Rare Book Monthly Articles - January - 2022 Issue

The Rare Book Hub Top 500 Auction Prices for Books and Works on Paper for 2021 – It Was a Record Year

The Rare Book Hub Top 500 Auction Prices for Books and Works on Paper for 2021 – It Was a Record Year

Another year has come to a close, meaning it is time to look back at the Rare Book Hub Top 500 prices paid at auction in the books and paper field for 2021. This was a spectacular year, unlike any we have seen before. Prices were skyrocketing across the board, while ephemeral types of paper continued to see an astonishing growth in prices. At the very top, the most expensive item sold for over $43 million, the highest ever for something in the collectible paper field. More amazing was the increase at #500, as this is more indicative of the high end of the field than one single item at the t...

May you Catch and Spread the Collecting Bug

May you Catch and Spread the Collecting Bug

There are many kinds of collectors, their interests and focuses as myriad as the stars in the night sky.  One exceptional practitioner of the craft is sharing his story.  Such opportunities are rar...

“NFT” Is the Word of the Year. But What Is It?

“NFT” Is the Word of the Year. But What Is It?

Collins Dictionary has named its Word of the Year, and it's one that collectors of all stripes will need to know in the years ahead. The “word,” though it isn't really a word, is “NFT.” It's an abb...

Top 14 Highest Prices Paid on AbeBooks for 2021

Top 14 Highest Prices Paid on AbeBooks for 2021

AbeBooks has released their list of the top 14 most expensive items purchased on their website in 2021. “Abe” is the largest seller of old books with millions of titles listed. While most may fit i...

Living Dangerously in the Year Ahead

Living Dangerously in the Year Ahead

While I’m managing Partner of Rare Book Hub, the other hat I wear is as a private money manager, building and diversifying our family assets.  I’ve had a good record, year over year my number has r...

Happy Public Domain Day!

Happy Public Domain Day!

January 1 is more that just New Year's Day. It is also Public Domain Day. This holiday may not be as well known, but it is more important in the book world. It is the day when a new batch of books ...

Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow

For Rare Book Hub, 2021 was a complex year by every measure.  The volume of auctions and number of lots posted substantially increased.  As well, the percentage of lots sold rose as the median doll...

The $20 Million Honresfield Library Has Been Saved

The $20 Million Honresfield Library Has Been Saved

Britain's Honresfield Library has been saved. It took $20 million in donations to preserve the historic collection, but it will now belong to the British people, rather than being dispersed to priv...

The Boring Journal of a Slave Trader

The Boring Journal of a Slave Trader

Today, we’re embarking on a French slave ship that set sail for Africa in 1702! A dreadful voyage for the slaves, but a boring one for the narrator—and the readers.   “Here we are! I’m on boar...

2021: Some Highlights from the Rare Book Hub Monthly Archives

2021: Some Highlights from the Rare Book Hub Monthly Archives

I was going to call this article, “Journal of the Plague Years Part II,” but despite operating in pandemic mode since March of 2020 most of us seem to have muddled through somehow and are still try...

110 Years Overdue Library Book Finally Returned

110 Years Overdue Library Book Finally Returned

Rebecca was off the farm for 110 years, but she has returned. Welcome home, Becky.   Another overdue library book has been returned a bit later than usual. In this case, the book was 110 years ov...

The Grolier Club - Safe & Busy while Soldiering On

The Grolier Club - Safe & Busy while Soldiering On

The Grolier Club of New York is providing a busy month of bibliophilic activities this January, using both traditional and non-traditional approaches to ensure the Club’s commitment to book scholar...

Harry Potter Book Sells at Auction for Almost Half a Million Dollars

Harry Potter Book Sells at Auction for Almost Half a Million Dollars

If there was any doubt that books are now participating in the incredible price growth experienced by other collectibles, that doubt was put to rest at Heritage Auctions last month. We have seen un...

$50 Million Durer Drawing Bought for $30 at Estate Sale

$50 Million Durer Drawing Bought for $30 at Estate Sale

Have you ever dreamed of finding something cheap at a yard sale, only to learn later that it is fabulously valuable? Everyone has. That dream came true for an unidentified man in his 60s. He found ...

Nine Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Nine Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review nine new catalogues from booksellers. Some have a specific focus while others provide more of a variety of types of material. Shapero Rare Books focuses on Baedeker and other t...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. London, 1954-1955.FIRST EDITIONS, FIRST IMPRESSIONS, ALL IN THE EXTREMELY RARE FIRST STATE DUST JACKETS.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Francesco Fontana. Novae coelestium terrestriumque rerum observationes... Naples: Gaffari, 1646. FIRST EDITION. Contains the first observations of spots on the surface of Mars.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776. FIRST EDITION of “the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought” (PMM).
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Benjamin Franklin. Mémoires de la Vie Privée de Benjamin Franklin, écrits par lui-méme… Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791. FIRST EDITION OF FRANKLIN'S MEMOIRS IN THE PUBLISHER'S ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Samuel Johnson, Jr. A School Dictionary… New Haven, [Connecticut]: Edward O'Brien, [1798]. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST DICTIONARY IN ENGLISH BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR, AN EXCEPTIONAL RARITY.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Joseph Smith, Jr. The Book of Mormon. Palmyra: Printed by E. B. Grandin, for the Author, 1830. FIRST EDITION.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Miguel de Cervántes Saavedra. El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid: Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. THE BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED IBARRA EDITION.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: James Joyce. Ulysses. London: John Lane The Bodley Head, [1936]. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, SIGNED BY JOYCE. Designated a “Presentation Copy” in ink beneath Joyce’s signature.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: [Photoplay]. Delos W. Lovelace. King Kong. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, [1932]. FIRST EDITION of "a most sought after title" (Davis).
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, [1993]. 40th Anniversary Edition. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO HUGH HEFNER.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Neil Gaiman. Original manuscript for the "Neverwhere" BBC television miniseries. [London: Crucial Films, LTD., 1995-1996]. TYPESCRIPT "NEVERWHERE" WITH NEIL GAIMAN'S NOTES AND AMENDATIONS THROUGHOUT.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: [DICTIONARY]. Noah Webster. An American Dictionary of the English Language... New York, 1828. FIRST EDITION OF WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY, UNCUT IN THE PUBLISHER'S ORIGINAL BOARDS
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: Stephen King. Full Dark, No Stars. Baltimore: Cemetery Dance Publications, 2010. WITH AN ORIGINAL TWO-PAGE COLOR ILLUSTRATION BY GLENN CHADBOURNE
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. FIRST EDITION, IN THE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET.
    Heritage Auctions, Oct. 10:-11: H. G. Wells. The Time Machine: An Invention. London: William Heinemann, 1895 [but 1897]. With a SIGNED PHOTOGRAPHIC POSTCARD laid in.
  • Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 1. Rare First Edition of Oronce Fine Double-Cordiform World Map (1531) Est. $50,000 - $60,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 2. French Edition of "Rudimentum Novitiorum" with Woodcut Maps of the World and Palestine (1543) Est. $27,500 - $35,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 3. Complete Edition of Munster’s Cosmographia with over 100 Maps & Views (1560) Est. $32,500 - $40,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 4. Purchas' Important Collection of Voyages with 88 Maps, Including John Smith Map of Virginia (1625-26) Est. $55,000 - $70,000
    Old World Auctions (Oct. 10): Lot 5. Complete First Latin Edition of De Bry's "Grands Voyages," Parts I-IX (1590-1602) Est. $120,000 - $150,000
  • Sotheby’s
    Bibliotheca Brookeriana:
    A Renaissance Library. The Aldine Collection D-M
    18 October 2024
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Herodianus Syrus, Herodiani Historiarum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1524, Parisian binding for Jean Grolier by Jean Picard, ca. 1540
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, Venice, Aldo, 1495 (Greek text), interleaved with 1497–1498 (Latin text), English olive morocco by Charles Lewis, the Botfield copy
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Horatius Flaccus, Horatius, Venice, Aldo, 1501, Bolognese brown goatskin (between 1501 and 1503), arms of Mino Rossi and illuminated initials throughout
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Lucretius, De rerum natura, Venice, Aldo, 1500, English early eighteenth-century red morocco, the Fletcher copy
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Dante, Le terze rime, Venice, Aldo, 1502, illuminated, contemporary Bolognese morocco binding
  • One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Abraham Lincoln Signed Letter on Executive Mansion Stationary To Secretary of The Navy re: Appointment for Naval Academy!
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Extremely Rare Ben Franklin Printed: Considerations on Keeping Negroes...Part Second. 1762.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: An impressively extra-illustrated copy; Including an Original leaf from Shakespeare’s 1623 First Folio!
    One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Rarest Naval Autograph James Lawrence “Don’t give up the ship On " U.S. Ship Hornet June 19th 1812.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Oversize Ernest Hemingway Signed Photo with long Inscription about Drinking Wine to his dear friend and Secretary Roberto Herrera.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: VOLTAIRE Signed Receipt about a partial payment of debt for the Duke of Wuerttemberg.
    One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: [Maps] Gio. Ant. Magnini, Italia, 1620.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: LAWMAN SALOON JUDGE ROY BEAN Signed Legal Document 1895-RARE!
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Autograph Album with James Garfield as President, Chester A. Aurthur as VP, William T. Sherman, Burnside, P.T. Barnum and many more!
    One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Signed Four Language Ship's Paper.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Hector Berlioz Autograph Musical Quotation Signed.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Important Memorandum the Day after Gettysburg July 5th, 1863 where Lincoln asks all Department Heads of the cabinet to meet him at the Executive Mansion.
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    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
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    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
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