Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2023 Issue

Ephemera is Emerging

The material hasn’t changed much other than getting older.   Books and manuscripts have long been appreciated and most of their secrets have been discovered.  Maps too are understood.  In most cases relating to collectible paper, when their authors, titles and dates are known there’s only three variables to understand:  current condition, value, and how many people will be interested?   For this reason, transaction histories for collectible paper, like ours, have long played an important role in the worldwide field.  Currently we’re providing 13.5 million records but surprisingly, there’s...

Rare Book Hub Publisher Bruce McKinney Talks Auctions, Dealers, Collecting and the State of the Market

San Francisco based Bruce McKinney, 77, is the founder of RareBookHub.com. At RBH, subscribers can access over 13.5 million searchable auction and other transactions updated several times weekly. T...

OldMaps.com has become part of Rare Book Hub

Old Maps has provided paid research services for the collectible map community for more than three decades.  Until April 15th, 2024 we have taken down their paywall to allow everyone to join, searc...

How Many Books Do People Own?

How many books do people own? YouGov recently surveyed 29,000 Americans to ask them about the books they owned. They asked about both physical and electronic books, but we will limit ourselves to p...

MatchMaker: A Useful Tool

For many years we have offered an automated search tool to identify interesting upcoming material at auction in the quickest time.  On our toolbar it’s called MatchMaker.    Auction lots tend to ...

Nostalgia: Dealer’s daughter recalls the cartoonists of her youth

I had the good fortune to grow up with parents who were antiquarian book dealers, so we lived in a house filled with books. My father was an avid collector of cartoon albums, especially from the fi...

The Mutiny on The Bounty, A True Legendary Story

In 1787, the Royal Navy sent Anthony Hopkins—sorry, Lieutenant William Bligh, to Tahiti, where he was to pick up some breadfruit plants. He was then to take them to Jamaica to feed the slaves. The ...

Book Club Of Detroit Welcomes 65th Year

While this community of bibliophiles has weathered deep challenges over the years, the Book Club of Detroit has shown remarkable resilience. Owing to its long history, leadership, and talented memb...

Half a Million Dollar Library Theft in Warsaw

A major theft from the University of Warsaw Library reveals that large-scale library theft is not limited to America and Western Europe. This one followed an increasingly common method of throwing ...

Maps & Alases, Natural History & Color Plate Books — At Swann December 7

New York—The Thursday, December 7 sale of Maps Atlases, Natural History Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries is set to include a wide assortment of maps and graphics chronicling the advancement o...

20,000 Pages of Historic Documents Relating to Indian Schools to be Made Available Next Spring

It was recently announced that some 20,000 records dealing with Indian boarding schools run by the Quakers will be made available through the recently created National Indian Boarding School Digita...

Overdue Library Book Returned 90 Years Late

We have another story in the run of long overdue library books being returned out of the blue, to the surprise of librarians. This one came back to the Larchmont Public Library in Larchmont, New Yo...

ABAA Hosting Online Book Fair Now Through December 2

If you're looking for holiday gifts, whether for family, friends, or yourself, the ABAA is offering a quick and easy solution for the book collectors in your life. It's an online fair, but there wi...

Philadelphia Rare Book Fair Returns December 7-9

The Philadelphia Rare Book Fair returns to the Trinity Memorial Church this year from December 7-9. There will be 25+ booksellers from not only the Philadelphia area but throughout the Northeast an...

Six New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review six new bookseller catalogues. Librairie Clavreuil presents Part II of their collection of French literature, this time covering the 18th-20th centuries. Primary Sources focuse...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.

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