Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2018 Issue

Arrests Made in $8 Million Theft from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library

Arrests Made in $8 Million Theft from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library

Arrests have been made in one of the largest book thefts in recent memory - an estimated $8 million-plus worth of books taken from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. This was not a single heist but an ongoing flow that took place over two decades. As is often the case in such a large and long-running event, it was an inside job. On the inside was Greg Priore, who had been the library's archivist and head of the rare book room since 1992. Mr. Priore has been charged with theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy, retail theft, library theft, criminal mischief and forgery. According to th...

Comic-Con in San Diego:   Marvel-less

Comic-Con in San Diego: Marvel-less

In San Diego the annual comic book orgy, Comic-Con, recently concluded and continued again as a mega-event as evidenced by the reports of attendance, the local, regional, and national news coverage...

Do You Love Endpapers? An Interview with Simon Beattie, from the "We Love Endpapers" Facebook group.

Do You Love Endpapers? An Interview with Simon Beattie, from the "We Love Endpapers" Facebook group.

God forgive, I recently broke my own first commandment of book collecting: Thou shalt not buy a book but for its contents! Well, I did—worse, I bought a book for... its endpapers! It is not my enti...

Bear Facts

Bear Facts

Recently the original map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by E. H. Shepard was sold for $570,137 [BP 430,000].  Created in 1924, It was sold 49 years ago by Sotheby’s in London for BP650 and...

AbeBooks Lists Their Top 10 Highest Prices for April-June

AbeBooks Lists Their Top 10 Highest Prices for April-June

AbeBooks has prepared their latest quarterly report of the most expensive sales on their book listing site during the past quarter, April-June. The shift to more European material at the top end th...

St. Gregory must be turning over in his grave

St. Gregory must be turning over in his grave

The efficient way to buy old books is when they are being liquidated at unreserved auction.  Better yet, buy them at a bankruptcy sale.  Such sales do not occur often but when they do the prices ca...

Bookseller's Facebook Fantasy Life

Bookseller's Facebook Fantasy Life

I guess we all have streak of the armchair traveler in us, and I’m no different. When I lived on the Mainland I got my needed doses of books, book shops and book sellers in the old fashioned way, I...

Arsenic and Old Books

Arsenic and Old Books

Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark's library made a startling discovery recently about three of their 16th and 17th century books. Their covers are filled with poison. To be exact, t...

Important Material Goes Unappreciated

Important Material Goes Unappreciated

On Thursday 26 July, important material by Malcolm X was up for sale at Guernsey’s Auctions in New York and failed to deliver on its promise of high, even exceptional outcomes.   Malcolm would cert...

1990s Book Thief Commits Suicide

1990s Book Thief Commits Suicide

Over 25 years ago, police made an arrest in a case of 200-300 books stolen from Stanford University. On April 25, 1992, Stephen Blake Crawford was arrested on charges of stealing books, photographs...

Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair: September 8 and 9

Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair: September 8 and 9

Marvin Getman, organizer of the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, has issued the schedule of talks and special events to be held during his third annual New York event that kicks off the fall rare bo...

Book Thefts Large and Small

Book Thefts Large and Small

One of the more surprising book thefts has reportedly occurred at the P. K. Kelkar Library at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. It is not the most valuable library heist ever. St...

Thirteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Thirteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Usually, most catalogues we receive are subject-specific. This month, we find mostly varieties, miscellanies, or whatever one wants to call catalogues that have a little of everything. There are st...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.

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