books" created, cuneiform tablets from the "cradle of civilization," toda...

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Bedazzled by Burney: Sales of Frances Burney Books, Manuscripts & Images from the Paula Peyraud Collection

This month, Rare Book Hub guest writer, Maureen E. Mulvihill, has written a useful piece on continuing strong values in Frances Burney (her books, manuscripts, associated visual art). Burney, a pop...

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U. S. Supreme Court to Rule on Attempt to Seize Ancient Persian Tablets from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute

This is the month where the earliest "books" - ancient clay tablets – make their way into the news, legal news in particular. Not only was a settlement reached in the Hobby Lobby case (see ar...

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Summer: Searching in New York

The chance to visit New York City this past month reminded me anew that, for book collectors and those who do historical research both the New York Public Library and the New York Historical Societ...

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Aug. 2: Vintage Posters at Swann including WWI Propaganda in honor of the 100th anniversary of the U.S.'s entry

As their 2016-2017 auction season comes to a close, Swann Auction Galleries is going out with a bang. Taking place tomorrow (from the time of this Rare Book Monthly publishing), August 2nd at 10:30...

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MONA. This Is Not Your Typical Library Story

A three-story circular library has been proposed to house the collection of one of the more unusual book collectors you will ever find. His name is David Walsh, and he built his fortune the way vir...

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Aug. 5: Baseball, Almanacs, Historical Documents and more at Case Antiques

Case Antiques, the Knoxville, Tennessee based auction house has since 2015 included their relevant auction records in Rare Book Hub’s Transaction History database. The category of collectible...

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A Time to be Cautious

You can kind of feel it, the disconcerting energy of anxiety.  It’s a different kind of thing; somehow tapping into our primordial instincts.  There’s a sense of risk in some ...

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Chastellux’s Voyages: An Aristocrat in America.

Like many “generous aristocrats1”, the well-born Marquis de Chastellux went to America in 1780 to fight on the side of the insurgents during the War of Independence (1775-1783). There h...

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AbeBooks Posts the Top 10 Highest Prices Paid in April-June 2017

It was a testament to just how crazy much money collectors will spend on their passion. Sadly, it was not a testament to what people will spend on books, which is much more reasonable (that is, les...

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Summertime Fun & Browsing in the Book Arts

It’s August and in the Northern Hemisphere it’s Summer. Time for a little bookish R&R.
 
With that in mind here are some large and small collections displayed online and brou...

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The Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair in September

The rare book field is tradition laden.  The way things were is the way they will continue to be, that is unless you are Marvin Getman, the show promoter, who thinks carefully and works hard t...

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The New York Academy of Medicine is Set to Help You Pass Your Hogwarts O.W.L Exam

Books are a place where fantasy intersects with reality. There is perhaps no better example than the most popular children's book series of this century, the Harry Potter books. They are filled wit...

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Eight New Catalogues Reviewed for August

This month we review eight new catalogues. De Wolfe & Wood and Michael Brown Rare Books are offering an early printing of photographs taken by Walker Evans in Cuba in 1933. He developed this se...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • 88b350e6-f304-4b22-874e-d8b5dfa28a9c A6a08f1d-0e6f-4dac-a0a5-22aead70ae7a 2f2df2c3-5791-4051-a588-02083e0a9b0f D6130a78-479a-4c6b-8622-3e0c37c376b8 2fce5f29-add6-4d3a-94be-1b39243011c6 5bc7e806-0f7e-47dd-81a1-a00c7842b760 B5903403-427f-47f8-8a4e-00f8a2b11ff2 A3446ab1-aee2-47f8-91ec-2aa4e404d523 490d2bfa-41b8-4cce-b904-3da6cfeae026 93a8a17c-1195-4b40-9949-981a622df02e 34c34c6d-57a1-4a5c-9c43-70a1d023db9c D88c0181-1f4a-4421-bd1a-e5e6d6cfaa96 8b05a71d-1aa5-4c07-a5b2-570911b43bd7 E5b0cee6-1d9c-479d-8f5b-6f4afb231598 5a1cd851-ac75-40a0-9250-32ad4ccc7fb3 4bb600a4-ef2a-4734-99ff-b3b5af34a4f2
    <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>November 12-13, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> MACHIAVELLI, Niccolò. <i>Nicholas Machiavel's Prince. Also, The life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca…</i> Translated by Edward Dacres. London, 1640. $25,000 to $35,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> FILSON, John. <i>The Discovery, Settlement and present State of Kentucke: and An Essay towards the Topography, and Natural History of that important Country…</i> Wilmington, Del.: James Adams, 1784. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> ELUARD, Paul. <i>Un poeme dans chaque livre.</i> Paris: Louis Broder, 1956. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>November 12-13, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> LEWIS, James Otto. [<i>Aboriginal Port Folio.</i> Philadelphia: Published by the Author, 1835-1836]. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> [ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS]. BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin. [Southern Netherlands (Ghent or Bruges), c.1460]. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> MORE, Thomas, Sir. <i>The Workes ... wrytten by him in the Englysh tongue.</i> Edited by William Rastell. London, 1557. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>November 12-13, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> [KELMSCOTT PRESS]. MORRIS, William. <i>Love is Enough.</i> Hammersmith: The Kelmscott Press, 1897. $5,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph endorsement signed as President (“A. Lincoln”), 24 February 1863. $4,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> WASHINGTON, George. Address panel with autograph free frank signed ("G:o Washington"), as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, 5 August 1777. $3,000 to $5,000.
    <center><b>Hindman Auctions<br>Fine Books and Manuscripts<br>November 12-13, 2020</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> GOREY, Edward. <i>The Beastly Baby.</i> N.p.: The Fantod Press, 1962. $1,000 to $1,500.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> FROST, Robert. Photographic reproduction signed and inscribed ("Robert Frost”), to R.V. Thornton, 1955. $1,000 to $1,500.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Nov. 12-13:</b> GOREY, Edward. <i>The Bug Book.</i> New York: Looking Glass Library, 1959. $500 to $700.
  • 02a645b0-93d5-4233-a380-49a54107b74f F34d467d-0e22-4072-8d84-227cd4959e17 Fa03bb27-00c6-478c-b116-e721e4ec51a3 7576d851-239d-4068-89b9-f1bc09695f7f 0df1014b-4c59-472f-ba69-b8ee4f19c925 6f666cf2-098a-446a-b7b8-51ef83c14b8c 37cc4591-05d2-4c08-a37e-5e019c05187a 22a8c5ae-a493-45df-917b-063a97373cb1 5a4e2bf1-a89b-4ad8-ae69-e5aad7822c3a 372c68cb-4d6b-4087-b65b-7d47400b4003 0c91c6a5-888c-4543-8645-3f342a4ad324 Aee3d5ba-ab89-498c-899d-c77f4ef92236
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> Jane Austen, <i>Pride & Prejudice,</i> 3 volumes, first edition, London, 1813. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> John Hancock, Uncommon Privateer Commission, signed as President of Continental Congress, 1777. $6,000 to $9,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> Frank Lloyd Wright, photograph signed & inscribed. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> Abraham Lincoln, document signed conscripting troops for first national draft in U.S., 1863. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> Jane Austen, <i>Sense & Sensibility,</i> 3 volumes, first edition, London, 1811. $30,000 to $40,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> Charles Dickens, <i>American Notes for General Circulation,</i> first edition, inscribed to Richard Henry Dana, Jr., London, 1842. $30,000 to $40,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> John Maynard Keynes, <i>The General Theory of Employment, Interest & Money,</i> first edition, London, 1936. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> Alexandre Raymond, <i>L’Art Islamique en Orient,</i> 2 volumes, first editions, Péra-Constantinople, 1922-24. $3,000 to $4,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 17:</b> Igor Stravinsky, autograph musical quotation signed, 3 bars from <i>Perséphone,</i> 1936. $1,500 to $2,500.
  • 12fc24bb-304a-43a9-8690-cecba796d02a Aec52ca2-d3c4-43c8-a5c2-b46b2536daa4 F556cdac-a0be-457b-a08e-8367abf7ac41 Be19ee6a-019c-46db-a04d-9cbcae1e9371 Ae7f12b5-dced-4a58-9f20-51569ccf4e0f 2e98bcf0-0163-48c6-b187-e34352594935
    <b>Christie’s, Nov 3 :</b> REGAMEY, Felix (1844-1906). Unique drawing showing Verlaine and Rimbaud in London, September 1872. €70,000 to 100,000
    <b>Christie’s, Nov 3 :</b> LABORDE, Alexandre de (1773-1842). <i>Voyage pittoresque et historique de l’Espagne.</i> Paris : 1806-1820. €20,000 to 30,000
    <b>Christie’s, Nov 3 :</b> BOCCACE, Jean (1313-1375). <i>Il Decamerone…</i> Venise : Gabriele Giolito di Ferrari, 1542.<br>€ 12,000 to 15,000
    <b>Christie’s, Nov 3 :</b> LAMBERT, Yvon (1936). Full collection of writings from <i>Une rêverie émanée de mes loisirs.</i> Paris : 1992 - 2018. €50,000 to 70,000
    <b>Christie’s, Nov 3 :</b> JOUVE, Paul (1878-1973) -- KIPLING, Rudyard (1865-1936). <i>La Chasse de Kaa.</i> Paris : Javal & Bourdeaux, 1930. €2,000 to 3,000

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