Rare Book Monthly Articles - January - 2021 Issue

Just Out: The Rare Book Hub List of Top 500 Prices Paid for Books and Paper at Auction in 2020

It is time once again to look back at the Rare Book Hub Top 500 prices paid at auction for books and paper in the past year. And, what a year it was! It was a year of enormous change, though not perhaps for the obvious reason – the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. What stands out is the increasing evolution of the field away from books to ephemeral paper, often items more visual than textual, more easily displayed.   Elsewhere in this issue of Rare Book Monthly, Susan Benne of the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America) points out that this trend has not been missed by tr...

Part I - The Year that Was, the year that Will Be

2020 for many has been harrowing.  I requested representatives of some of the principal organizations in the rare paper field for their perspectives on what 2020 has meant and what their experience...

Part II - The Year that Was, the Year that Will Be - the Auction Perspective

I asked leaders in the auction field for their perspective on the year that was, the year that will be.  Here are responses in alphabetical order by Catherine Williamson of Bonhams, Christina Geige...

Part III - The Year that Was, the year that Will Be - The Dealer Perspective + Marvin Getman

I have asked leaders of the dealer community, ILAB, ABAA and ABA for their perspectives on the year just past and the year just beginning, and as well have asked Marvin Getman for his views on the ...

Sophie Schneideman: London book and print dealer

Introducing:  Sophie Schneideman Ms. Schneideman has been in the rare book field 30 years in England, her tenure extending from ingénue to proprietaire, learning the trade, finding material that s...

AbeBooks Releases Its Top 10 List of Most Expensive Books for 2020

AbeBooks, the website that offers hundreds of millions of primarily used and old books from thousands of booksellers around the world, has listed the Top 10 highest prices paid on their site in 202...

Chaumaix, or the Power of Wit

The 18th century will always be remembered as the century of Philosophy. Many conservative writers opposed it at the time by underlining some “philosophical absurdities”. But at the end of the day,...

Twenty Years After They Went Missing, Cambridge University Library Concludes Its Darwin Notebooks Were Stolen

Two decades after they disappeared, the Cambridge University Library has concluded that two missing Charles Darwin notebooks have been stolen. That seems like a long time, but for the past 20 years...

Random Printings: complex stories

I recently received a shipment of what is mostly ephemera from Peter Luke and I’m always well-pleased for the opportunities he provides. He acquires material that is in my focus:  the Hudson Valley...

Translating Goodnight Moon

This story comes from a war-torn area, an old conflict of which I would not pretend to have any understanding. Armenia and Azerbaijan are fighting over territory known as Artsakh. Earlier treaties ...

Christie's Rare Books Taking the Plunge

At Christie’s New York, the Books Manuscripts department is plunging right in to the New Year with two important single-owner collections in January.  The first is Exceptional Prints and Broadside...

Shapero Rare Books Publicly Traded Parent, Scholium Group, Experiences Losses

Scholium Group, the publicly traded parent of Shapero Rare Books, posted a loss for the first half of their fiscal year, running from April 1 – September 30, 2020. It came as no surprise. The handw...

Nine New Catalogues Reviewed for January 2021

For the first month of 2021 we are reviewing nine new bookseller catalogues. Two years after their first, Voewood Rare Books issues their second catalogue. It's worth the wait. Shapero Rare Books h...

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.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions