Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2023 Issue

The World's Oldest Near Complete Bible to Be Sold at Auction

There are books and there are books. Some are larger, some in color, some are rarer. When a book is considered the fundamental source for a field or a category they call it their bible. They use that term as the highest accolade.    They use that term because, based on Guinness and common sense, the Bible is the most widely published book in world history. Five billion copies have been printed. It is based on the books of the Torah. Today the most valuable book is thought to be a Gutenberg Bible and now there is fresh reconsideration as to whether an earlier manuscript volume, known as th...

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A Collector Left a 70,000 Book Collection with No Instructions on How to Proceed

It is not the largest book collection ever amassed by a private owner. It does not equal the 100,000 book and manuscript collection of 19th century obsessive Thomas Phillipps. Nor, obviously, does ...

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Bill Wolfe Carries on the Tradition of Louis Collins Books in Seattle

Louis Collins owned one of Seattle’s best known and longest running antiquarian bookshops. He was also highly regarded as the presenter of the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair, one of the larger regio...

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The ABAA Pasadena Book Fair: the field is recovering

It's been three years since the California International Antiquarian Book Fair returned last month to Pasadena to some trepidation considering how long it has been. The result was a very good event...

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The Great Deaccession Has Begun

In an article in the Washington Post last December 19, Karen Heller announced, “the Great Deaccession commenced.” It is a fact that people with shelves full of books they will never read, or never ...

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Auction History - Recreating Important Sales

When you consider buying or bidding on examples of printed history often your first sense is to get into its commercial history. Why?  Because printing creates identical examples and over time some...

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Roberto Clemente Has Been “Cancelled” in Florida School

The wave of book censorship sweeping through America these days reached a point of absurdity recently as schools in Duval County, Florida (Jacksonville area) followed a state mandate to “err on the...

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Leslie, Sloane and The French Booksellers... The Dots on the “i” of Jamaica.

My passion for old books about Jamaica goes back to the time I wrote the book History of Jamaica from 1494 To 1838 (DREAD Editions). That’s when I realized that most French booksellers think that H...

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Contemporary Issues in Rare/Antiquarian Bookseller Management

In anticipation of Scholium Group’s annual report at the end of March and as a continuation of his research into the structural changes underway in the Collecting Ecosystem explored in Contemporary...

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$55,000 in Rare Books Stolen and Recovered in One Day

Rare Book theft stories rarely end quickly but this one was in and out in one day. Some smart police work and a not too smart thief brought it to a quick conclusion. The books, which the bookstore ...

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To understand Collectible Paper Auctions Click here

One of the interesting ways to follow the auctions is to select Upcoming Auctions and voila and the first option on the down bar:  Auction Home,  There are the most recently posted auction results ...

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An Ancient Papyrus Scroll, Recently Discovered, Has Been Translated

A 2,000+-year-old manuscript has recently been deciphered and translated. It was found in a necropolis or burial site for the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. The historic capital city is no more,...

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Eight New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review eight new bookseller catalogues. For those who like it cold, Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller offers a catalogue of the Arctic, Iceland, and Canadiana. Heading to a land not so far no...

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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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