Rare Book Monthly Articles - February - 2022 Issue

Sales of Books and Paper at Auction Surpass $1 Billion for the First Time

The good news kept getting better in 2021 in the rare book trade. 2020 had been a surprisingly good year, with prices of books and collectible paper at auction rising by 3.6%. 2021 was much better. This time prices rose 8.8%. This was based on the median, or midpoint of all lots sold during the year. While based on anecdotal comments booksellers did not participate in 2020's party, they did in 2021. Dealers' sales, unlike auctions, aren't public knowledge, but based on the upbeat comments we have heard, it sounds like the wealth has now been spread around. Covid may have lingered around ano...

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The William S. Reese Sales Begin this Spring; Highlights Coming to California

Slipping into the daily news flow in January, The New York Times recently published an homage to William Reese, the exceptional rare book dealer who dominated collectible printed Americana over his...

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Happy 100th Birthday, Ulysses! 1922-2022

Join us on February 2nd as Rare Book Hub and the international book community celebrate the joyful centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, published in 1922 by a brave American woman...

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Was the Book that Sold at Auction for $3 Million 100 Times Overpriced?

When the Rare Book Hub compiled a list of the Top 500 prices paid at auction for books and paper collectibles in 2021, there was a bit of a surprise in the Top 10. It was a book of artwork and the ...

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Shirley Anson: in love with history and preservation

Shirley Anson, 82, historian for the Town of Plattekill in Ulster County, New York passed away December 14, 2021 and I write to remember and celebrate her commitment and interest in history and pre...

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Sherlock Holmes In 221 Objects Exhibited from the Collection of Glen Miranker/Miranker Interview

Exhibit is free at the Grolier Club in NYC through April 16 and also online   Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects draws upon selected items from the impressive collection assembled by Glen Miranker of...

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AFTER 2021: Structural Change in the Auction Industry?

What’s Happening? The dust has settled on 2021, the sale of 521,461 lots from 636,853 resulting in a sell thru rate of 81.8%, about 1,000 over the estimate projected in my article from October of ...

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Father Huet, or A Map to a Fool’s Paradise

There was a time not that far away when learned people could spend their lives trying to determine the exact location of the terrestrial Paradise described in the first book of the Bible. Father Da...

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The ABAA’s West Coast Fair at Oakland Begins on Friday February 11th

It’s been two years since the ABAA has held a sanctioned in-person event and 2022 opens with the ABAA’s biannual fair in the Bay Area on Friday 11 February.  One hundred and two exhibiting dealers ...

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Rare Books LA – Pasadena February 4-6

For those interested in old and rare books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera here’s a fair in southern California, in Pasadena to February 4-6.  During the Covid-19 period, in-person book fairs, in t...

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Fair Thee Well: the SF Antiquarian Book, Print and Paper Fair 2/4-2/5

Nancy Johnson’s San Francisco book fair has been held for many years but during Covid-19 was suspended.  Here is some good news.   It’s back!!!!  Forty-two exhibitors are signed up and some spaces ...

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Rare Book Fair Stuttgart open virtually February 18 to 22

  The virtual fair runs from February 18th to the 22nd, with the electronic version of the printed catalog available for download starting February 3rd.   Every year, German and internationa...

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Publishing Company Employee Charged in Massive Manuscript Theft

A publishing company employee has been arrested in a new twist on an old crime - manuscript theft. It is a scheme that fits with the reality of how manuscripts of books are written today. They are ...

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Two Museums Are Dedicated to One Book

Some authors are so popular they have museums dedicated to their work. Several have achieved that status. There is one for John Steinbeck in Salinas, California. Theodore Geisel, whom we all know a...

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Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review five new bookseller catalogues. Librairie Clavreuil of Paris and Stephan Clavreuil Rare Books of London have combined to publish a catalogue of 81 precious books. The William R...

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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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