Rare Book Monthly Articles - June - 2022 Issue

The Sale of The Private Collection of William S. Reese: Success!!

Bringing a major sale successfully into the rooms is an accomplishment in every era and during the Covid years, unusually risky.  Christie’s pursued the Reese sales and it seemed likely they would handle it but still had to get the commitment, and then deliver.  On May 25-26 the consignors and Christies achieved all that was possible.  Many higher echelon collectors and dealer-collectors ultimately exit at auction and, no doubt, many will be studying the Reese model.  We’ll see it again.  It was perfect.   What made Bill’s sales so interesting was the tricky combination of superb material...

NFTs – A Cautionary Tale

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have become the rage in collecting over the past year. NFTs are essentially a digital version of something with an electronic “token” attached which makes it unique. The ...

John Reznikoff: one of the old men at 62

University Archives was a new and interesting idea when John Reznikoff enrolled at Fordham in 1978 for a Jesuit education that accentuated context, experience, reflection and evaluation.   Simply s...

Some Marketing & Tech Tips for Older Book Sellers

I’ve written in this space before about dropping eBay as a selling platform after more than 20 years. Today I’m writing about rebuilding my book and ephemera business using a mixture of old and new...

Announcing the Inaugural Kenneth W. Rendell Endowed Lecture at Rare Book School

Rare Book School is pleased to announce that Kenneth W. Rendell and Shirley McNerney have generously endowed an annual lecture on the importance of original manuscripts and rare books to human unde...

The New Wild West – New York City Repeals All Auction Regulations

New York City has repealed its regulations that applied to book and art auctions. It apparently came as a surprise even to the auction houses. City officials justified the move as streamlining law ...

Collecting Memories

Recently I saw an item that looked interesting to me:  a handmade bookmark related to New Paltz.  For $125 I immediately committed and a little gem soon arrived in a small package protected by two ...

The True Colours of Tavernier’s travels!

Exploring the relation of the Middle East explorer Jean Baptiste Tavernier through an unusual copy that was published in 1810 by Lepetit’s widow.   In the early part of the year 1631, Jean-Baptis...

A Bill Has Been Filed to Greatly Reduce the Length of Copyrights. Why Now?

After years of extending the length of copyrights, legislation has been introduced in the United States Congress to roll back the term of those protections. If enacted, it will be quite a turnabout...

Reimagining Winnie the Pooh - Like You Never Saw Him Before

The subject of copyrights is back in the news as a bill has been proposed to Congress to reduce the length of copyright protection. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley's legislation has little to do with ...

12 Million is just a number but it’s a big one

Recently Transactions+ reached twelve million full text records.   Or said another way, it’s now the equivalent of 1,142 copies of Howes’ Usiana’s 10,501 records, the first rare book reference I ...

Macon Brothers Rare Books, Maps & Ephemera Sale Features a Unique, Colored Copy of Chaperon's 1649 Raphael Frescoes

Macon Brothers Auctioneers is holding a sale of Rare Books, Maps, Atlases Ephemera. The sale is online and will be running from now until 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 11. The items come from th...

Bloomsday June 16

2022 marks the 100th birthday of the publication of Joyce's Ulysses in 1922 by Paris bookseller, Sylvia Beach, an American from Baltimore. Libraries, campuses, and bookstores are planning live read...

Morgan Library & Museum, NY, Launches Major U.S. James Joyce Exhibition

The Morgan Library Museum, New York, presents a major U.S. exhibition on James Joyce, nicely timed for 'Bloomsday", June 16th -- One Hundred Years of James Joyce's Ulysses. June 3 through October ...

The Rose City Book & Paper Fair Returns June 17-18

The annual Rose City Book Paper Fair will be returning to its normal time and place after a two-year absence. Its normal time is in June and its normal place is in the physical world, not the invi...

Nine New Booksellers' Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review nine new booksellers' catalogues. Librairie Métamorphoses has a collection of rare books and valuable documents. Garrett Scott Bookseller has his first printed catalogue in 9 y...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • 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

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