Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2022 Issue

Rare Book Hub Introduces Rare Book Batch Valuation Service

Rare Book Hub Introduces Rare Book Batch Valuation Service

Rare Book Hub is launching the beta version of its Rare Book Batch Valuation service this month and will be officially accepting member submitted lists of material beginning October 15th. Batch Valuation is a new service that enables you to quickly search for auction lot matches to your entire book collection in our database of over 12 million records. Instead of searching titles one at a time, Batch Valuation enables you to submit a list of hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands at once for automated searches.   Next, for each matching lot for each title found, we update past sales ...

William Reese Company to Live on Under New Ownership

William Reese Company to Live on Under New Ownership

The news is official.  The William Reese Co, ABAA, ILAB is to live on Under New Ownership.  Bill Reese slipped away from this mortal coil four years ago and his firm has now been transferred to the...

Defunded Library Raises Budget through GoFundMe Rather than Acquiesce to Book Banning

Defunded Library Raises Budget through GoFundMe Rather than Acquiesce to Book Banning

This is a tough time to be a librarian in America. From all over the country we hear stories of pressure put on them to ban books certain people do not like. Most often, the books have something to...

Building an Ephemera Sale

Building an Ephemera Sale

Ephemera, the random debris of history, has long been considered insufficiently important and too difficult to identify to sell.  Books almost always have a known author, title, place and date prin...

Two Comic Book Thefts Last Month – One Valued at $100,000, the Other Involving Violence

Two Comic Book Thefts Last Month – One Valued at $100,000, the Other Involving Violence

Comic Books have taken on a different level of value from the days when Mickey Mouse was the favorite character and super heroes appealed to a demographic not much beyond teenage and younger boys. ...

Dr. Robert Bennett Remembered

Dr. Robert Bennett Remembered

Every book collector has a personal story.  Two men set me on the path to appreciating history.  Bill Heidgerd and Dr. Robert Bennett got me into this fix.  To both I’m grateful.  Dr. Bennett passe...

Contents Sana in Papier Dominoté Sano

Contents Sana in Papier Dominoté Sano

I do believe there are good or bad reasons to buy an old book. And God forgive, I did buy one for the wrong reason the other day. I confess it: I wasn’t interested in its contents at all—but in its...

Young People the Focus of Book Banning as Culture Wars Heat Up in Schools and Libraries

Young People the Focus of Book Banning as Culture Wars Heat Up in Schools and Libraries

This year was not your standard Banned Book Week; it was Banned Book Week on steroids. Every September the American Library Association (ALA) hosts an annual event when libraries, bookstores and b...

The Library of Edward R. Leahy Comes to Auction at Christie's, 6 October

The Library of Edward R. Leahy Comes to Auction at Christie's, 6 October

Edward R. Leahy has devoted over half a century to the pursuit of rare books—succumbing to a temptation here, seizing an opportunity there—resulting in a remarkable library filled with choice copie...

Shapero Rare Books' Parent Confirms First Profit in Four Years

Shapero Rare Books' Parent Confirms First Profit in Four Years

Shapero Rare Books' parent corporation, Scholium Group, confirmed earlier preliminary results that the company made a profit in their latest fiscal year, ending on March 30, 2022. It was a healthy ...

Librarians Confronting Job Trauma – a New Study Focuses on a New Problem

Librarians Confronting Job Trauma – a New Study Focuses on a New Problem

Libraries have been evolving for the past couple of decades from the traditional role they played for two centuries. They are no longer simply repositories of physical books that you can read sitti...

A Handful of Elon Musk Trinkets brought $165,000 at RR Auction on September 15th

A Handful of Elon Musk Trinkets brought $165,000 at RR Auction on September 15th

Elon went to college at The University of Pennsylvania and left a thin scattering of mementos with a friend who recently decided to convert the car-maven’s fame into a fund to help her family to go...

Northampton Print & Book Fair 2022 on October 1st, 12 to 5PM

Northampton Print & Book Fair 2022 on October 1st, 12 to 5PM

After a two year hiatus, Northampton Print Book Fair is excited to announce that it is making its return to downtown Northampton this Fall! Come by from noon-5pm for a one-day celebration of conte...

Found in a Library Book: An Unusual Exhibit at the Oakland Library

Found in a Library Book: An Unusual Exhibit at the Oakland Library

The Oakland (California) Public Library is featuring an exhibit called Found in a Library Book. This is not about information, knowledge, learning, things you expect to find in a book. No, it's abo...

Five New Catalogues Are Reviewed

Five New Catalogues Are Reviewed

This month we review five new booksellers' catalogues. Maggs Bros. presents a selection of old voyages and travel. Ursus Rare Books has five centuries worth of illustrated books. Jonathan A. Hill B...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale
    April 30th & May 1st
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) & Egan (Felim) artist. Squarings, Twelve Poems, D. (Hieroglyph Editions Ltd.) 1991. €1,750 to €2,250.
  • Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN'S EXTREMELY RARE FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT. "Scene af: Røverne i Vissenberg i Fyen." in Harpen, 1822.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST THREE FAIRY TALE PAMPHLETS, WITH ALL INDICES AND TITLE PAGES. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: THE FIRST FAIRY TALES WITH A SIGNED CARTE DE VISITE OF ANDERSEN AS FRONTIS. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: KARL LAGERFELD. Original pastel and ink drawing in gold, red and black for Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes (1992), "La cassette de l'Empereur."
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY OF THE SIXTH PAMPHLET FOR PETER KOCH. Eventyr, Fortalte For Børn, Second Series, Third Pamphlet. 1841. Publisher's wrappers, complete with all pre- and post-matter.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN RARE AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED IN ENGLISH from "The Ugly Duckling," c.1860s.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HEINRICH LEFLER, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR FOR ANDERSEN'S SNOW QUEEN, "Die Schneekönigin," 1910.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST EDITION OF ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES IN ENGLISH. Wonderful Stories for Children. London, 1846.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN ON MEETING CHARLES DICKENS. Autograph Letter Signed ("H.C. Andersen") in English to William Jerdan, July 20, 1847.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR EDGAR COLLIN. Nye Eventyr og Historier. Anden Raekke. 1861.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: DOLL HOUSE FURNITURE BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, DECORATED WITH FANTASTICAL CUT-OUTS, for the children of Jonna Stampe (née Drewsen), his godchildren.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR GEORG BRANDES. Dryaden. Et Eventyr fra Udstillingstiden i Paris 1867. 1868.

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