• Sotheby’s
    New York Book Week
    12-26 June
    Sotheby’s, June 25: Theocritus. Theocriti Eclogae triginta, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, February 1495/1496. 220,000 - 280,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby, 1925. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Printed ca. 1381-1832. 400,000 - 600,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Lincoln, Abraham. Thirteenth Amendment, signed by Abraham Lincoln. 8,000,000 - 12,000,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, June 26: Galieli, Galileo. First Edition of the Foundation of Modern Astronomy, 1610. 300,000 - 400,000 USD
  • Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE / LANDINO, CRISTOFORO. Comento di Christophoro Landino Fiorentino sopra la Comedia di Danthe Alighieri poeta fiorentino, 1481. €40,000 to €50,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus]. Aggiunta: Marsilius Ficinus, Ad Dantem gratulatio [in latino e Italiano], 1487. €40,000 to €60,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. Il Convivio, 1490. €20,000 to €25,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: BANDELLO, MATTEO. La prima [-quarta] parte de le nouelle del Bandello, 1554. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LEGATURA – PLUTARCO. Le vies des hommes illustres, grecs et romaines translates, 1567. €10,000 to €12,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: TOLOMEO, CLAUDIO. Ptolemeo La Geografia di Claudio Ptolemeo Alessandrino, Con alcuni comenti…, 1548. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: FESTE - COPPOLA, GIOVANNI CARLO. Le nozze degli Dei, favola [...] rappresentata in musica in Firenze…, 1637. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: SPINOZA, BARUCH. Opera posthuma, 1677. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER. Borus Godunov, 1831. €30,000 to €50,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - LECUIRE, PIERRE. Ballets-minute, 1954. €35,000 to €40,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MAJAKOVSKIJ, VLADIMIR / LISSITZKY, LAZAR MARKOVICH. Dlia Golosa, 1923. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MATISSE, HENRI / MONTHERLANT, HENRY DE. Pasiphaé. Chant de Minos., 1944. €22,000 to €24,000.
  • Bonhams, June 16-25: 15th-CENTURY TREATISE ON SYPHILIS. GRÜNPECK. 1496. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: THE NORMAN COPY OF BENIVIENI'S TREATISE ON PATHOLOGY. 1507. $12,000 - $18,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: FRACASTORO. Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus. 1530. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: THE FIRST PUBLISHED WORK ON SKIN DISEASES. MERCURIALIS. De morbis cutaneis... 1572. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: BIDLOO. Anatomia humani corporis... 1685. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: THE NORMAN COPY OF DOUGLASS'S EARLY AMERICAN WORK ON INNOCULATION AND SMALLPOX. 1722. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: LIND'S FIRST TREATISE ON SCURVY. 1753. $15,000 - $20,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: RARE JENNER SIGNED CIRCULAR ON VACCINATION. 1821. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: MOST BEAUTIFUL OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. BRIGHT. Reports of Medical Cases... 1827-1831. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE PRESENTATION COPY TO HER MOTHER. 1860. $6,000 - $8,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: LORENZO TRAVER'S MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL OF BURNSIDE'S NORTH CAROLINA EXPEDITION. TRAVER, Lorenzo. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, June 16-25: ONE OF THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOKS ON DERMATOLOGY. HARDY. Clinique Photographique... 1868. $3,000 - $5,000
  • Bonhams, June 16-24: KELMSCOTT PRESS. RUSKIN. The Nature of Gothic. 1892. $1,500 - $2,500
    Bonhams, June 16-24: ASHENDENE PRESS. The Wisdom of Jesus. 1932. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: CHARLOTTE BRONTE WRITES AS GOVERNESS. Autograph Letter Signed, 1851. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS. BRONTE, Emily. New York, 1848. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: IAN FLEMING ASSOCIATION COPY. You Only Live Twice. London, 1964. $7,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: DELUXE EDITION WITH ORIGINAL PAINTING. BUKOWSKI, Charles. War All the Time. 1984. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN'S MOST POWERFUL STATEMENT ON THE ATOMIC BOMB. Original Typed Manuscript Signed, "On My Participation in the Atom Bomb Project," 1953. $100,000 - $150,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN ON SCIENCE, WAR AND MORALITY. Autograph Letter Signed, 1949. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. WASHINGTON, George. Engraved document signed, 1786. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: AN EARLY CHINESE-MADE 34-STAR U.S. CONSULAR FLAG. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN WITH HIS SON TAD. 1864. $60,000 - $90,000
    Bonhams, June 16-24: MALCOLM X WRITES FROM KENYA. Postcard signed, 1964. $4,000 - $6,000

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2018 Issue

The Great Revolt

Books on Vacation (from ILAB website).

Books on Vacation (from ILAB website).

Not since David and Goliath... A ragtag army of independent, unrelated booksellers took on the largest retailer the world has ever known, Amazon, and won. Experts looking at the situation could not recall this ever happening before. Amazon moves for no one. Now there is an exception, and it comes from the field that gave the marketing behemoth its birth - bookselling.

 

It began in late October when AbeBooks, the antiquarian and used book selling subsidiary of Amazon, decided to cut off dealers from a few countries from selling on their platform. AbeBooks sent notices to dealers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Poland, and South Korea that it would no longer accept their listings after November 30. It was but a short, terse notice, without explanation as to why or much feeling beyond a standard "we apologize for this inconvenience." Digging into the reasoning it turned out that a change in the service provider for payments was the cause. Evidently, a better deal must have been struck, but one that called for the jettisoning of sellers in certain countries.

 

The tiny spark that led to the fire proved to be a posting from a dealer in the Czech Republic on the ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers) site. Jan and Ondrej Schick of Antikvariat Valentinska of Prague posted a letter saying that they had listed books on ZVAB, then ABE after its takeover, for 15 years. They said they had worked hard to treat their customers well and had never received a major complaint from them or from ABE. Nevertheless, on October 18, they received a brief, impersonal letter stating, "Effective November 30, 2018, AbeBooks will no longer support sellers located in certain countries. Your business is located in one of the affected countries and your AbeBooks seller account will be closed on November 30, 2018. We apologize for this inconvenience."

 

The Czech booksellers described the decision as a shock, "especially since no reason was given." They went on to say they would have to dismiss at least five employees and had no idea where else to sell their 20,000 foreign books. They said this in effect would cut booksellers in these countries off from the world antiquarian book trade, and asked which countries would be next. They closed with a request for Amazon and AbeBooks to reconsider its decision.

 

One of the booksellers who took this message to heart was Simon Beattie of England. You couldn't ask for a better bookseller to start such a revolt. Beattie specializes in books that are unusual, sometimes daring and radical. He announced, in effect, he was going on strike. ABE has a feature that allows booksellers to put their books "on vacation" when they go away. They don't remove their books from the site. They just make their books invisible until they return. Beattie put his books on vacation.

 

He would not be the only one. Other booksellers put their books on vacation too. The number grew, until around 600 booksellers, with 3.5 million listings, put their books on vacation. Then, Britain's Antiquarian Booksellers' Association announced they would would not renew ABE's sponsorship of their London Book Fair in 2019, saying they could no longer consider the firm a "suitable fair sponsor" as a result of the "significant negative impact on the businesses of our friends and colleagues."

 

Amazon/ABE blinked. They realized they had made a terrible mistake and needed to reverse course. It may have been the first such substantial reversal by Amazon over a policy having a major effect on its suppliers.

 

On November 7, Sally Burdon, President of ILAB, spoke with Arkady Vitrouk, CEO of AbeBooks. Ms. Burdon said Mr. Vitrouk apologized for the decision and said that the dealers would not be dropped from ABE's listings on November 30. According to an email she sent, "Arkady told us that ABE are very well aware of the mistake they have made. He stated that it was a ‘bad decision’ and that they deeply regret the hurt and harm they have caused." She also noted that Vitrouk was up at 4:30 a.m. for the call, so obviously it was of great importance to him. Even more significantly, Burdon explained that booksellers in the affected countries could continue to post books as they do now until December 31, and that Vitrouk had pledged to find a solution that would enable them to continue selling books on AbeBooks indefinitely thereafter.

 

With that, the booksellers began ending their "vacations." An improbable victory against an immensely powerful company had been won, with many of the booksellers expressing surprise that it had turned out so well. Hopefully, Amazon/ABE will see this as a victory too. For almost two decades, the balance of power between ABE and its clients has shifted, booksellers, being unorganized, feeling increasingly weak and dependent on them. There has been resentment against Amazon, ABE and other such sites, such as eBay. That isn't healthy. Good relationships come from equals, not master and servant. If this helps renew a greater spirit of a shared vision, not a boss telling his underlings what to do, everyone will be better off, ABE included.


Posted On: 2018-12-01 10:06
User Name: PeterReynolds

I suspect that an article in the New York Times "Booksellers Protest Amazon Site’s Move to Drop Stores From Certain Countries" which not only associated ABE (previously "good" for some) in the book-buying public's mind with Amazon ("bad" for some), but was bad publicity for Amazon itself, might have been what tipped the balance! A frequent US customer of mine saw it, and I told ABE about this.


Posted On: 2018-12-01 14:59
User Name: bookdemon

A small battle was won this time. When serious booksellers permanently remove all of their stock from Abe/Amazon, the war is over and booksellers will be victorious. Sadly, this will probably never happen.


Posted On: 2018-12-16 13:46
User Name: quaggabooks

Earlier this year ABE announced that all dealers in South Africa have to have American bank accounts. A number of my colleagues here in South Africa have found a solution by making use of an online portal that, (for another fee) allows them to keep trading. We at Quagga Books have pulled our listings from ABE as the fees are now so high that I would feel ill every time I got an order. We are focusing more on our own website and other online platforms. Goodbye and good riddance to ABE.


Rare Book Monthly

  • Case Antiques
    Two-Day Summer Auction
    July 12 & 13, 2025
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Winston Link Signed Photograph, Hotshot Eastbound, Iager, West Virginia, July 1957. $3,400 to $3,800.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Alexander Hamilton ALS, Whiskey Rebellion. $2,800 to $3,200.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Civil War Canteen and Letters, Thomas Tabb Jr. CSA. $1,800 to $2,200.
    Case Antiques
    Two-Day Summer Auction
    July 12 & 13, 2025
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Archive of Capt. William Tabb of MS, CSA, Killed Atlanta. $1,000 to $1,400.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Rudyard Kipling Collection, 29 Volumes, First Editions; Zaehnsdorf Bindings. $1,000 to $1,200.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Artist Andrew Wyeth & Family Signed Letters, Cards. $1,000 to $1,200.
    Case Antiques
    Two-Day Summer Auction
    July 12 & 13, 2025
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Augusta Resolves Silk Broadside, Revolutionary War RelateD. $800 to $1,000.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: 1894 Map of Nashville. $800 to $900.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: CSA Navy Appointment, Semmes and Mallory plus Photo of Lt. Armstrong. $600 to $800.
    Case Antiques
    Two-Day Summer Auction
    July 12 & 13, 2025
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Slave Colonies of Great Britain, 1825, Macaulay, First Edition, plus Debate on Abolition, 1792. $600 to $800.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Signed Photo of 3 Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Carter. $600 to $800.
    Case Antiques, July 12-13: Slave Ledger, Merrill Plantations, Natchez, MS & Concordia, LA. $1,000 to $1,200.
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