Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2024 Issue

The Agony and the Ecstasy

The Agony and the Ecstasy

What was once known as book collecting, we now call collectible paper because many forms of paper are silently and seamlessly appearing in catalogues and listings. There’s no fanfare about it anymore because paper always belonged but its increasing importance, measured by frequency and price has our attention.   Ninety percent of old and collectible books occasionally appear in dealer catalogues, at shows, on listing sites and at auction. And because frequency of reappearance at auction is followed and retained, rare and collectible books' rarity are increasingly understood. For Ephemera,...

AI Meets the Book World

AI Meets the Book World

AI is creeping into the book world, and not everyone is happy about it. If there is anyone left who doesn't know what “AI” stands for, it's “artificial intelligence.” AI can not only answer your qu...

Nick Aretakis, ABAA: A Fresh e-List

Nick Aretakis, ABAA: A Fresh e-List

Nick Aretakis, ABAA: A Fresh e-List   Nick Aretakis, who helped the Reese Company after the passing of William Bill Reese, has returned to manage his own firm:  Nick Aretakis – Americana, now bas...

Sotheby’s Posts Ambitious and Diverse December Sale Schedule

Sotheby’s Posts Ambitious and Diverse December Sale Schedule

Sotheby’s global Books and Manuscripts Department has posted a diverse and ambitious sales schedule for the final month of 2024, with material ranging from the fourth through the twenty-first centu...

TikTok for Book Collectors

TikTok for Book Collectors

Where is the new book collector? That's a question many have been asking ever since dealers started noticing the stereotypical, traditional book collectors were aging out. Here is one answer – TikT...

Some Highs and Lows of 2024 Bookselling

Some Highs and Lows of 2024 Bookselling

Published Page: A big bricks and mortar store in a small Texas town Jim Hart and his wife Connye are the owners of the Published Page in Cleburne, Texas. This is a large general interest shop stoc...

Larry McMurtry's Legendary “Booked Up” to be Reborn as a Literary Center in His Honor

Larry McMurtry's Legendary “Booked Up” to be Reborn as a Literary Center in His Honor

Larry McMurtry was one of America's greatest novelists of recent memory. That was an unnecessary preface. Everyone knows that. The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, are a few o...

High Bids Win: Letterpress & Bindery Auction end December 5th, and then 3 more auctions

High Bids Win: Letterpress & Bindery Auction end December 5th, and then 3 more auctions

High Bids Win: Letterpress Bindery Auction ends December 5th, and then 3 more auctions   For most, books start with paper and ink.  But for a special few, they prefer to have the old equipment t...

Giving Big:  Glen and Cathy Miranker Make Two Multi-million Dollar Donations

Giving Big:  Glen and Cathy Miranker Make Two Multi-million Dollar Donations

Noted California bibliophiles and philanthropists Glen and Cathy Miranker recently made two multi-million dollar donations. They gave $3.1 million to endow a full-time curatorial chair for the teac...

The Bouquinistes Displayed!

The Bouquinistes Displayed!

Photographer Alain Lecornu celebrates the “bouquinistes des quais de Seine”, in Paris, France, and their recent “victory” over modernity with a beautiful project—and guess what, it’s a book! Books...

Doyle on 12/6:  Rare Books, Autographs, & Maps +++

Doyle on 12/6: Rare Books, Autographs, & Maps +++

Doyle on 12/6:  Rare Books, Autographs, Maps +++   Doyle’s upcoming auction of collectible paper in many forms on December 6th is fun and easy to parse.  There are 305 lots that can be searched ...

There's a New Book Publisher in Town and It's a Name You Know

There's a New Book Publisher in Town and It's a Name You Know

There is a new book publisher in town but it's someone you know well from its other endeavors. It is one of just three American companies with a market value of over $3 trillion, the other two bein...

Best wishes for the holidays

Best wishes for the holidays

Best wishes for the holidays.   Rare books and collectible paper enjoy a wide following because collectors, institutions, appraisers, dealers and auction houses find pleasure and opportunity in t...

Seven New Catalogues Reviewed

Seven New Catalogues Reviewed

This month we review seven new booksellers' catalogues. Michael D. Heaston Rare Books Manuscripts presents a catalogue of “Wanderings Westward,” as Americans began to settle their more western exp...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: MUNSTER (Sebastian). Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Basilea
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Typus Orbis Terrarum. [Antwerp, 1587]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: BRION DE LA TOUR (Louis). Atlas Monde. Paris, Desnos ou Jaillot, [1783 - An XIII-1799].
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Anvers, Christophe Plantin, 1579.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: VISSCHER (Nicolas Joannes). Theatrum praecipuarum urbium [...]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: AZARA (Félix de). Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: JOUTEL (Henri). Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: LA SALLE (René Robert Cavelier de) ; TONTI (Henri de). Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique Septentrionale
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: NOLIN (Jean-Baptiste) ; CORONELLI (Vincenzo). L'Amérique septentrionale, ou, la partie septentrionale des Indes Occidentales […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: [Caroline du Sud]. A large draft of South Carolina from Cape Roman to Port Royal.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: PÉRON (François) ; FREYCINET (Louis de). Voyage de découverte aux terres australes.
  • RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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