Rare Book Monthly Articles - September - 2019 Issue

Rare Book Hub: Sweet 17

It seems like only yesterday we started the Americana Exchange but in fact it’s been 17 years.  We joined the information age for the rare book field in September 2002 when we began to digitize standard references for the rare book field.  As a collector I wanted quick, broad access to what was known.  In time this led to our providing broad auction coverage as the number of auction houses, events, and lots exploded.  Soon after, we developed a single search of all upcoming auction lots in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera fields.   Fast forward, the world now expects up-to-date i...

Mulvihill Collection acquires celebrated Scots astronomer, Mary Somerville

While the Mulvihill Collection focuses mostly on pre-1700 women writers (English, Irish, Dutch), it has recently acquired a special newcomer: Mary Somerville, her 1834 classic, On the Connexion of ...

Here is How to Search All of the Auctions with One Mouse Click

We are about to enter the busy season for book and paper auctions. From now through the winter holidays you can expect to see the most, and much of the best material come up for sale. With so many ...

Wright Howes and Howes’ Usiana Revisited

The Lives and Work of Wright and Zoe Howes and the Story of U.S.iana   For collectors of a certain age Wright Howes, the Chicago book dealer and author of Howes’ U.S.iana, is a mythic figure.  Bo...

Comic Relief: Comic Thief Attempts to Sell Stolen Books to the Wrong Party

Here is a theft story with a happy ending. Actually, it is more than an ordinary happy ending as the irony is absolutely beautiful.   Martin Casas of St. Louis owned a collection of 3,000 comic b...

New Dealer Finds Much to Recommend in the Book Trade

Morgan Brynnan, 56, has a longstanding interest in books. The Gridley, CA. resident started as a library page in 1991, eventually got her degree and became a medical and academic librarian. Along t...

Sep. 24: Artist books and other Italian material at Il Ponte Casa d'Aste

On September 24, 2019, Il Ponte Casa d’Aste’s sale of Books and Manuscripts is bringing 230 lots of interesting and varied material to auction in Milan. Some of the highlight sections include artis...

Arthur Dunkelman Appointed Curator of the Kislak Collection at the University of Miami Richter Library

Arthur Dunkelman, Director and curator of the Jay I. Kislak Foundation has been appointed Curator of the Kislak Collection at the University of Miami’s Richter Library.  On September 5th the Kislak...

Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair September 7-8

The Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, now in its 6th year, returns to the Brooklyn Expo Center, Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Saturday and Sunday September 7-8.  This is a Marvin Getman event, 1 of 6 in th...

Le Gentil de la Barbinais, Too Gentle a Circumnavigator

Le Gentil de la Barbinais is the alleged first French circumnavigator. He left Cherbourg, France, in 1714, and came back 4 years later with a detailed relation, Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde (Pari...

Art Work of Ulster County

When you collect extensively in a relatively narrow field and have been conversant in the subject for more than fifty years you don’t expect to find that you’ve never seen or even heard of a primar...

Annual Boxborough Paper Fair Set for Saturday, September 21, 2019

The annual Boxborough Paper Fair is set for Saturday, September 21, this year. Hours are from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 pm. It will be held, naturally enough, in Boxborough, Massachusetts, at the Boxboro Re...

Scholium Group Experiences Slight Loss for the Year

Scholium Group, parent of rare book seller Shapero Rare Books, reported their financial results recently for the year ending March 31, 2019. They were essentially flat, sales up some, but the botto...

Flood Washes Out Tens of Thousands of Books

We have occasional stories of destruction of libraries caused by the elements in the West, but this one from India tells of destruction on an enormous scale. Some 60,000-90,000 books have been dest...

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

We are just finishing the summer doldrums, so there are only five new catalogues reviewed this month. Michel Bouvier offers a catalogue of material by and about Victor Hugo and his family. The Will...

Rare Book Monthly

  • CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000
  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Books and Manuscripts
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane] — Isaac D'Israeli. Jane Austen's copy of Curiosities of Literature. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition in boards of the author's debut novel. 70,000 - 100,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Brontë, Charlotte. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me..." 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Eliot, George. The author's magnum opus. 25,000 - 35,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Whitman, Walt. Manuscript written upon the Death of Lincoln, 1865. 60,000 - 80,000 USD
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining, Philadelphia, 1846. $3,500 to $5,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: 17th–19th-century case maps of various locations. $1,500 to $2,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Andreas Cellarius, Haemisphaerium Stellatum Boreale Cum Subiecto Haemisphaerio Terrestri, celestial chart, Amsterdam, 1708. $2,500 to $3,500.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Vincenzo Coronelli, Set of engraved gores for Coronelli’s monumental 42-inch terrestrial globe, Venice, circa 1688–97. $18,000 to $22,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, group of four navigational charts, Antwerp, 1580s. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Thomas Bros, Block Book of Berkeley, Oakland, 1920s. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Nieuhoff & John Ogilby, An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, map of China, plan of Canton, London, 1673. $1,200 to $1,800.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Frederick Sander, Reichenbachia, St. Albans, 1888-1894. $5,000 to $7,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Two early illustrated works on horsemanship and breeding, Nuremberg, early 18th century. $700 to $800.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. Supplement to the First Edition, London, 1834; 1855. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, London, 1808–14. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Oakley Hoopes Bailey, Hackensack, New Jersey, Boston, 1896. $800 to $1,200.

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