Rare Book Monthly Articles - September - 2022 Issue

Rare Book Hub: 20 Years in the Making

Two decades ago, as a collector of old and rare paper, I needed more information to collect safely.  I wanted to be aggressive but needed to access valuation and rarity.  The field was massive, dominated by dealers, spanning the globe, divided by categories, and marketed many ways.  The field was thriving by many measures except for one:  collectors too often weren’t getting their money back at the end of their collecting experience.  I was prepared to spend some millions of dollars to build a series of collections if they made financial sense.  Without that, I wouldn’t feel secure.   Ame...

The Rare Book Batch Valuation Service

The number and scale of public auctions offering books has reached a level where there are both enough current lots and accumulated auction history to offer a service to provide near-instant estima...

Prized Galileo Manuscript at the University of Michigan Turns Out to Be a Forgery

One of the prized possessions of the University of Michigan Library has been found to be a fake. It is a refrain we have heard many times in the past, and as with many of these, it is not a recent ...

Behind Closed Doors on January 6

Until recently, most people didn’t give much thought to January 6 or how electoral votes were tallied for Presidential elections. After most Presidential elections, the January 6 Joint Session of C...

The First Eight-Figure Baseball Card

We have written many times about new record prices for baseball and other sports cards, but only because so many records have been set in recent years. This sort of paper collectible, small in stat...

Christie’s New York is pleased to announce its upcoming auction, The Herman Melville Collection of William S. Reese, taking place online from 1-14 September.

Christie's New York is pleased to announce its upcoming auction, The Herman Melville Collection of William S. Reese, taking place online from 1-14 September.   William S. Reese was the pre-eminen...

Anachronistic Tormenting Little Devils, or the choice of anecdotes

Mysteries surrounding old books are little devils dedicated to tormenting us. One of them has been nagging me for a while. It emanates from a particular book (Choix d’anecdotes Américaines..., Pari...

Are Printed Books Superior to Digital Ones for Reading Comprehension?

Is there a cognitive difference between reading on paper and reading on an electronic device? There has been much suspicion based on reader experience that it does make a difference. Now, a study f...

Shapero Rare Books Experiences Major Turnaround to Profitability

Scholium Group announced their financial results for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2022, and the numbers are very good. Scholium is the parent of Shapero Rare Books in London and as the one p...

It doesn’t have to be old to be gold: RR Auctions is offering 21 items

Elon Musk was once a mortal and had an appealing girlfriend when he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania where he and she lived and worked as Resident Advisors in 1995.  The relationship...

Book Events Coming Soon

Bookish Briefs: Black Bibliography Virtual Salon Sept. 22nd Digital Humanities Book History Conference Sept. 22-24 Big Sendak Exhibit coming to Columbus, Ohio in October Will Bradley and other...

How Much Medieval Literature Was Lost Forever?

How much literature from Medieval times has been lost forever? That's a hard one to answer. You can't very well count it if it is lost. What we can say is there must be a substantial amount. This p...

One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions: A Fun Sale ending on the 29th

One of a Kind Collectibles, a division of Gindy Auctions, invites you to participate in their September 29th auction that includes presidential pieces such as a rare James Garfield appointment, and...

Three New Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed

The summertime is slow, so we only have three new catalogues to review this month. The Lawbook Exchange has a new catalogue of material related to the law, from serious legal texts to sensational a...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Doyle, May 1: Thomas Jefferson expresses fears of "a war of extermination" in Saint-Dominigue. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An exceptional presentation copy of Fitzgerald's last book, in the first issue dust jacket. $25,000 to $35,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The rare first signed edition of Dorian Gray. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The Prayer Book of Jehan Bernachier. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Van Dyck's Icones Principum Virorum Doctorum. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The magnificent Cranach Hamlet in the deluxe binding by Dõrfner. $7,000 to $10,000.
    Doyle, May 1: A remarkable unpublished manuscript of a voyage to South America in 1759-1764. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Bouchette's monumental and rare wall map of Lower Canada. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An rare original 1837 abolitionist woodblock. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An important manuscript breviary in Middle Dutch. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An extraordinary Old Testament manuscript, circa 1250. $20,000 to $30,000.
  • Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Piccolomini's De La Sfera del Mondo (The Sphere of the World), 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Vellutello's Commentary on Petrarch, With Map, 1525.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Finely Bound Definitive, Illustrated Edition of I Promessi Sposi, 1840.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Rare First Edition of John Milton's Latin Correspondence, 1674.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Giolito's Edition of Boccaccio's The Decamerone, with Bedford Binding, 1542.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of the First Biography of Marie of the Incarnation, with Rare Portrait, 1677.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Aldine Edition of Volume One of Cicero's Orationes, 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Bonanni's Illustrated Costume Catalogue, with Complete Plates, 1711.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Important Incunable, the First Italian Edition of Josephus's De Bello Judaico, 1480.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Jacques Philippe d'Orville's Illustrated Book of the Ruins of Sicily, 1764.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Incunable from 1487, The Contemplative Life, with Early Manuscript.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Ignatius of Loyola's Exercitia Spiritualia, 1563.
  • Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 546. Christoph Jacob Trew. Plantae selectae, 1750-1773.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 70. Thomas Murner. Die Narren beschwerung. 1558.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 621. Michael Bernhard Valentini. Museum Museorum, 1714.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 545. Sander Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described, 1888-1894.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1018. Marinetti, Boccioni, Pratella Futurism - Comprehensive collection of 35 Futurist manifestos, some of them exceptionally rare. 1909-1933.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 634. August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. 3 Original Drawings, around 1740.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 671. Jacob / Picasso. Chronique des Temps, 1956.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1260. Mary Webb. Sarn. 1948. Lucie Weill Art Deco Binding.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 508. Felix Bonfils. 108 large-format photographs of Syria and Palestine.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 967. Dante Aligheri and Salvador Dali. Divina Commedia, 1963.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1316. Tolouse-Lautrec. Dessinateur. Duhayon binding, 1948.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1303. Regards sur Paris. Braque, Picasso, Masson, 1962.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD

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