Bringing a major sale successfully into the rooms is an accomplishment in every era and during the Covid years, unusually risky. Christie’s pursued the Reese sales and it seemed likely they would handle it but still had to get the commitment, and then deliver. On May 25-26 the consignors and Christies achieved all that was possible. Many higher echelon collectors and dealer-collectors ultimately exit at auction and, no doubt, many will be studying the Reese model. We’ll see it again. It was perfect.
What made Bill’s sales so interesting was the tricky combination of superb material...
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have become the rage in collecting over the past year. NFTs are essentially a digital version of something with an electronic “token” attached which makes it unique. The ...
University Archives was a new and interesting idea when John Reznikoff enrolled at Fordham in 1978 for a Jesuit education that accentuated context, experience, reflection and evaluation. Simply s...
I’ve written in this space before about dropping eBay as a selling platform after more than 20 years. Today I’m writing about rebuilding my book and ephemera business using a mixture of old and new...
Rare Book School is pleased to announce that Kenneth W. Rendell and Shirley McNerney have generously endowed an annual lecture on the importance of original manuscripts and rare books to human unde...
New York City has repealed its regulations that applied to book and art auctions. It apparently came as a surprise even to the auction houses. City officials justified the move as streamlining law ...
Recently I saw an item that looked interesting to me: a handmade bookmark related to New Paltz. For $125 I immediately committed and a little gem soon arrived in a small package protected by two ...
Exploring the relation of the Middle East explorer Jean Baptiste Tavernier through an unusual copy that was published in 1810 by Lepetit’s widow.
In the early part of the year 1631, Jean-Baptis...
After years of extending the length of copyrights, legislation has been introduced in the United States Congress to roll back the term of those protections. If enacted, it will be quite a turnabout...
The subject of copyrights is back in the news as a bill has been proposed to Congress to reduce the length of copyright protection. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley's legislation has little to do with ...
Recently Transactions+ reached twelve million full text records.
Or said another way, it’s now the equivalent of 1,142 copies of Howes’ Usiana’s 10,501 records, the first rare book reference I ...
Macon Brothers Auctioneers is holding a sale of Rare Books, Maps, Atlases Ephemera. The sale is online and will be running from now until 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 11. The items come from th...
2022 marks the 100th birthday of the publication of Joyce's Ulysses in 1922 by Paris bookseller, Sylvia Beach, an American from Baltimore. Libraries, campuses, and bookstores are planning live read...
The Morgan Library Museum, New York, presents a major U.S. exhibition on James Joyce, nicely timed for 'Bloomsday", June 16th -- One Hundred Years of James Joyce's Ulysses. June 3 through October ...
The annual Rose City Book Paper Fair will be returning to its normal time and place after a two-year absence. Its normal time is in June and its normal place is in the physical world, not the invi...
This month we review nine new booksellers' catalogues. Librairie Métamorphoses has a collection of rare books and valuable documents. Garrett Scott Bookseller has his first printed catalogue in 9 y...
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.