Early watercolors, random images of the Hudson Valley
Today collectors confront a new generation of opportunities. The collecting of ephemera, an under-examined and little understood extension of books and the works on paper category, is in its infancy, you could say in it’s own 1830s period. The databases to track and value this material comprehensively will be built ex-post facto because so little is known about the material up front. This means that for the current generation, if one develops expert knowledge, one can enjoy an absolute advantage for perhaps as much as a generation and in that time develop a superb, low cost collection. Personal knowledge will be essential because the volume of this material will eventually dwarf books, probably in time by more than a hundred, possibly even a thousand times.
Ephemera, as appealing as it is, it not going to be the exclusive beneficiary of digitization and the building of databases to record its history. Simultaneously, every distinct collecting category is being subsumed into a single unified search. This means that books, ephemera, manuscripts, maps, paintings, objects, art other than paintings such as photography as well as an amorphous other [categories yet to be named] are already merging into unified searches that potentially transform collecting from its current category basis into one based on subject. Such collecting is potentially of enormous personal significance as it permits collectors to collect both specifically and invariably narrowly because even narrow fields will see constant opportunities for purchase. Such collections will be stunningly unique. Whether they are eventually embraced by future generations will be known only in the years ahead but they aren’t going to be terribly expensive to build. Neither have the great collectors ever been guaranteed financial success. Such collectors did achieve something greater though, enduring recognition for their prescience.
What is certain today is that opportunities to collect are absolutely unique and if history is any guide the best collections will be built early.
I know this first hand as I have been acquiring online material related to the Hudson Valley in the State of New York for most of the past ten years. I had no theory or expectations and simply tried various methods for discovery and employed them on most of the available online sites. As software was needed we created it for AE members and I employed it myself. A decade in I can say that the unexpected comes up every day and that much of it is ephemera, material that is unpredictable and endlessly fascinating. At this point I have about 2,700 items of which about a fifth are books, both numbers that ten years ago I would have thought impossible.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
