A cottage industry of Newport Mansions has grown up around the ABAA Book Fair in New York over the past twenty years. The leading dealers, collectors and institutions come together in April for a celebration of the passion of book collecting. New York auctions, years ago, wholesalers to the trade, today occupy an in-between place as wholesaler-retailer and fill the New York auction calendar like confetti at New Years. Dealers, institutions and collectors, like the outcasts of Poker Flat, look to cash their chips at the appointed hour. It turns out books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera are temporary repositories of value that either disappear into institutions or are sold. Auctions and dealers recycle the goods, auctions a bit more decisively. For sellers it’s often a matter of taste and connection. If three generations of Pierpont-Smith’s have disposed at Sothebys, the fourth will prefer do so. If dealers are long associated with a collection they will probably handle its dispersal. Durable connection is paramount.
Through the economic downturn material has needed to be sold. Consignors prefer outright sale to the uncertainty of the rooms but if dealer offers are insufficient or only for high points the auctions loom as a powerful alternative. Hence a dozen auctions in April.
The month has 30 days and there are 12 sales in New York, a sale every 60 hours. Of course this is misleading because the first sale is on the 6th and the last on the 29th. In this 24-day period there are 12 sales in 24 days or one every 48 hours. Even for New York, the city that never sleeps, this is a breathtaking pace.
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary pair of books from George Washington’s field library, marking the conjunction of Robert Rogers, George Washington, and Henry Knox. $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary letter marking the conjunction of George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Benjamin Franklin. $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: Virginia House of Delegates. The genesis of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. $350,000 to $500,000.
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: (Gettysburg). “Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle”: Autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrated by fourteen maps and plans. $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: President Lincoln thanks a schoolboy on behalf of "all the children of the nation for his efforts to ensure "that this war shall be successful, and the Union be maintained and perpetuated." $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Jan. 27:</b> [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9d2762bc-9f26-47ef-96de-1c28070e19f6.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Jan. 27:</b> [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.")