Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2013 Issue

Book Collecting Conference This Month at Brigham Young University

One of the pre-conference workshops provides hands-on training in basic book repair.

One of the pre-conference workshops provides hands-on training in basic book repair.

The tenth annual A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference will be held at Brigham Young University in Provo Utah on Friday, March 22, 2013, with a group of pre-conference workshops the previous day. Anyone with an interest in collectible books, either from a collector's or trade participant's perspective, within traveling distance of Provo/Salt Lake City should make their way to BYU. These conferences are amazingly inexpensive for an education. It's just $35 for a day of learning, and an additional $35 for one of the pre-conference workshops.

Here is how it works. You can either print out and mail in the online registration form, or call them and a real person will complete your form and accept your credit card. It's that simple. You get to go to college without sending in any transcripts, providing recommendations, or taking the SAT, for $35 of tuition. Anyone funding someone's college education will be astonished by a deal like that. If for some reason you can't attend, you can transfer your registration to an associate.

Award winning illustrator Bethanne Andersen will host a seminar on British illustrators. Other offerings include a seminar on understanding and collecting folklore, one on fine printing in North America, collecting accounts of travelers to Yellowstone and other national parks, and a visit to the Civil War exhibition. There are also three seminars in the highly collectible field of Mormon texts, including Mormon hymnbooks 1832-1872, Mormon incunabula (1830-1839), and a history of printed editions of the Book of Mormon, starting with the typeset from the original manuscripts.

Three workshops are offered on the day preceding the conference (Thursday, March 21). There is a hands-on instruction workshop on cloth spine repair, one of the most common issues with older books. Participants should bring a book with a torn or loose spine as you will learn how and then complete a repair. A second workshop will cover “book repair on a budget,” where you will learn how to make basic repairs and know when it is necessary to seek professional assistance. A third workshop will will take you through the procedures used in creating albumen photographs, including actually producing one yourself using this 19th century process (it involves breaking a lot of eggs). The first two workshops are a half-day in length, the albumen photograph workshop taking a full day.

Those who go will be able to attend four of the eight seminars. Registrants can then add on the pre-conference workshops if they wish. Enrollment is limited to 125 participants so don't delay. You can find out information on how to register and more details about the conference and the available courses at the following website: adlbookcollectingconference2013.wordpress.com/registration.

Rare Book Monthly

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    Sotheby’s, July 17: Album Containing Four Signed Photographs of Albert Einstein, With Eleven Additional Einstein Photographs, From His Journey to Japan Aboard the S.S. Kitano Maru, 1922. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Fred Freeman. Illustration of the Channel Tunnel’s British Portal (Presumably at Folkestone), ca. 1958. $5,000 to $7,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky Group of Awards. Pief Panofsky's 1961 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, National Medal of Science, Enrico Fermi Award, and Others. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Seymour Cray; Cray-3. Manuscript Cray-3 Logbook, 1989-90. — The Only Significant Cray Manuscript to Come to Auction. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
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    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
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    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
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    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.

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