The rare book business today is not the business it was or will be. It is in a state of becoming and the pace of change accelerating as elements of the old model break down. Complicating things there are as many and probably more people vying for a place in the trade that is at once traditional and morphing into something new. The well-established tradition of schooling collectors in the once common used bookshop gives way to the era of the self-educated collector with fewer enduring ties to dealers. The lament among dealers today is that there are few new collectors. The truth is simpler: collectors are acquiring in different ways.
The new collector is often a skeptic who learns online and by chance. They are cautious in their purchases; more trusting of market derived prices, and often initially buy the cheapest rather than the best. In time they discover that unimportant, defective and derivative material that has been easy to buy will be next to impossible to sell. If they learn this lesson early they may move on to collect successfully for decades. If they buy too much before they understand this, they often quit, disappointed with their mistakes. In every generation there are only so many great collectors. The probability that some, because of the breakdown in the structure of the field, will never achieve their collecting potential is a source of frustration to those dealers who specialize in interesting and important material that they gather for such collectors. In consequence many dealers are adjusting their approach as they try to catch the eye of the serious and engaged early in their collecting experience.
Just a few years ago this was easier done for the book business was books. Today books are an important minority to the growing majority of materials that include maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, ephemera and paintings. Being au courant these days means being both broad in perspective and skilled in the concept of collectability across the broader panorama that collectors, as polymaths, increasingly assume.
ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
