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Articles - April - 2018 Issue

The New York Antiquarian Book Fair: It’s a question of timing

- by Bruce E. McKinney

There’s probably nothing to be done about it but the timing of the New York ABAA Fair in March, a concession to business and financial realities, is simply not as good as almost any April dates.  And the reason:  weather.  March in New York is quixotic and many of the field’s principal collectors older.  The effect from year to year is small but the impact over time significant.  Warmer temperatures and good footing matter.

 

For this year’s fair a nor’easter, one of four in March no less, played dodge-em with the city.  In my case, Delta contacted me the Thursday night before my 6:00 am flight from San Francisco to New York to say I should reschedule to avoid weather delays.  I then called my hotel and my son for their views.  Both felt the risk was overstated and I caught the morning flight, arriving to an unusually empty JFK and proceeding quickly into the city.  And for the next four days the clear weather held.  I then drove upstate to get snowed in on Monday into Tuesday.

 

Certainly the New York Book Fairs are stellar, the main fair and the two shadow fairs well worth the trip.  They are the great confluence of the many threads of book collecting and will continue to dominate the field in the years to come.  But convenience and safety matter and it’s going to be more difficult to travel in March as I get older.  Whether, for anyone else it’s an issue only time will tell.

 

Certainly, the Armory is the exceptional venue for this important annual event, being large, familiar and historic.  But how to reconcile its attributes with a difficult calendar, I leave to the show savants. 

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Posted On: 2018-04-01 11:57
User Name: periodyssey

Bruce, You failed to mention that the New York fairs now come right on the heals of the California fairs and one week before the Ephemera Society fair in Greenwich, CT. It is simply not good for dealers or collectors to have six important shows within a month of one another. Something's got to give! Rich West/Periodyssey

Posted On: 2018-04-01 16:55
User Name: reeseco

Bruce,
The change in dates for the New York Fair was dictated by the available times at the Armory on Park Ave. The Armory is now owned by a public charity, who uses the majority of time there for theatrical productions and the like. Most fairs which used to be there have been forced to leave; the only other Fairs now remaining are the super-high-end shows like the Winter Antique show and the TEFAF show.
I have exhibited at every New York ABAA Fair since 1975, plus some of the ILAB shows and many smaller ones in other venues. I can testify from this long experience that nothing comes close to the Armory as a venue. Our last large fair outside of it was in the Javits Center, a terrible show for everyone. But if we leave the Armory, this is the kind of places that can accommodate the Fair- the venues over on the Hudson piers, etc. If you think you were inconvenienced in getting to New York, try catching a cab over there, far from any public transport, on a rainy day.
Its not a matter of being familiar and historic (it is a matter of being large). The NY Fair, as it is, is quite simply the best and greatest rare book fair in the world. Move it to any of the available options, and I predict it will quickly be a shadow of what it is now. With all due respect to the California shows or the Ephemera show, they are a drop in the bucket to NY. My California sales have averaged about 10% of my NY sales, and my ephemera show sales about .5%, over many years.
So, if a time frame should be shifted- and I agree that the Fairs are too close now- why don't these fairs change their times? All fairs are not equal. Let's not kill the goose with the golden egg.
One final note- the effect of weather can go both ways. When the old NY Fair time was a month later, it often coincided with the first really nice weekend of spring. When that happened, people stayed away in droves. Poor weather more often brings people indoors; rich New Yorkers go to their country homes when the weather is nice. Bill Reese William Reese Company

Posted On: 2018-04-09 12:53
User Name: brucemarshallrarebooks

Thank you for your discussion over the New York Antiquarian Bookfair in the Armory.
Many of us are flying in from different parts of the world. In my case the UK and I realise that the weather can be an issue but personally, I totally agree with Bill Reese and I think this is the most important bookfair in America. I, like Bill did notice that the weekends in April, when the good weather arrived, had a serious effect on business.
Although perhaps colder in March, I also think there are more serious buyers appearing as it is just before the holiday time. I don't think we should do anything that could threaten the use of this excellent venue. Bruce Marshall, Bruce Marshall Rare Books

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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

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