Rare Book Monthly Articles - February - 2019 Issue

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2018 - It Was a Very Good Year (for Books and Paper at Auction)

Prices rose sharply at auction in 2018 for collectible books and paper. The median price was up 6% over 2017, reversing a trend of flat to down since 2014. Prices in 2018 were the fifth highest on record. Another 2% increase will be sufficient to take prices above three of those higher years - 2014, 2006, and 2005. However, it will take another 16% to bring them above the skyrocketing prices of 2007, the year before the recession of 2008. Ten years later and there is still ground to make up. That is a reflection of just how serious the recession was. The only longer gap came after the Great...

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Richard Ramer: A life of Books

Recently Richard Ramer, the New York and Lisbon Rare Book Antiquarian specializing in Portuguese and Spanish material, issued a 50th Anniversary catalogue to celebrate a half century in the field.&...

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Lahaina Printsellers, Ltd.: Hawaii Antiquarian Dealers who Became Pioneers in High Quality Map & Print Reproduction

Alan and Charlene “Char” Walker have just completed their 40th year as owners of Lahaina Printsellers, Ltd., where they’ve been antiquarian dealers of maps and prints, pioneers in...

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Christina Geiger: Appointed Head of Books and Manuscripts at Christie's, New York

Christina Geiger has been appointed to one of the storied positions in the auction world:  head of the rare books and manuscripts department at Christie’s in New York.  It’s a...

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AbeBooks 25 Most Expensive Sales for 2018

AbeBooks.com, the largest of the online old and rare book selling websites, has released their list of the Top 25 highest prices paid in 2018. AbeBooks has tens if not hundreds of millions of books...

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Leslie Hindman Auctioneers Acquires Cowans of Cincinnati

We have, for years, seen more and more auction houses appearing online.  Some are new, others long established but only recently embracing the internet.  And so overall, year after year, ...

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After a 20 Year Wait, Books Are Again Entering the Public Domain

The year 1923 may not have been the greatest one in literary history, but it brought the first published work by one of the century's most notable writers, Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was only 24 y...

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The 52nd California International Antiquarian Book Fair at Oakland February 8-10

This, every other year, event in the San Francisco Bay Area returns to the Oakland Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland for a three day run:  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, February 8 &ndas...

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At Christie’s Paris on 20 February: Exceptional Material

On 20 February 2019, at 9, avenue Matignon, in Paris, Christie’s will sell to the highest bidder the Bibliotheque Marc Litzler.  They have prepared a significant catalogue that suggests ...

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Feb 2: Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions

Taking place a day after the February 2019 issue of Rare Book Monthly is released, Chicago-based auction house Potter & Potter Auctions will be hosting a sale of Fine Books & Manuscripts on...

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Newseum Soon to be in the Past Tense

We are caught in that particular moment when old men, remembering their dreams, pay homage to them.  In some cases they remember a past no longer anchored in the present.  As a case in po...

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3579e9aa-f4a0-444d-b1a4-245ede5cec61

Aesop’s Fables, An Overshadowed Classic

Around 1775, printer Pierre Seyer from Rouen, France, put out a peddling book with dozens of engravings, La Vie et les Fables d’Esope—The Life and Fables of Aesop. Originally written in...

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Houston Public Library Wins Suit Over "Drag Queen Storytime"

Libraries have frequently found themselves in the middle of censorship controversies, someone or other wishing to ban books they dislike for some reason or other. The Houston Public Library recentl...

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Sacramento Man Charged with Stealing Thousands of Books from Library

A 46-year-old man has been arrested and charged with stealing a large number of books from the Fair Oaks Library, part of the Sacramento (California) Public Library system. When we say a large numb...

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10 New Catalogues Reviewed for February

This month we review 10 new bookseller catalogues. Back of Beyond Books and Walkabout Books have combined to create a large catalogue of material relating to America's National Parks. Richard C. Ra...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • 0f1c235b-9e14-4a36-bd17-dadb0fff2be6 C4f547db-3dd7-4763-b05c-90f790920965 084d9cd9-1212-40c8-bea9-2e261e65a1b0 988aec7f-d1eb-498e-bc9b-28cdd069bcbb 5e96cab1-d000-4b9e-b721-e3e0eb336316 08740177-573f-4d08-a0af-17e03315a7b0 49e3c3db-e87a-4982-911a-f2a9b72836f5 Ffbbf60d-f108-4a7c-a647-33b4825e5016 F07ba0d9-c686-4c83-91db-1719c3d78ea3 84250eb3-34b9-455c-a1f3-00ab8878c666 459308ca-7e31-4881-8005-3ef48f9115e7 191745ba-1e54-4aaf-8c0a-67d7e3aeba15 963a950b-066c-4c92-9edf-a76c4f747bd9 059c26c3-dbb8-4667-a9b2-c8d1df0bf5c7 2966ad3f-8520-4d4a-a59c-dce593966496 52053bba-fa65-4235-b35d-6e7e91d91178
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
    <center><b>California Virtual Book Fair<br>March 4-6, 2021<br>www.abaa.org/vbf</b>
  • F0e650da-89b6-4e3e-88d0-d8ee75daeffd 5f0f427c-502c-49ba-9383-c77e701d6d1f 859622c2-f32b-4452-abab-2a44f497b309 750ba05f-32e4-4da9-aaa6-640839ee135d 5ceb2ea6-291d-4c5c-b7ce-a11487953e59 1491509f-e302-4ad8-a700-fdb3a63ad3bd 311ae3af-e5b4-4ae2-aeab-d659ba9bef56 6bcde413-7590-4b5d-a1ad-1072b0c78874 37900042-e6ac-46f1-909b-38064ad1c46e 8d43117f-4caa-410a-84bb-ee0adc3e7031 661296de-f6c1-48dc-ad4b-5ec7280d05ed 4ded0067-668a-4801-869c-4629535a15ba 15b85754-4abc-45e9-860f-2c73e201a3eb 6c9e933c-3576-4153-8376-f52c73562010 367568a8-4774-436a-a84f-4c75e8d09afd 574fb217-0643-4d46-811b-72ca35c2e4da
    <center><b>The Collectors’ Sale<br>March 3, 2021</b>
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Verlag, Luzern, Publishers: <i>The Book of Kells,</i> the most precious illuminated manuscript of the early Middle Ages, now reproduced, the FIRST AND ONLY COMPLETE FINE ART FACSIMILE EDITION. €5,000 to €6,000.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Rowling (J.K.) <i>Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone,</i> 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1997, First Deluxe Edn., Signed by the Author on title page. €4,000 to €5,000.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Gilbert (John T.) Account of Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland, from the earliest extant specimens to A.D. 719. €2,000 to €3,000.
    <center><b>The Collectors’ Sale<br>March 3, 2021</b>
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> <i>The Georgian Society Records of Eighteenth-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin [-Ireland],</i> 5 vols. lg. 4to D. 1909 - 1913. Limited Editions. €1,500 to €2,000.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Yeats (W.B.) <i>The Poems of W.B. Yeats,</i> 2 vols., roy 8vo, L. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949, Limited Edn., No. 185 (of 375 copies). Signed. €1,500 to €2,000.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Crone (John S.)ed. <i>The Irish Book Lover, A Monthly Review of Irish Literature and Bibliography.</i> Vol. I No 1 August 1909 - Vol. XXXII No. 6, September 1957. €1,250 to €2,000.
    <center><b>The Collectors’ Sale<br>March 3, 2021</b>
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Yeats (John Butler) <i>An original self-portrait Sketch,</i> Signed and dated April 1919, N[ew] York. €1,200 to €1,500.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Photograph Album. Entitled ''A Souvenir of the Visit to Jeypore Samasthanam of His Excellency the Right Hon'ble Viscount Goschen of Hawkhurst… 14th December 1927''. €1,000 to €1,500.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Pistolesi (Erasmo) <i>Il Vaticano,</i> 8vols. large atlas, folio Rome (Tipografia della Societa..) 1829. €500 to €600.
    <center><b>The Collectors’ Sale<br>March 3, 2021</b>
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Chagall (Marc)illus., Legmarie (Jean) comp., <i>The Jerusalem Windows,</i> folio N.Y. (George Braziller) 1962. €400 to €500.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Bullitt (Thos. W.) <i>My Life at Oxmoor,</i> Life on a Farm in Kentucky before the War. Roy 8vo Louisville, Kentucky, 1911. Privately Printed No. 86 of 100 Copies Only. €300 to €400.
    <b>Fonsie Mealy, Mar. 3:</b> Popish Plot: Oates (Titus) <i>The Popes Whore House or The Merchandise of The Whore of Rome,</i> folio L. 1679. First Edn. €100 to €150.
  • Eea1d9c5-c2b9-4626-bcd9-e4f2e7ceaf83 01fc7d8d-33e7-472e-a326-ec98ecf202d5 48ca203a-cebe-4649-b385-d676a7a01d6e 7e3fe419-d0d7-40e1-9331-2ff876984f55 7968aa16-f841-475d-b935-120f31fd063f 7d01df07-9bb7-4c1a-ad17-b9f0c7f61029 2688cdd3-f2ba-439e-b22b-089d91266df0 306adab1-d2ff-4a42-bddb-945ec93a828e 33bdf46e-5f55-4225-a119-5b6aaa6dcc2e A03ed96f-a008-4a5d-afb4-831bddea4937 F7196ef7-8778-40dc-87a2-cb2dd1d5208b 370b5ed0-9f9f-4a70-87ef-9df8f9a0ff86
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Dorothea Lange, <i>Migrant Mother (horizontal),</i> silver print, 1936. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Group of 32 WWII-era identification badges for manufacturing & military-related companies, 1940-50s. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Julia Margaret Cameron, <i>Alfred, Lord Tennyson,</i> albumen print, 1869. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Arnold Genthe, <i>Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt,</i> silver print, circa 1908. $1,000 to $1,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Edward Curtis, <I>Oasis in the Badlands,</I> toned platinum print, 1905. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Francis Frith, three volumes, approximately 140 photographs, 1860-70s. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Eugène Atget, <i>20 Photographs,</i> gold-toned silver prints by Berenice Abbott, 1898-1927. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b> Neil Leifer, <i>Muhammad Ali,</i> chromogenic print, 1965. $4,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Mar 11:</b><br>A group of approximately 50 Photomatic selfies of the same man taken over a period of time, 1940s. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.
  • A8daf7db-8078-4043-9dae-78438a37999b 2847bcf9-4f78-4598-a625-671f0a4d3f48 72737ec2-7c9d-4fdc-9909-14c4f3c77c96 1844ac95-79cc-4942-879f-b187987fb397 F54bbb5e-a823-44df-87f7-2838821402a8 1f934675-0d5a-48eb-a499-9863a4a1ae31 Ab315286-ac16-4630-9243-53747216e340 2e70db25-a57b-46e8-b7e9-31e152641e07 A4296707-8681-4fe2-9527-44a8eaa5d1fd 08528532-143d-42d0-8b4c-c1d37855c2fe 83723749-eb13-4220-96a1-4067ae0e3cd0 A30a9cbf-6600-460b-a2a9-711d59cc69ce D97723c6-01b7-441e-b7fb-471ba9000192 34dbc284-0545-4008-ae6f-0f6cc973b983 78b938b6-19a2-44bf-96ea-3195980fc35e 04d41c1f-4124-421a-9491-0fcb8a38b1bb
    <b><center>Hindman Auctions<br>Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection<br>March 19, 2021</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> STEINBECK, John (1902-1968). <i>The Pastures of Heaven.</i> New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1932. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> FITZGERALD, F. Scott (1896-1940). <i>Tender is the Night.</i> New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. $6,000 to $8,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> STOKER, Bram (1847-1912). <i>Dracula.</i> Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company, 1897. $5,000 to $7,000.
    <b><center>Hindman Auctions<br>Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection<br>March 19, 2021</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> GOLDING, William (1911-1993). <i>Lord of the Flies.</i> London: Faber and Faber, 1954. $4,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> SALINGER, J. D. (1919-2010). The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. $4,000 to $6,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1899-1961). <i>The Torrents of Spring.</i> New York: Scribner's, 1926. $3,000 to $4,000.
    <b><center>Hindman Auctions<br>Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection<br>March 19, 2021</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> HUXLEY, Aldous (1894-1963). <i>Brave New World.</i> London: Chatto & Windus, 1932. $3,000 to $4,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> WELLS, H.G. <i>The Time Machine, an Invention.</i> New York: Henry Holt, 1895. $3,000 to $4,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> DAHL, Roald (1916-1990). <i>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.</i> New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b><center>Hindman Auctions<br>Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection<br>March 19, 2021</b>
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> HERBERT, Frank (1920-1986). Dune. Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1965. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> KESEY, Ken (1935-2001). <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.</i> New York: The Viking Press, 1962. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b>Hindman Auctions, Mar. 19:</b> VONNEGUT, Kurt, Jr. (1922-2007). <i>Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade.</i> New York: Seymour Lawrence Delacorte Press, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.

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