Rare Book Monthly Articles - January - 2019 Issue

The Rare Book Hub Top 500 Sales at Auction for 2018. Prices Were Up at the Top

The Rare Book Hub Top 500 Sales at Auction for 2018. Prices Were Up at the Top

With another year under our belts, it's time to look back at the Top 500 prices paid at auction in the books and paper field (see end of this article for an explanation). At the top end, 2018 was a very good year. Prices rebounded sharply from 2017's softness. The top price paid in 2017 was $1.8 million for an early printing of the Declaration of Independence. This year's highest price was over five times that amount. Six items sold for more in 2018 than did anything in 2017. Nine items exceeded $1 million in price, compared to five the previous year.   Perhaps more telling is the price p...

Understanding Valuation in a fast Changing World

Understanding Valuation in a fast Changing World

Presentation of historical data for the rare book field has been evolving for more years than any book collector can remember because it’s been clear and necessary for more than two hundred years t...

Book Selling: 40 Years Later

Book Selling: 40 Years Later

Looking back at almost 40 years as an independent bookseller I’ve been thinking about what has changed. It isn’t the money; though I do know a few dealers who’ve built a profitable business, for mo...

We are in a War over Attention Span

We are in a War over Attention Span

It’s no accident that rare books, and books generally peaked in the 19th century.  Their popularity and importance stemmed from their often unique ability to deliver “content” in a world in which c...

Utah Man Charged in Large Thefts and Frauds Concerning Collectible Mormon Books and Artifacts

Utah Man Charged in Large Thefts and Frauds Concerning Collectible Mormon Books and Artifacts

Kevin Mark Ronald Schuwer finds himself in a lot of trouble today. Schuwer, a former student at Brigham Young University, has plied the lucrative trade of selling artifacts related to the Church of...

Voyage a la Mer du Sud: No Hollywood Spin-Off

Voyage a la Mer du Sud: No Hollywood Spin-Off

Although sub-titled “a follow-up to Anson’s voyage”, and sometimes bound with the latter, Voyage A la Mer du Sud1 (Duplain Brothers—Lyon, 1756) is actually an independent publication, the spin-off ...

A Greek Monastery Battles Princeton University for Some Very Old Manuscripts

A Greek Monastery Battles Princeton University for Some Very Old Manuscripts

"Possession is nine-tenths of the law" is one of those old idioms that may need updating, at least in the books and manuscripts field. In recent years, it has been more common to look at old transf...

Rare Book Hub as of January 1st, 2019

Rare Book Hub as of January 1st, 2019

We enter 2019 with 8,765,292 full text records in the Rare Book Transaction History Database.  During the past year we’ve added 465,101 new records or 1,274 a day or 53 records every hour of every ...

New Amsterdam to Metropolis – Important Maps of New York City 1548 – 1964 at Martayan Lan

New Amsterdam to Metropolis – Important Maps of New York City 1548 – 1964 at Martayan Lan

Martayan Lan, the New York City rare book and map dealer and ABAA member, has announced the opening of an exhibition of New York maps issued over the past four hundred years.  The event now underwa...

Jan 22: Books & Manuscripts at Il Ponte Casa d'Aste features a previously unknown Portolan chart

Jan 22: Books & Manuscripts at Il Ponte Casa d'Aste features a previously unknown Portolan chart

Milan-based auction house Il Ponte Casa d’Astewill be hosting a sale of Books and Manuscriptsthis month on January 22. Headlining the 216-lot event is a previously unknown Portolan chart, supported...

Book and Paper Fairs in North America January - March

Book and Paper Fairs in North America January - March

While the rare book world has been going online and bookshops closing, book fairs remain a resilient marketplace that continues to find new energy among dealers and collectors who are trying to buy...

Scholium Group Reports £56,000 Loss in First Half of Fiscal Year

Scholium Group Reports £56,000 Loss in First Half of Fiscal Year

The Scholium Group, corporate parent of Shapero Rare Books, released its interim financial report for the six months ending September 30, 2018. While holding several divisions, Shapero Rare Books i...

eCatalogues:  Seasons Greetings from RBH Members

eCatalogues: Seasons Greetings from RBH Members

As the printed catalogue has declined many smart sellers have shifted to eCatalogues to showcase material.  This holiday season we are pleased to present the most recent fifty eCatalogue presentati...

Grant to American Institute of Physics a Sign of Maturation of Book Digitization

Grant to American Institute of Physics a Sign of Maturation of Book Digitization

The American Institute of Physics has been awarded a grant of $646,697 from the Sloan Foundation to digitize and make universally available the Wenner collection of 3,800 volumes, dating back nearl...

Eleven New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Eleven New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Variety is the word for this month's new catalogue reviews. There is a variety of topics covered in subject specific catalogues, while others are filled with a variety of material themselves. Those...

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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