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

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

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

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

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!

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

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 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

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 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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

  • 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.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions