• Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    June 18 & 19
    Printed Books & Maps, Children's & Illustrated Books, Modern First Editions
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: World. Van Geelkercken (N.), Orbis Terrarum Descriptio Duobis..., circa 1618. £4,000-6,000.
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Moll (Herman). A New Exact Map of the Dominions of the King of Great Britain..., circa 1715. £2,000-3,000.
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Churchill (Winston S.). The World Crisis, 5 volumes bound in 6, 1st edition, 1923-31. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    June 18 & 19
    Printed Books & Maps, Children's & Illustrated Books, Modern First Editions
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Darwin (Charles). On the Origin of Species, 2nd edition, 2nd issue, 1860. £1,500-2,000.
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Roberts (David). The Holy Land, 6 volumes in 3, 1st quarto ed, 1855-56. £1,500-2,000.
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Saint-Exupéry (Antoine de, 1900-1944). Pilote de guerre (Flight to Arras), 1942. £10,000-15,000.
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    June 18 & 19
    Printed Books & Maps, Children's & Illustrated Books, Modern First Editions
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Austen (Jane, 1775-1817). Signature, cut from a letter, no date. £7,000-10,000
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Huxley (Aldous). Brave New World, 1st edition, with wraparound band, 1932. £4,000-6,000
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Tolkien (J. R. R.) The Hobbit, 1st edition, 2nd impression, 1937. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    June 18 & 19
    Printed Books & Maps, Children's & Illustrated Books, Modern First Editions
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Rackham (Arthur, 1867-1939). Princess by the Sea (from Irish Fairy Tales), circa 1920. £4,000-6,000
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: Kelmscott Press. The Story of the Glittering Plain, Walter Crane's copy, 1894. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, June 18-19: King (Jessie Marion, 1875-1949). The Summer House, watercolour. £4,000-6,000
  • Bonhams, June 16-24: KELMSCOTT PRESS. RUSKIN. The Nature of Gothic. 1892. $1,500 - $2,500
    Bonhams, June 16-24: ASHENDENE PRESS. The Wisdom of Jesus. 1932. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: CHARLOTTE BRONTE WRITES AS GOVERNESS. Autograph Letter Signed, 1851. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS. BRONTE, Emily. New York, 1848. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: IAN FLEMING ASSOCIATION COPY. You Only Live Twice. London, 1964. $7,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: DELUXE EDITION WITH ORIGINAL PAINTING. BUKOWSKI, Charles. War All the Time. 1984. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN'S MOST POWERFUL STATEMENT ON THE ATOMIC BOMB. Original Typed Manuscript Signed, "On My Participation in the Atom Bomb Project," 1953. $100,000 - $150,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN ON SCIENCE, WAR AND MORALITY. Autograph Letter Signed, 1949. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. WASHINGTON, George. Engraved document signed, 1786. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: AN EARLY CHINESE-MADE 34-STAR U.S. CONSULAR FLAG. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN WITH HIS SON TAD. 1864. $60,000 - $90,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: MALCOLM X WRITES FROM KENYA. Postcard signed, 1964. $4,000 - $6,000
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Forum Auctions
    A Sixth Selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library
    19th June 2025
    Forum, June 19: Euclid. The Elements of Geometrie, first edition in English of the first complete translation, [1570]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum, June 19: Nicolay (Nicolas de). The Navigations, peregrinations and voyages, made into Turkie, first edition in English, 1585. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, June 19: Shakespeare source book.- Montemayor (Jorge de). Diana of George of Montemayor, first edition in English, 1598. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, June 19: Livius (Titus). The Romane Historie, first edition in English, translated by Philemon Holland, Adam Islip, 1600. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum Auctions
    A Sixth Selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library
    19th June 2025
    Forum, June 19: Robert Molesworth's copy.- Montaigne (Michel de). The Essayes Or Morall, Politike and Millitarie Discourses, first edition in English, 1603. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, June 19: Shakespeare (William). The Tempest [&] The Two Gentlemen of Verona, from the Second Folio, [Printed by Thomas Cotes], 1632. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, June 19: Boyle (Robert). Medicina Hydrostatica: or, Hydrostaticks Applyed to the Materia Medica, first edition, for Samuel Smith, 1690. £2,500 to £3,500.
    Forum, June 19: Locke (John). An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding in Four Books, first edition, second issue, 1690. £8,00 to £12,000.

Rare Book Monthly Articles - January - 2023 Issue

The Annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 Prices at Auction for Books and Works on Paper

The Annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 Prices at Auction for Books and Works on Paper

With the close of another year, it is time to look back at the Rare Book Hub Top 500 prices paid at auction in 2022 for books and other collectible works on paper. The numbers were similar to those of 2021, which blew away every prior year, meaning 2022 was another good year. A record 24 items sold for over $1 million, one more than 2021, but the price of the 500th most expensive item slipped a bit to $113,400 versus $119,700 in 2021. To put that in context, that was the first year #500 was over $90,000, so 2022 was a big year.   The most popular categories of paper outside of books and m...

The Wild West Lives on at One of a Kind Auctions

The Wild West Lives on at One of a Kind Auctions

You can read about history and sometimes you can be part of it!  One of a Kind Auctions is offering 250 lots that not only reflects but also influenced history.  Take a meander!   Bidding is open...

Books Have Their Place

Books have long provided relief from life’s turmoils and disappointments.  Every experience and feeling has been explained, attenuated, and cast through prisms of author perspective.  We find ourse...

Downsizing: Are We Defined By What We Throw Away?

Downsizing: Are We Defined By What We Throw Away?

Doubtless you’ve noticed the rise of “decluttering” as a worthy goal; the minimalist life with few possessions is the obsession of the moment. Go for the “experience” and rid yourself of “the stuff...

12,608,421

12,608,421

We begin 2023 with 12,608,421 full text records in our principal database, Transactions+, that cover rare books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera at auction.  Those who specialize in the field have l...

Rare Book Hub:  New Services and New Pricing

Rare Book Hub: New Services and New Pricing

Rare Book Hub, née Americana Exchange has been a two decade project organized around the idea to building a bridge to the new collector.  In the 1990’s my collecting ambitions were being limited by...

Sieur de La Borde: A Contemptuous Ethnologist

Sieur de La Borde: A Contemptuous Ethnologist

In 1674, the French Protestant printer Justel published a crucial book about the West-Indies that compiled several relations yet to be published or translated into French. La Borde’s description of...

After Fifty Years in the Book Trade, a Swan Song (of Sorts, or Lots)

After Fifty Years in the Book Trade, a Swan Song (of Sorts, or Lots)

My introduction to rare books and manuscripts happened in 1964, when I was living in Palo Alto and working at Lanyon Gallery, on the periphery of the Stanford campus. A few blocks down from where w...

Lurking Deep Under the Print of an Ancient Manuscript Lies an Even Older, Missing Astronomical Masterpiece

Lurking Deep Under the Print of an Ancient Manuscript Lies an Even Older, Missing Astronomical Masterpiece

You never know what you may find if you examine an old book very closely...v e r y closely. An amazing discovery of ancient Greek astronomical readings, a star chart, has been found beneath the wri...

Iconic Surfing Book Leads Case’s Jan. 28-29 Auction

Iconic Surfing Book Leads Case’s Jan. 28-29 Auction

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—The first known book to focus solely on surfing, made by hand with original silver gelatin prints from long lost negatives, leads a stellar lineup of rare books, documents and maps...

What Do Libraries Do with All Those Books?

What Do Libraries Do with All Those Books?

A Story from Student Life, a student newspaper at Washington University in St. Louis, indirectly highlights an issue libraries are facing more and more, particularly university libraries. It's not ...

What are old books telling us about the future?

What are old books telling us about the future?

Not so much.  Transactions+ is the history of printed paper at auction and it’s tough for new terms to break in.  Covid is still very new and there are only 336 appearances of the estimated 2 billi...

Two Incunable Books, Stolen in Switzerland Years Ago and Sold in America, Returned

Two Incunable Books, Stolen in Switzerland Years Ago and Sold in America, Returned

Two incunable books, stolen from the Capuchin Library in Freiburg, Switzerland, have been found and returned to the Freiburg Canton Library which now holds the collection. The Capuchins turned thei...

46 Walker Evans Images Revisited

46 Walker Evans Images Revisited

Recently I received a very crisp catalogue about Walker Evans and 46 photographs he took and printed in Cuba in 1933.  This catalogue was issued by Michael Brown Rare Books and De Wolfe Wood.  It ...

Censorship Marches On

Censorship Marches On

The forces of darkness that have invaded libraries of late continue to push forward. There have been book bannings and library defunding. The newest tool now is library privatization. From Texas, c...

Shapero Rare Books Sees 16% Increase in Sales, 33% Increase in Profits

Shapero Rare Books Sees 16% Increase in Sales, 33% Increase in Profits

Scholium Group, parent of Shapero Rare Books, has reported their preliminary results for the first half of their fiscal year, April 1 – September 30, 2022. The numbers are good. Sales, profits, and...

What Do You Do After Being Caught Stealing Over 100,000 Books? Steal Some More!

What Do You Do After Being Caught Stealing Over 100,000 Books? Steal Some More!

If you somehow manage to steal over 100,000 books before getting caught, what is it you are good at? Presumably, that is the question Xiao Wenjia of Taiwan contemplated after being let out of priso...

Swann Galleries:  A View From the Podium

Swann Galleries: A View From the Podium

As another unprecedented year draws to a close, I find myself looking backward with nostalgia, and forward in anticipation. 2022 was many things for us here at Swann. Contrary to expectations we ha...

Six New Catalogues Reviewed

Six New Catalogues Reviewed

This month we review six new catalogues from booksellers. Langdon Manor Books offers a catalogue of African Americana. Antiquariat Kainbacher focuses on travel and expeditions. Shapero Rare Books o...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, June 16-25: 15th-CENTURY TREATISE ON SYPHILIS. GRÜNPECK. 1496. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: THE NORMAN COPY OF BENIVIENI'S TREATISE ON PATHOLOGY. 1507. $12,000 - $18,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: FRACASTORO. Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus. 1530. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: THE FIRST PUBLISHED WORK ON SKIN DISEASES. MERCURIALIS. De morbis cutaneis... 1572. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: BIDLOO. Anatomia humani corporis... 1685. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: THE NORMAN COPY OF DOUGLASS'S EARLY AMERICAN WORK ON INNOCULATION AND SMALLPOX. 1722. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: LIND'S FIRST TREATISE ON SCURVY. 1753. $15,000 - $20,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: RARE JENNER SIGNED CIRCULAR ON VACCINATION. 1821. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: MOST BEAUTIFUL OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. BRIGHT. Reports of Medical Cases... 1827-1831. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE PRESENTATION COPY TO HER MOTHER. 1860. $6,000 - $8,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: LORENZO TRAVER'S MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL OF BURNSIDE'S NORTH CAROLINA EXPEDITION. TRAVER, Lorenzo. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: ONE OF THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOKS ON DERMATOLOGY. HARDY. Clinique Photographique... 1868. $3,000 - $5,000
  • Sotheby’s
    New York Book Week
    12-26 June
    Sotheby’s, June 25: Theocritus. Theocriti Eclogae triginta, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, February 1495/1496. 220,000 - 280,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby, 1925. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Printed ca. 1381-1832. 400,000 - 600,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Lincoln, Abraham. Thirteenth Amendment, signed by Abraham Lincoln. 8,000,000 - 12,000,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Galieli, Galileo. First Edition of the Foundation of Modern Astronomy, 1610. 300,000 - 400,000 USD
  • Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE / LANDINO, CRISTOFORO. Comento di Christophoro Landino Fiorentino sopra la Comedia di Danthe Alighieri poeta fiorentino, 1481. €40,000 to €50,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus]. Aggiunta: Marsilius Ficinus, Ad Dantem gratulatio [in latino e Italiano], 1487. €40,000 to €60,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. Il Convivio, 1490. €20,000 to €25,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: BANDELLO, MATTEO. La prima [-quarta] parte de le nouelle del Bandello, 1554. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LEGATURA – PLUTARCO. Le vies des hommes illustres, grecs et romaines translates, 1567. €10,000 to €12,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: TOLOMEO, CLAUDIO. Ptolemeo La Geografia di Claudio Ptolemeo Alessandrino, Con alcuni comenti…, 1548. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: FESTE - COPPOLA, GIOVANNI CARLO. Le nozze degli Dei, favola [...] rappresentata in musica in Firenze…, 1637. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: SPINOZA, BARUCH. Opera posthuma, 1677. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER. Borus Godunov, 1831. €30,000 to €50,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - LECUIRE, PIERRE. Ballets-minute, 1954. €35,000 to €40,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MAJAKOVSKIJ, VLADIMIR / LISSITZKY, LAZAR MARKOVICH. Dlia Golosa, 1923. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MATISSE, HENRI / MONTHERLANT, HENRY DE. Pasiphaé. Chant de Minos., 1944. €22,000 to €24,000.

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