Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2022 Issue

Twenty-Twenty-two: Forward or back?

Books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera at auction had been performing exceptionally well through 2018 with $609,830,918 of sales and then the 2019 market further increased with $725,695,460. Yes, there were some disturbing reports in Asia and the US western states during the last few months that a health crisis could be brewing but nothing was certain until February 11th 2020 when Covid entered our lexicon.  But plans are hard to make and even harder to break, and there wasn’t any consensus that the yet-to-be-understood illness would be a game changer.  So the ABAA kept to their plan to host...

A Theological School Deals With a Terrible Legacy – a Book Covered in Human Skin

Historic wrongs are impossible to undo. The past cannot be changed, only the future can be made better. A recent story from Rocky Mountain PBS highlights a case that ties to books in a most unpleas...

Kurt Zimmerman, book blogger, shares memories of Dorothy Sloan

Kurt Zimmerman began writing his popular blog American Book Collecting in 2011. In the next eleven years he focused on topics of interest to those in the book trade and the world of collecting. “I...

What Are the Most Borrowed Books of the Last 125 Years at the Brooklyn Library?

The Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating its 125th anniversary, so you can be sure a lot of books have been borrowed from their collections. They looked back on that and created a list of the 125...

The Late Sir Joseph Hotung's Sale, Part II: The Sum is Greater than its Parts

The history of Hong Kong has been interwoven with economic and social genius, among those who have had it, the Hotung Family whose many generations have created significant collections of the fines...

More on Book Banning. Censorship Part I

If there were hopes that the conclusion of the recent election cycle would bring an end to the recent rash of book banning and censorship attempts at libraries, it turns out not to be so easy. The ...

A Twisting of Free Speech. Censorship Part II

The book banning epidemic took a turn for the worse when one library tried to deal with the issue by providing some twisted form of balance. The Wake County (North Carolina) Public Libraries have h...

Rewards for the Serious Collector

The 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop offers in its Catalogue 195 a collection of 60 books, manuscripts, and photographs representing humankind’s greatest achievements. Highlights include:...

Adam’s Apple, or The Delicious Little Biblical World of Mr Doujat

Not only do black holes reconcile the quantum theory with the force of gravity, but they also make science and religious books agree on one (black) matter: all is vanity.    I was enjoying a lit...

The Collection of a Lady Sold to Benefit Historic Deerfield headlines Christie’s 7 December Rare Book Auction

The highlight of Christie’s December Books Manuscripts auction is the first 110 lots: the Collection of a Lady being sold to benefit Historic Deerfield. The collector acquired these books and manu...

Fine Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams New York, December 13, 2022

By Ian Ehling Director, Fine Books Manuscripts Bonhams New York   In his autobiography The World of Yesterday, Stefan Zweig describes his interest in collecting manuscripts: “The one thing tha...

Leland Little: The Signature Winter Auction

Leland Little, the North Carolina auction house at 620 Cornerstone Court, Hillsborough, has composed an eclectic sale of highly curated lots that, for those who are prepared to reward themselves, t...

The Philadelphia Rare Book Fair Will Be Held on December 8-10

The Philadelphia Rare Book Fair is set to take place Thursday, December 8, through Saturday, December 10. The Philadelphia fair has drawn 25 booksellers from across the eastern states to exhibit. N...

Lost, Stolen, Forgotten Books Find Their Way Home

There have been several stories of books that have disappeared from a collection finally making their way home recently. Those are happy ending stories, and these days, we all need some cheer. So h...

A New Player Is Selling Fractional Shares of Books

“His treatise pioneered the development of modern sciences, forever changing the way that mankind looked at the nature of life.1” He would be Charles Darwin and his treatise was On the Origin of Sp...

Twelve New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

For December, we review 12 new bookseller catalogues as the holiday season heats up with new offerings. For those interested in travels as they were in another time, Shapero Rare Books has a catalo...

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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