There is nothing quite so interesting as a book fair of the best dealers with their best material. And each year that ‘best’ event is in New York in April, this year April 9 to 12, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair. This year’s fair is one of three New York events over the same weekend, the ABAA fair the largest by every metric. However, rigorous and time consuming requirements for ABAA membership create opportunities for others to organize events that cater to the thousands of dealers that live outside the ABAA and ILAB worlds. For collectors and institutions these other fairs are more of a very good thing. They are all worth seeing.
The ABAA event sets the table for the week – April 9 to 12th acting as catalyst for bibliographic events, auction previews and sales, as well as the “what’s my book worth” free appraisals on Sunday noon to 3:00 pm. ABAA fair events are organized to entice and educate the public to the virtues of collecting books, manuscripts, maps, and ephemera. Attendance for the serious is required, for the neophyte highly recommended.
Here is how the show describes itself; “Over 200 American and international dealers will exhibit at The New York Antiquarian Book Fair, bringing a vast selection of rare books, maps, manuscripts, illuminated manuscripts and ephemera.”
Here are their location and hours for the visiting public:
643 Park Avenue at 67th Street
New York, New York 10065
Thursday 5-9 pm
Friday noon to 8:00 pm
Sat noon to 7:00 pm
Sun noon to 5:00 pm
Preview pass $50
Daily admission $25
Run of show: $40
And on Sunday - Discovery Day April 12th from noon until 3 pm
Here is how the show’s promoters describe this event.
Each year on the Sunday of the fair, exhibitors offer their expertise to attendees. Discovery Day allows visitors to bring up to five items to discuss with experts. While formal appraisals are not given, dealers will discuss authenticity and condition, giving informal appraisals. Past Discovery Days have yielded some breathtaking discoveries including part of a Shakespeare second folio of Richard III! A first edition of Curious George with dust jacket was appraised at $3000. Also unearthed were original photographs of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s designs for stained glass. A first edition of the classic Beat novel, On the Road, was valued at $5000-$7000. Maritime history buffs were thrilled to discover their edition of Cook’s Voyages and Atlas were valued at $30,000. Exhibitors can examine items in most specialties, periods, and languages.
So if you have something in the attic you have always wondered about here is your chance.
And then there are the other two shows, between them a nice 20-minute walk or 5-minute taxi ride from the ABAA fair.
These shows are:
The New York City Book and Ephemera Fair
Wallace Hall at St. Ignatius Loyola
980 Park Avenue [at 83rd]
New York, New York 10028
Saturday Only 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
The Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Fair / The Fine Press Book Fair
The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer
869 Lexington Avenue at 66th Street
New York, New York 10065
Saturday Only 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
The ABAA fair opens Thursday afternoon at 5:00 pm for 4 hours and on Friday at noon for eight hours. The other fairs are Saturday only and open at 8:00 am. Therefore the sweet spot for these alternative fairs is usually Saturday morning when they are the only game for the collectible paper enthusiast.
The ABAA fair continues on Saturday beginning at noon [for 7 hours] and then on Sunday from noon to 5:00 pm
The ABAA fair will be heavy on exceptional material, much of it expensive. The alternative fairs will focus more on ephemera and other less expensive material. Because the shadow fairs are a single day rapid negotiation is the norm.
What now follows are links to each of the show sites. The ABAA link connects to a long scroll down page. Everything you want to know is there. It is very well laid out.
The other two fairs also have home pages and I have provided links to them as well.
As is often and increasingly said, with the epidemic of store and shop closures in the rare paper field the best and sometimes only answer to the questions how do I meet dealers and see their material, the best way increasingly is to attend shows when they occur nearby. Only about one in a thousand people seriously collects. If you find your heart though, as you read this article, skipping a few beats you may be one of the lucky ones, they who understand the world through its printed and manuscript history. If so these fairs are exceptional, not to be missed, events.
On a sad, and hopefully not permanent note, the Professional Autograph Dealers Association [PADA] spring show, usually staged the same weekend as the ABAA fair, is not going to happen this year. We look forward to their return next year.
Sotheby’s Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone 25 June – July 7
Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000.
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000
Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000
Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000
Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
