Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2020 Issue

The 60th Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair March 5-8, 2020

The 60th Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair March 5-8, 2020

This fair is at the rare confluence of three exceptional book, manuscript, map and ephemera fairs that annually occur over a single March weekend in the splendid city of New York.  This year the dates are March 5-8, defined as the most concentrated opportunities to experience the collectible paper field first hand.   The principal event is:   The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair:  60 Years 1960 – 2020   220 dealers that are members of the ABAA and non-US dealer organizations will snugly fit into the Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Avenues.  Thes...

The 7th Annual NYC Book and Ephemera Fair at the Church of St. Ignatius.  980 Park Avenue, NYC.

The 7th Annual NYC Book and Ephemera Fair at the Church of St. Ignatius. 980 Park Avenue, NYC.

New York, NY—On March 6-7, 2020, the NYC Book and Ephemera Fair returns to Wallace Hall in the Church of St. Ignatius (Park Ave. at 83rd Street) for its seventh straight year during NY Rare Book We...

Another Stolen Columbus Letter Returned from America to its Rightful European Owner

Another Stolen Columbus Letter Returned from America to its Rightful European Owner

In what seems to have become a distressingly common occurrence, yet another stolen Columbus Letter has made the journey over and back from Europe to America in recent years. This is the fourth time...

Tips,Tool & Terms: The Three Minute Guide to Graphics Arts

Tips,Tool & Terms: The Three Minute Guide to Graphics Arts

You can spend a lifetime learning the fine points of graphics, whether they are original works of art, or parts of books such as illustrations, maps or in some cases photos. I got my degree in prin...

Auctions add Glamour, Excitement and Collecting Success

Auctions add Glamour, Excitement and Collecting Success

What makes the upcoming Rare Book Week in Manhattan doubly exciting are both the three 1, 2 and 4 day shows as well the steady drumbeat of rare book, manuscript, map and ephemera auctions that, at ...

Books in Weird Places

Books in Weird Places

Tell me where you were printed, I’ll tell you what kind of book you are. When printing required a “privilege from the King”, it wasn’t easy to print sulphurous works about politics or loose morals....

The 53rd International Antiquarian Book Fair at Pasadena

The 53rd International Antiquarian Book Fair at Pasadena

The California Book Fair is a rite of passage for collectors on the west coast and as always, the event was very professional, well lighted and spaciously laid out in the Pasadena Convention Center...

A Survey about Book Fairs

A Survey about Book Fairs

Many thousands of our members are frequent guests at book, manuscript, map and ephemera fairs.  Such events are time-old traditions that increasingly seem to be a step behind the many changes that ...

The Pasadena Shadow Fair

The Pasadena Shadow Fair

At the ABAA’s annual west coast Fair on Saturday 8 February this year we also had the symbiotic Shadow Fair at the Pasadena Masonic Temple just a few steps away from the Pasadena Convention Center ...

Forum Auctions presents The Birmingham Assay Office Library

Forum Auctions presents The Birmingham Assay Office Library

This month, Forum Auctions in London will be offering the rare book collection of the Birmingham Assay Office on Thursday, 26th March. Founded in 1773, thanks to the drive and persistence of local ...

Marie Kondo Told Us to De-Clutter Our Homes by Disposing of Books. So Why is She Now Selling Us More Clutter?

Marie Kondo Told Us to De-Clutter Our Homes by Disposing of Books. So Why is She Now Selling Us More Clutter?

Last spring, we wrote about the mess tidying-up expert Marie Kondo got herself in when she recommended getting rid of unnecessary books, that is, those that don't “spark joy.” To some, the idea of ...

Preserving the Scent of Old Books

Preserving the Scent of Old Books

It has been the mission for centuries of rare book and other libraries, along with various other institutions, to preserve old books. So much of humanity's heritage and history resides within them....

Major Collector, Benefactor of Institutional Literary Collections, and Brother, Frederick R. Koch Dies

Major Collector, Benefactor of Institutional Literary Collections, and Brother, Frederick R. Koch Dies

He was an obscure collector in the fields of literature, music and art, and also a major benefactor of collections at several notable institutions. Those contributions were substantial, and yet the...

How the ‘King of Manuscripts’ Became the Madoff of ‘France’

How the ‘King of Manuscripts’ Became the Madoff of ‘France’

It’s an uncommon occurrence that rare books and manuscripts dominate the news in an issue of the New York Sunday Times.  Nevertheless it occurred on February 23rd, 2020.  Even more surprisingly it’...

Five Canadian University Libraries Band Together for Extra Storage

Five Canadian University Libraries Band Together for Extra Storage

Five Canadian universities have banded together to deal with an issue many libraries face – growing collections of books few if any people ever read. Storage space is limited, particularly as stude...

10 Varied Catalogues Reviewed This Month

10 Varied Catalogues Reviewed This Month

A wide range of subjects is covered by the bookseller catalogues we review this month. Ursus Rare Books features illustrated books. Antiquariat Kainbacher targets the history of electricity. Antiqu...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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