Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2018 Issue

On 14 June Christie's to auction the Portland Audubon

On 14 June Christie's to auction the Portland Audubon

Christie's recently announced it will be selling the Portland copy of Audubon’s double elephant folio Birds of America that was published 1827-1838.  This same set was sold in 2012 and returns to the rooms for another rendezvous with history, fate, money and the auctioneer’s hammer.  It will encourage comparisons and may be a bellwether for a market that is skewing both high and low.  The overall market has been in a soft decline while the best material has been rising.  Audubon is the best of the best.  The estimate will be $8-12 million and the proceeds go to benefit charitable conservati...

Software Used to Catch Plagiarizing Students Nabs Shakespeare

Software Used to Catch Plagiarizing Students Nabs Shakespeare

Poor Shakespeare. For centuries, people have claimed he didn't actually write his plays. Various names have been put forth as the real author of Shakespeare's plays by people who cannot believe an ...

The ABAA New York Book Fair

The ABAA New York Book Fair

Come the second weekend in March the American Antiquarian Booksellers' Association [aka ABAA] will host their 58th Annual New York International Book Fair at the Seventh Regiment Armory at 643 Park...

New York:  The Shadow Fairs

New York: The Shadow Fairs

The ABAA Rare Book Fair is a New York institution.  Exhibitors are limited to they who are members of the ABAA or ILAB, the international umbrella association for 22 national antiquarian bookseller...

March Auctions in New York

March Auctions in New York

Until a few years ago a book collector could expect the New York ABAA Book Fair to draw the cognoscenti from around the world in early April.  Well, that was then and this is now and the ABAA’s New...

The Curtis Census – Locating Every Extant Copy of Edward Curtis' North American Indian

The Curtis Census – Locating Every Extant Copy of Edward Curtis' North American Indian

In 1906 Edward Curtis took on a massive project. Curtis was a self-taught photographer, a man with no more than an eighth grade education who managed to set up a studio in Seattle doing photographi...

Mar. 9: Extraordinary Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams

Mar. 9: Extraordinary Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams

Every month I cover a handful of sales for Rare Book Monthly, and “Fine Books and Manuscripts” might be the most commonly used sale title I’ve come across. This month, however, Bonhams has upped th...

Woman Sentenced to Six Years in Prison in $100,000 Comic Book Theft Case

Woman Sentenced to Six Years in Prison in $100,000 Comic Book Theft Case

An Illinois woman has been sentenced to six years in prison, and almost $400,000 in restitution, which the judge noted she will never be able to repay, for the theft of an author's comic book colle...

The Portable Lavater:  Never judge a book by its forehead

The Portable Lavater: Never judge a book by its forehead

As Jamaican singer Horace Andy once sang: you see a man’s face, but you can’t see his heart—well, actually you can read a man’s thoughts on his face, providing that you know of a little book from t...

Swann Swinging for the Fences

Swann Swinging for the Fences

March has been transformed from a quiet month for rare books and historic paper into an important month, the cause the shift of the ABAA Fair at the Armory from an April to a March event to accommo...

British Librarian Steals Books, Burns Them to Cover Up the Crime

British Librarian Steals Books, Burns Them to Cover Up the Crime

A British librarian has been sentenced to 6 months in jail for stealing books from her library, and another two months for burning some of them to hide the crime. That latter crime is even worse, t...

Wiener Werkstätte - The Luxury Of Beauty

Wiener Werkstätte - The Luxury Of Beauty

Unless you’re a hard core Vienna enthusiast in love with the many kinds of art, architecture and design produced by the Wiener Werkstätte (WW) between 1903 and 1932, you might want to scroll past t...

Would You Like to Be a Published Author? It's Easier Than You Think

Would You Like to Be a Published Author? It's Easier Than You Think

Is it not the dream of readers and everyone else connected to books to someday be an author yourself? Well, the other day, the opportunity came to me in an email, tucked away in my spam folder. A f...

The Science History Institute Posts Its Collection Online

The Science History Institute Posts Its Collection Online

A collection of images from the Science History Institute, primarily related to chemistry, is now available for viewing online, with many free for the download. There are currently just over 5,000 ...

Six New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Six New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

There are six new booksellers' catalogues reviewed this month. Langdon Manor Books has a collection of African Americana. The George S. MacManus Company targets the American West. The William Reese...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: MUNSTER (Sebastian). Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Basilea
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Typus Orbis Terrarum. [Antwerp, 1587]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: BRION DE LA TOUR (Louis). Atlas Monde. Paris, Desnos ou Jaillot, [1783 - An XIII-1799].
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Anvers, Christophe Plantin, 1579.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: VISSCHER (Nicolas Joannes). Theatrum praecipuarum urbium [...]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: AZARA (Félix de). Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: JOUTEL (Henri). Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: LA SALLE (René Robert Cavelier de) ; TONTI (Henri de). Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique Septentrionale
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: NOLIN (Jean-Baptiste) ; CORONELLI (Vincenzo). L'Amérique septentrionale, ou, la partie septentrionale des Indes Occidentales […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: [Caroline du Sud]. A large draft of South Carolina from Cape Roman to Port Royal.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: PÉRON (François) ; FREYCINET (Louis de). Voyage de découverte aux terres australes.
  • Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 746. Speed's Dual Atlas of Britain & the World with 96 Maps (1676). Est. $70,000 - $85,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 9. Visscher's Superb Double-Hemisphere World Map with Representations of the Elements (1658). Est. $4,750 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 58. One of the Most Important 16th Century Maps of the New World (1554). Est. $5,000 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 745. A Complete Example of Ortelius' Atlas of Ancient Geography (1624). Est. $12,000 - $15,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 73. First English Map to Show California as an Island (1625). Est. $16,000 - $19,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 156. Bachmann's Dramatic View of the Mid-Atlantic Region (1861). Est. $1,800 - $2,200
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 741. Early Announcement of Continental Congress' Declaration of Independence (1776). Est. $9,000 - $11,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 695. The First Printed Map Devoted to the Pacific (1589). Est. $8,000 - $9,500
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 733. Superb Image of the Presentation of Jesus in Hand Color (1502). Est. $700 - $850
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 52. Produced by the Psychological Warfare Branch to Encourage Surrender (1945). Est. $200 - $230
  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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