Rare Book Monthly Articles - January - 2024 Issue

Time for the Annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction for Books and Collectible Paper, for 2023

Time for the Annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction for Books and Collectible Paper, for 2023

Another year has come to its conclusion so once again it is time to look back at the top 500 highest priced items sold in the books and paper collectible field for the past year. Along with books, we count manuscripts, maps, comics, trading cards, certain prints and photographs (which ones described at end of article), and other occasional ephemeral paper or related items.   One thing that jumps out is that high end collectors, like those across the entire spectrum, were pulling back on what they spent. Sometimes the most financially endowed spend regardless of conditions but not this yea...

It was two nights before Christmas

It was two nights before Christmas

When I was a kid, in the 1950’s, Christmas was the way my family compensated for the disaster we were living through.  It was almost worth it but left me memories of how my family when in trouble, ...

Graham Holroyd talks Vintage and Collectible Paperbacks

Graham Holroyd talks Vintage and Collectible Paperbacks

Collectible paperbacks, a category that includes science fiction, mysteries, westerns, adventure, horror, romance, pulp fiction and much more is still alive and well. There are few people as knowle...

British Library Still Attempting to Recover from Massive Cyberattack

British Library Still Attempting to Recover from Massive Cyberattack

The British library is still struggling to find its way out of the massive disruptions created by a cyberattack that occurred on October 7. The attackers grabbed an enormous amount of data from the...

Madame Deshoulières Again!

Madame Deshoulières Again!

The other day, I did something I hate: I bought a book in a very bad condition. Head cap gone with the jaw hanging loose, corners bumped and old water stains all throughout. And the price wasn’t ev...

Swann Auction Galleries:  Happy New Year

Swann Auction Galleries: Happy New Year

Throughout our over 80 years in business, Swann has been able to maintain our traditional approach to auctions while innovating, growing and adapting to each new era. With 2023 slowly winding to it...

Christie’s is offering Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana

Christie’s is offering Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana

Christie’s Books Manuscripts Department is pleased to present two auctions for January 2024: Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana (live, 17 January 2024), and Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts I...

56th California Book Fair in San Francisco:  Feb. 9-11

56th California Book Fair in San Francisco: Feb. 9-11

The California International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to San Francisco in 2024! This three-day event features fine and rare materials from around the globe, including manuscripts, first editio...

Sales Decline for Publicly Traded Rare Book Seller

Sales Decline for Publicly Traded Rare Book Seller

Sales were a bit softer during the six months ending on September 30, 2023, than they were for the same period in 2022 for the parent of Shapero Rare Books and Shapero Modern, which markets modern ...

English Government Places a Ban on Export of Recently Discovered Historic Manuscript

English Government Places a Ban on Export of Recently Discovered Historic Manuscript

The United Kingdom's Department for Culture, Media Sport has placed a bar on the export of a recently discovered 13th century New Testament. Oddly, the illuminated manuscript on parchment is in Fr...

Best wishes for the New Year!

Best wishes for the New Year!

Two hundred and seven auction houses and venues contributed 2,427 sales this year to our Transaction History.  Altogether they offered 625,248 lots and 468,565 changed hands and kept us busy every ...

2023 Rare Book Hub Monthly in Review

2023 Rare Book Hub Monthly in Review

The Rare Book Hub Monthly is the free portion of RareBookHub.com. On the first of each month we publish a selection of articles and briefs. Here are some of our stories from 2023. Some of the lea...

Registration Now Open for Collecting Insights with Spencer Stuart

Registration Now Open for Collecting Insights with Spencer Stuart

COLLECTING INSIGHTS   Starting in 2024, experienced Collections Advisor and author of Contemporary Issues in Rare Book Manuscript Collecting, Spencer W Stuart will facilitate monthly, three-part...

Saved Again - Library Book That Survived Fire Returned 100 Years Overdue

Saved Again - Library Book That Survived Fire Returned 100 Years Overdue

This book has a history of living dangerously. Nevertheless, it is finally back home in the St. Paul Public Library, even if the library had no idea it was missing.   The book is Famous Composers...

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review five new bookseller catalogues. Harald Hultqvist Rare Books offers a very special copy of Robert Owen's A New View of Society. Ursus Rare Books features modern graphic design. ...

Rare Book Monthly

  • High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare.
    The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens.
    A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Golding.
    Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll.
    Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien.
    The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: John Milton.
    Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD

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