Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2012 Issue

Steve Maden:  An American Original

While with him I asked about his eBay sales and offered to write about him and one of his sales in October.  It’s October 1st now and his next sale is loaded into his eBay module and ready to entice bidders.  His daily trips to search high and low are about to be converted into an eBay event and he is primed.  His starting prices are almost always $9.99 with no reserves and that’s the way they are for this sale.  This way he can expect to sell almost everything but will not know until each item closes what it brings.  It’s a dose of history and a piece of Vegas and you could drive by his house a thousand times and never know the excitement and drama he experiences.

 

Here is a link to his sale.  Whether he eats cat food or caviar are now in your hands.  And here are some of his items:

1900's RPPC Baseball Team Initials R Real Photo Postcard Turkey In Background

Rare 1911 RPPC Waseda Baseball Team Tokyo Japan University Original Postcard NMT

Dorothy Gilbert Portland Ohio Railroad Yard Train Americana O/C Painting Pa./Oh.

1907 Photograph Train Snake River Bridge Sunset Branch Seward Peninsula Railroad

1900s RPPC Street Scene St Helen's Oregon Real Photo Postcard Great Image

U.S. Grant Souvenir Celluloid Memorial Ribbon 1885 Highlights Life In Uniform

HP Custard Burnett Garage East Stroudsburg Pa. Buick Cars Circa 1912-18 Photo

Western Americana Cabinet Photograph Knife & Axe Thrower Girl Surrounded Pistol

Rare RPPC 1900's German Airplane w/Machine Gun Soldiers Real Photo Postcard LOOK

1900s Photograph Train Railroad People Outside On Tracks White Pass & Yukon Rte

1900s RPPC Arcade Powder Co. Benson Arizona Real Photo Postcard Worth Look

RPPC Baling Hay Grant Ranch Near Myrtle Point Oregon @ 1908 Americana Postcard

1904 Taber Bas-Relief President Roosevelt Pach Photograph Stud Highlights

1900s RPPC Camas Paper Mills Camas Washington Real Photo Postcard Worth Look

1900s RPPC Pepin Baseball Team Period Equipment Uniforms Farmland Real Photo PC

29 Acrobat Oriental Troupe 40s/50s Photographs Sword Swallower Magic Acts MORE

1900s RPPC Armour Baseball Team House of David Related? Real Photo Postcard

Here is a link to his eBay sale.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
    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.
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