Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2020 Issue

Every Auction Has a Story and sometimes they get dark

On 16 May 1870 the inventory and collection of Edward P. Boon was offered at auction at Leavitt Strebeigh in New York.  It was an important sale because of its contents and significant that its consignor selected Leavitt rather than Bangs, who was the perennial leader in New York auctioning collectible paper.  Boon's first sale was committed earlier while two other sales remained to be confirmed.  Bangs wanted them.  The market was already off and Leavitt in an increasingly strong position.  As an auction power since the 1840’s, Bangs had been through thick and thin periods but 1870 was fee...

Rant of the eBay Power Seller: Part III

Remember me, your friendly Hawaii antiquarian dealer, frequent Rare Book Hub contributor and long time ‘Power Seller’ on eBay with 1,566 feedback comments and a 100% positive rating? I’ve written t...

The Voynich Manuscript Code Finally Broken...Again

At last, the code to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript has been broken. Stop me if you've heard this before. Many have tried to break this code, almost as many have claimed to, and yet the language...

Marvin Getman: the book fair visionary

Marvin Getman, the established book fair promoter, saw that business brought to a full stop by the emergence of Covid-19 in early 2020.  His response was to develop another way to replicate the sho...

AbeBooks Top 10 Prices for April-June

AbeBooks has announced its Top 10 highest prices paid for books on their website during the second quarter of 2020. There is something for everyone here, at least everyone with a healthy amount of ...

Rare Book Hub: into the great beyond: 10,000,551 full text records

Rare Book Hub, nee Americana Exchange on September 3, 2002, began its journey into building a complete record of auction appearances and outcomes of collectible books, manuscripts, maps and ephemer...

Help A Salt Lake City and American Tradition Survive the Virus

Ken Sanders Rare Books has been serving customers throughout the American West and beyond for most of five decades from their store in Salt Lake City. The book business has been challenging in rece...

Isaac Weld in America, or when America was (about to be) great.

When was America great? Maybe in its infancy, just after the glorious War of Independence? Wasn’t it then a promising land of freedom and opportunity? A New Jerusalem, and a shelter for those who l...

Are Live Book Fairs Done for the Year?

There is still almost half of the year left, but it may not be too soon to ask, will there be any more live book fairs in 2020? The last of the major fairs this year was held at the beginning of Ma...

A New Paltz Clock: a moving experience

A New Paltz Clock:  a moving experience   Almost two years ago I ran across an old clock described as “Rare Sidney Wall Clock” at auction at Fontaine’s Auctions online during the summer of 2018. ...

Is It Legal to Create Digital Copies of Copyrighted Books?

Last month we wrote about a contentious dispute between the Internet Archive and four large book publishers over the use of digitized copies of printed books (click here). The Internet Archive hold...

Money Money Money

Covid-19 and the turgid economy present a lethal mixture of possibilities that will work themselves out over the next five years.  For book dealers and collectors these issues will present addition...

It Was a Profitable Year for Shapero Rare Books, But...

Scholium Group, parent of London bookseller Shapero Rare Books, recently released their earnings report for their past fiscal year, ending on March 31, 2020. It was a good year. The firm, of which ...

A New Use for Old Books – Commercialized Art

The sin of book desecration has a new convert and the outrage has spread through the world of social media like a video of a cute kitten playing with a ball of yarn. We have seen people cut books a...

Only One New Catalogue This Month

The coronavirus has taken its toll on book catalogues. Most booksellers appear to be hunkering down to weather the storm, rather than aggressively promoting into it. Add to that summer being the sl...

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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