Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2015 Issue

This Year's ABAA West Coast Show in Oakland, a qualified success

Bookseller’s are by their nature, argumentative.  They split hairs; see black and white where the rest of the world sees shades of grey.  They are a talmudic breed, tending to dispute rather than agree.  Why is your copy better? It’s a question whose answer can bend light beams to both shine on a competitor’s defects and this seller’s virtues.  After all these dealers are selling so much more than printed materials.  Inclusion in their world, introductions to the best collector organizations, and first opportunities to buy the rare and special are as much the currency of the trade [at the h...

Antiquarian Auctions – Bookseller-Focused Online Auction Moves Forward

AntiquarianAuctions.com, the bookseller-run auction house, recently upgraded their website, making it more user-friendly, particularly for use with mobile devices. The upgrade gives us an opportuni...

All is well that ends well

Two lifetimes ago Clare Van Norman’s father, Clarendon Van Norman Sr., was a serious and respected Lincoln specialist in Illinois.  His business, the Van Norman Book Company, founded in Peoria in t...

Foxe News: A Leaf from a Rare but Influential 16th Century English Book

Recently we received a newly published magnificent leaf book. We will stay away from vagaries of official book sizes to note that it is 10” x 14”, bound in full calf leather, and ornamented in intr...

A busy month for Dreweatts & Bloomsbury with 6 relevant sales

As winter gives way to spring, and the pace picks up for things in the northern hemisphere, so too does the auction game for works on paper. For Dreweatts Bloomsbury Auctions, no less than eightee...

55 Years Later Harper Lee to Publish Second Novel

Some authors take a while to write that second book. Sophomore slump, writer's cramp, any number of reasons can make that second book hard to write, even, maybe especially, if the first was a great...

Dr Seuss Still Going Strong at 111

On March 2, 2015 Dr. Seuss will be 111 and readers young and old will celebrate.   When history looks back on American writers and illustrators of the 20th century it may well turn out that the c...

A Record Price for a Book Sold on AbeBooks

AbeBooks, the world's largest book listing site, set a record price for a book purchased through their site recently. They didn't just set a record, they blew the old one away, with a price almost ...

The Pear of Anguish, or the evil genius of Mr. Paioli

The devilish “poire d’angoisse” (pear of anguish, or choke pear) is an iron instrument of torture invented by Palioly, a French villain of the 17th century, who sure had a big bag of tricks. One or...

In The News: A Couple of Book Burnings

Among the atrocities committed by the self-styled Islamic State, ISIS, or whatever its name, book burning sounds rather tame. The horrific slaughtering of people conducted by this group long ago re...

Library “Disposes” of 240,000 Books

Two years ago, we reported on a reprieve several hundred thousand library books were granted from a sentence of destruction (click here). It turns out the reprieve was temporary. In late 2012, the ...

133 Auctions in March

It is common now for a hundred auctions in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera fields to be scheduled in a single month.  It seems, in fact, that we’ll see a two hundred-auction month in the ...

Princeton University Given $300 Million Book Collection

Princeton University has received its largest gift ever, and it comes in the form of books and manuscripts. The gift has been appraised at approximately $300 million, and as you look at what is in ...

Over 500 Stolen Antiquarian Books Returned to Owner

Over 500 stolen books are making their way back to their home in Italy, just one of many pieces to one of the largest book theft cases ever. The books are estimated to have a value €2.5 million (US...

Eight Catalogues Under Review for March

Eight new catalogues are reviewed in this month's edition of Rare Book Monthly. Erasmushaus offers a selection of superlative antiquarian books, dating as far back as the 15th century. Peter Harrin...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Isaac Newton on chemistry and matter, and alchemy, Autograph Manuscript, "A Key to Snyders," 3 pp, after 1674. $100,000 - $150,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Exceptionally rare first printing of Plato's Timaeus. Florence, 1484. $50,000 - $80,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: On the Philosophy of Self-Interest: Adam Smith's copy of Helvetius's De l'homme, Paris, 1773. $40,000 - $60,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: "Magical Calendar of Tycho Brahe" - very rare hermetic broadside. Engraved by Merian for De Bry. c.1618. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Author's presentation issue of Einstein's proof of Relativity, "Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkur aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie." 1915. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: First Latin edition of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. Paris, 1520. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: De Broglie manuscript on the nature of matter in quantum physics, 3 pp, 1954. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Tesla autograph letter signed on electricty and electromagnetic theory. 1894. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Heinrich Hertz scientific manuscript on his mentor Hermann Von Helmholtz, 1891. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: The greatest illustrated work in Alchemy: Micheal Maier's Atalanta Fugiens. Oppenheim, 1618. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Illustrated Alchemical manuscript, a Mysterium Magnum of the Rosicurcians, 18th-century. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Rare Largest Paper Presentation Copy of Newton's Principia, London, 1726. The third and most influential edition. $60,000 - $90,000
  • Doyle, May 1: Thomas Jefferson expresses fears of "a war of extermination" in Saint-Dominigue. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An exceptional presentation copy of Fitzgerald's last book, in the first issue dust jacket. $25,000 to $35,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The rare first signed edition of Dorian Gray. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The Prayer Book of Jehan Bernachier. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Van Dyck's Icones Principum Virorum Doctorum. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The magnificent Cranach Hamlet in the deluxe binding by Dõrfner. $7,000 to $10,000.
    Doyle, May 1: A remarkable unpublished manuscript of a voyage to South America in 1759-1764. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Bouchette's monumental and rare wall map of Lower Canada. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An rare original 1837 abolitionist woodblock. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An important manuscript breviary in Middle Dutch. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An extraordinary Old Testament manuscript, circa 1250. $20,000 to $30,000.

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