Old and rare bookstores have been disappearing into the internet miasma. Their stock has been uploaded to listing sites but the person to person contact they relied on has slowly declined. Meantime book fairs have been evolving into more complex events giving dealers an efficient way to buy and sell. In San Francisco this past month, Rare Books SF provided the field a fresh opportunity to see what’s being offered. For old timers, like me, visiting bookshops were occasions. The serious collector could browse the shelves for mispriced or unappreciated stock. Yes, you could do it and it was...
If you collect paper, plan to be in the Big Apple
As of February 25th, 182 rare book and collectible paper dealers are signed up to participate at the upcoming New York Book Fair. It’s the m...
If its April, it’s time to plan to be In New York for the ABAA Book Fair April 3-6
The ABAA New York Antiquarian Book Fair Celebrates 65 Years of Literary Treasures – April 3-6, 2025
NEW YORK ...
MANHATTAN RARE BOOK FINE PRESS FAIR: April 5, 2025
The Manhattan Rare Book and Fine Press Fair returns to the Upper East Side for one day only, inviting booksellers and bibliophiles from aroun...
When people need to turn their books, particularly more valuable ones, into cash there are a few places they usually go. Generally, they either take them to a bookseller or an auction house, occasi...
The Library of Barry Humphries to be sold on March 26th at Forum
On 26th March, Forum Auctions will offer the library of Barry Humphries. The sale will feature a remarkable array of books, manu...
A book has been showing up in discussions on TikTok and other online social media sites. It is not a new book. It dates back to the 19th century. However, some people believe it foretold the future...
There is no hotter field of collecting today than ephemera. Ephemera are those odds and ends, by definition, things that were only meant to be used for a short time. Posters, letters, greeting card...
One of the longest running shows in the book world is coming to a close. The book, antique and collectible shows of Tina and John Bruno's Flamingo Eventz has held its last events, culminating a 40-...
The Strength of the Collectible Paper Auction Market continues to surprise as the market transforms.
These days we are living through turmoil. Politics, yes, the Collectible Paper market, no.
...
On 26th March, Forum Auctions will offer the library of Barry Humphries. The sale will feature a remarkable array of books, manuscripts, works on paper and objects from the extensive library of the...
Dystopian fiction is having a moment with certain titles pushing new highs. Four dystopian novels getting strong recent auction play including Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. Also in demand ...
Spencer W Stuart is proud to present The Antiquarian Outlook, a weekly audio/visual review of rare book auction results as well as Industry news.
The Antiquarian Outlook is totally independent,...
Old books can hold you back in the past. Take Catullus, for instance. For years I’ve read his poems in a gorgeous 1653 edition (A Paris, chez De Luyne), wondering why people regard him as a sulphur...
Only ten years ago, Barnes and Noble, the last big American bookstore chain, was thought to be on its last legs, with widespread speculation about its projected demise.
In 2015 Barnes Noble spu...
Book collectors are stuffy old men. Everyone knows that. Well, maybe not everyone. Honey Wax Booksellers has announced the ninth annual Honey Wax Book Collecting Prize. It is awarded to women boo...
Collectors may collect for their own enjoyment, but in so doing, they provide an enormous benefit to all of society. They are also preservationists. We recognize this service when it is comes to li...
Seven new bookseller catalogues are up for review this month. Mark Funke Bookseller offers books from the Dr. Felix Guggenheim collection. Guggenheim was a German publisher who escaped that country...
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
Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000
![Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/e47bb03e-3f3d-4f68-9e79-b0b2739ca87c.jpg "<b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 9:</b> Bible [English]. [<i>The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament,</i> 1562]. £3,000-5,000")
