Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2018 Issue

Bill Reese:  In Memoriam

Bill Reese: In Memoriam

In the rare book business a few names resonate down through the ages, their quotes, collections, statements, catalogues and books so substantial that even their ephemera and paraphernalia become collectible.  Often their hard edges and hard truths dissolve in the alchemy of death that transforms careers into dirges of praise.  Bill Reese is the latest of such men, one of the very few who can be mentioned in the company of Streeter, Eberstadt, Rosenwald, Rosenbach and Huntington.  As collectors and/or dealers they had their strengths and weaknesses but in the fullness of time have emerged as...

Every Merchant May Soon Have to Collect Sales Taxes for Every State Thanks to Supreme Court Decision

Every Merchant May Soon Have to Collect Sales Taxes for Every State Thanks to Supreme Court Decision

The U. S. Supreme Court reached an important, not particularly unexpected decision on sales taxes that potentially effects everyone who sells anything into a state other than their own. The court h...

Stolen Columbus Letter Returned to its Home

Stolen Columbus Letter Returned to its Home

Columbus has sailed back home, in a manner of speaking. A Columbus Letter, one of the high points of any collection of Americana, has been returned to its rightful home. That home is in the Vatican...

Reading and Writing:  hum

Reading and Writing: hum

Reading primarily from printed forms, as a fundamental skill to engage with the world, seems to be under some pressure.  The issue isn’t that people can’t read.  Rather it’s that the forms of readi...

“Bibliomania”: Do You Have a Collection or Do You Have a Disease?

“Bibliomania”: Do You Have a Collection or Do You Have a Disease?

    As a child I would accompany my book buying dad on his frequent rounds to the various basements and sub-basements of Goodwill Industries in Detroit, where the books were not shelved, but piled ...

July 10 & 11 at Forum Auctions: The Rothamsted Collection: Rarities from the Lawes Agricultural Library

July 10 & 11 at Forum Auctions: The Rothamsted Collection: Rarities from the Lawes Agricultural Library

Editor's note: Rupert Powell, the International Head of Books at Forum Auctions, has been part of the book world since 1985 (longer than I've been alive). After a long career at Bloomsbury, he has ...

The C.H. Booth Book Sale:  July 7-11

The C.H. Booth Book Sale: July 7-11

As they have for many years, the C. H. Booth Library in Newtown, Connecticut is holding their annual Book Sale on July 7-11.  You have been to book fairs but you have not been to one on the grand s...

Suetonius and the 12 Caesars, Lives (almost) Uncensored

Suetonius and the 12 Caesars, Lives (almost) Uncensored

At the end of the 1st century, Pliny the Younger wrote to Suetonius: “Do me a favour, let me read your name at the frontispiece of a book.” Two thousand years later, Suetonius’ Lives of the 12 Caes...

Bookies Gathering in Detroit

Bookies Gathering in Detroit

No, it’s not the depression and it’s not the Mafia [although for safety sake [mine] I’m capitalizing it].  The Bookies, for the second year are gathering in Detroit for their Bookfest aka the Annua...

Great Catalogues by Master Booksellers

Great Catalogues by Master Booksellers

John R. Payne, bookman and appraiser, has cut the collecting apple in an unusual way.  He has written a folio volume about the best, preferred, and desirable cataloguers and catalogues he happened ...

July 28: Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions

July 28: Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions

This month, Chicago-based Potter Potter Auctions is hosting a July 28th sale of Fine Books Manuscripts comprising 619 lots of diverse material. Books and manuscripts certainly make up a large por...

Library of Congress Receives Enormous Donation of Comic Books

Library of Congress Receives Enormous Donation of Comic Books

The Library of Congress has received an enormous book donation, though not the sort of books one might expect to see in Congress' library - comic books. Perhaps, these are what our Congressmen and ...

San Francisco Map Fair:  September 21-23, 2018

San Francisco Map Fair: September 21-23, 2018

The San Francisco Map Fair will take place in the Lodge at the Regency Center, 1290 Sutter St. in San Francisco, California.   Opening night Reception and Preview:  September 21st, 5:00 pm - 7:30...

"Law's Picture Books" Wins American Association of Law Libraries Award

"Law's Picture Books" Wins American Association of Law Libraries Award

Law’s Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection, a book published to accompany an exhibition of illustrated legal texts, recently won the 2018 Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award from the...

Sixteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Sixteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month, we review 16 new bookseller catalogues. The variety is deep and wide. Several focus on travels and explorations. Maggs Bros. has a catalogue devoted to travels and voyages. Shapero Rare...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • 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

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