Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2019 Issue

Sotheby's Sold for $3.7 Billion

Sotheby's has been selling property for others going on three centuries now. Two weeks ago, the tables were turned. This time, it was Sotheby's itself that was sold. The hammer price was $3.7 billion, undoubtedly the highest realization ever at Sotheby's, although the sale did not take place in the auction rooms. It was a private sale.   The buyer officially was BidFair USA, but that is an entity wholly owned by entrepreneur Patrick Drahi and his family. Mr. Drahi is a French and Israeli citizen who has had enormous success in the telecommunications and digital media sphere. He owns sever...

Sotheby's Goes Private or Sotheby's Going Going Up

Sotheby’s, a publicly traded company for 30 years, has been purchased by Patrick Drahi for $3.7 billion including debt.  In going private the firm joins the other major auction houses in the world,...

The Voynich Manuscript Code Has Finally Been Cracked...Or Not

It was a stunning claim, at least for one coming from a respected university, the University of Bristol. The Voynich Manuscript, whose indecipherable code has eluded translation by the greatest sch...

A BOOKSELLER’S LISTICLE: Six Vintage and Antique Books to help you make money

SELF HELP is one of the book trade’s most popular genres. Most of us have encountered Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, first published in 1936, or Napoleon Hill’s Think and ...

The Future of the Past

History matters, if not so much these days.  Knowing less about history does not much concern those who know less but those who know more are concerned because they believe past experience is deter...

Once Again: the C. H. Booth Book Fair

As certain as is summer, so too is the annual arrival of the Friends of C. H. Booth Book Fair, one of the most eagerly awaited book fairs in New England.  This year’s 5 day event follows the sequen...

Barnes & Noble Purchased by a Hedge Fund. Times Have Changed

The long journey of Barnes Noble, once the world's largest bookseller, took another major turn in its declining years when it was sold last month to Elliott Management for $683 million, or $6.50 p...

Theodore De Bry & the Bodmer Project! A Complete digitized tour of the World...

For the first time ever, a complete collection of Theodore de Bry’s Voyages—‘Great’ and ‘Small’—is available online! These 29 volumes published between 1590 and 1634 are, with their extraordinary i...

An Important Book: Hiding in Plain Sight

In 1864 Abraham Lincoln, weighted with war, made a trip to Philadelphia to support a charity event whose goal was to raise money for wounded soldiers.  For the event he provided 48 copies of the Em...

July Sales at Forum Auctions: A Busy Month

About half of Forum Auctions’ online sale on Thursday 3rdJuly comprises books from the collection of the the late Frank Herrmann (1927-2017), author, publisher, collector and mentor to many at Foru...

Elect Me President and . . . .

It seems beyond shocking the deterioration in the American political landscape but as a consequence there seems to be room for another 72 year old in the race.  These are the policies I will pursue...

Comic Books Valued at $42,000 Stolen from Retail Shop

Comic book crime is no laughing matter. As the value of collectible comics has soared in recent years, so have the number of thefts and break-ins related to them. Superheroes may be able to take ca...

The Murder of Richard Jennings

Recently I bought a copy of “An Account of the Murder of Richard Jennings; Together with the Confessions of Teed Dunning.”  It details the story of a murder and later the execution of two men in O...

The Downside of Posting Official Documents Online

Oops. The digitization and online posting of documents is a wonderful benefit of technological advances, making all sorts of information once virtually unobtainable available to scholars and the pu...

10 New Catalogues Reviewed for July

This month we review 10 new booksellers' catalogues. Shapero Rare Books offers "the world on stone," that is, lithography. The 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop presents a collection of "p...

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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