Sotheby’s, 28 Oct: Scève, Maurice. Microcosme. Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1562. Maroquin vert de Lortic fils. Rarissime édition originale.
Sotheby’s, 28 Oct: Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, 1855. Édition originale, imprimée par Whitman lui-même et reliée sur ses instructions. Avec un exemplaire de "Calamus", Boston, 1897
Sotheby’s Bibliothèque de Pierre Bergé : le dernier chapiter 28 October 2024
Sotheby’s, 28 Oct: García Lorca, Federico. Poema del cante jondo. Madrid, 1931. Édition originale. Exemplaire offert par Lorca au journaliste basque Pedro Mourlane Michelena
Sotheby’s, 28 Oct: Ronsard, Pierre de. Les Amours. 1553. [Suivi de:] Continuation des amours. 1557. In-8. Vélin. Troisième édition des Amours et deuxième édition de la Continuation
Sotheby’s, 28 Oct: Vivaldi, Antonio. L’Estro Armonico... Amsterdam [1712]. Édition originale. Rares partitions de 12 concertos, gravées sur cuivre
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 31: William Shakespeare, Second Folio, 1632. $120,000 to $180,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 175: Agostino Nifo’s De Regnandi Peritia ad Carolum VI, 1523. $25,000 to $35,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 263: Johannes Hevelius, Selenographia: Sive, 1647. $15,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 32: William Shakespeare, Poems, 1640. $15,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 230: Ernest Hemingway, in our time, Limited First Edition; One of 170 Copies Printed, Paris: Three Mountains Press, 1924. $20,000 to $30,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 43: Amadis de Gaule Story Cycle, Various Authors, El Octavo Libro and El Noveno Libro, 1526 and 1542. $8,000 to $12,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 25: John Milton, Poems of Mr. John Milton, 1645. $7,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 259: William Griffith Wilson, Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More than One Hundred Men Have Recovered, 1939. $15,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 242: Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960. $10,000 to $15,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 69: Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote in Spanish, Ibarra's Academy Edition, 1780. $6,000 to $8,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lot 9: Elizabeth I, Queen of England, The Historie of Guicciardin, 1599. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Oct. 24: Lor 103: Francisco Lopez de Ubeda, Libro de Entrentenimiento de la Picara Justina, 1605. $6,000 to $8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24: A Superb Extra-illustrated Copy of Nicolay and Hay’s Work About Lincoln. $50,000 – 70,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24: The First Volume of De Bry's Great Voyages, Thomas Hariot's Description of Virginia. $50,000 – 70,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24: An autographed cabinet card of Custer as lieutenant colonel. From his last sitting. $800 – 1,200.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 24: The Congressional Committee, Lincoln's Funeral Springfield Illinois, 3 May 1865. $4,000 – 6,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25: A remarkable ninth plate daguerreotype of an interracial couple. $30,000 – 50,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25: What may be the earliest known images of an identified plantation and enslaved African Americans posed with their owner. $20,000 – 30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25: Through Tickets to All Principal Points West Via Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad For Sale at This Office. $500 – 700.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Oct. 25: 15th New York Infantry / Regiment of Engineers GAR regimental colors. Ca 1880. $1,500 – 2,500.
Undoubtedly two or three elements in the bookseller - book buyer equation are going to change. The dealer research premiums, however justified by the work, have not stood up and are not going to stand up. Enough collectors are willing to camp out on dealer research and then buy cheaper copies elsewhere to continue to undermine the premiums that research requires. These days, a dealer who prepares an elaborate explanation of an item can expect to see suspiciously similar descriptions soon posted from other dealers offering the same item. Even when competing dealers don't paraphrase the description their copy will come up in the searches nearby the well researched copy to tempt a buyer to read the better description and then buy the cheaper copy. The seller may know next to nothing but for many buyers price is everything.
I myself often buy less expensive copies. I tend to do my own research and to find material in obscure places. I've just bought ten items on eBay after buying about a hundred items on ABE over the past several months. I find I tend to know more about the material I acquire than the seller's do although this is not always the case. I do understand "frequency of appearance" as well as anyone and I know when to wait. Between eBay, the net and dealer catalogues there is a relative value scale although it is different for every book. In buying this way I'm probably just a little ahead of the curve but I speak to collectors all the time that understand the market as well or better than I do. Such collectors need less from skilled dealers. They are however a small minority.
For new collectors entering the field the careful and painstaking work that the better dealers do is essential. However, with fewer catalogues offered, the best tool for educating and encouraging collectors is increasingly in short supply; one reason there are not enough new collectors entering the field. Whether there are other ways to effectively educate the new collector remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though. The internet has changed the business more in the past ten years than it changed during the prior five hundred.