Rare Book Monthly Articles - June - 2019 Issue

Hold these Dates for New York in 2020

Donald Heald, Chairman of the premier book fair in the world, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, announced on 30 May that Sanford Smith and the ABAA have reached an agreement with the Park Avenue Armory to return to this coveted venue in 2020.  Set up for the fair, is scheduled for March 4th followed by the opening on Thursday March 5th then continuing through Sunday March 8th.  This fair, measured by attendance, is larger than the combined Boston, Oakland and Pasadena fairs combined.  In recent years total attendance in New York exceeded 10,000.   In 2016 the Armory was repurposed as a ...

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The Amazing Discovery of the Bibliography of Christopher Columbus' Son

The discovery of a long lost, presumed destroyed, almost 2,000-page manuscript may well be the greatest bibliographic find of this century. Its finding is somewhat on a parallel with Columbus' disc...

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“Breaking Up is Hard to Do” Part II: Rant of the soon to be ex eBay Power Seller

Back in April I used this space to rant about eBay and my 20 years of selling on their platform. I complained the introduction of a new “Good til Cancelled” (GTC) policy gave sellers even less cont...

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Alexander Hamilton Letter, Stolen 80 Years Ago, Finally Located

A letter written by Alexander Hamilton to the Marquis de Lafayette, stolen years ago from the Massachusetts Archives, has been found. An action has been taken by the U.S. Department of Justice in M...

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Book Fairs in London in June

Book fairs everywhere have assumed a gathering importance as shops have closed around the world.  Experience has long shown that collectors and institutions will go great distances to find the obje...

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June 26: The Library & Picture Collection of the late Martin Woolf Orskey at Dominic Winter Auctioneers

Editor’s note: On June 26, 2019, Dominic Winter Auctioneers will be auctioning the Library Picture Collection of the late Martin Woolf Orskey. The sale features 440 lots arranged in chronological ...

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University of South Carolina Receives a Gift of Over 180,000 Comics

Remember when your mother said you would never learn anything by reading comic books? The folks at the University of South Carolina don't. When they heard a collector from Ohio had an enormous coll...

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June 12: Landmark works 'Summa de Arithmetica' and DNA's double-helix discovery at Christie's New York

Normally, a sale featuring multiple six figure estimates, including a signed prepublication of the DNA double-helix discovery, a letter by George Washington addressing the Whiskey Rebellion, and an...

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West-Indian Apocalypse, “Year Minus 1.”

Between 1788 and 1790, Stanislas de Wimpffen resided in the French West-Indian colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). He failed to make a fortune, but he gave an intimate description of a corrupted soci...

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Reconstructing History in Paint

At some point, for serious institutions and collectors the reimagining of the past becomes essential to understanding and explaining it.  Today’s assumptions are often, if not always, very differen...

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Panorama of the Hudson River by Wade and Croome

Recently I was offered a second edition of Wade Croome’s Panorama of the Hudson River, printed in 1846.  I look to understand the evolving waterfront of the Hudson River during the 19th century an...

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From a Carnegie Library to an Apple Store - a 21st Century Transformation

Electronic devices, digital reading and viewing have been eating away at the use of print books for a long time now. It is a trend that has bothered some book lovers and many educators for a simila...

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Microsoft's eBook Store is Closing Its "Doors"

We have heard so many times about booksellers closing their doors, often the victims of new technology. Who needs paper when electrons arrive instantaneously, the choices virtually unlimited? The m...

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Scholium Group Reports "Difficult Environment" for Rare Books Trade

Scholium Group, parent of Shapero Rare Books, reported improved results for the half year ending March 31, 2019, versus the previous six-month period. It expects a small profit for the six months a...

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Rose City Book Fair Set for June 14-15 in Portland, Oregon

If it's June in the Pacific Northwest, it is time once again for the Rose City Book Fair. This is an annual event in the Rose City, also known as Portland, Oregon. Over 60 booksellers will be exhib...

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The Price of Imperfection is Going Up

Honus Wagner, a well known baseball player in his lifetime, has achieved in death increasing notoriety in his afterlife.  True, in life he was good, even very good, played 21 seasons, won 8 batting...

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Library Thief Has Statue in Her Honor Placed Outside Library

How many people who steal books from a library are honored by having their statue erected outside of it? None immediately come to mind. Well, now there is one. Her name is Victoria Wood, and while ...

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13 Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review 13 new booksellers' catalogues. Librairie Clavreuil from France has a collection of authors' first books. Ursus Rare Books focuses on art theory and technique. Shapero Rare Boo...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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