Rare Book Monthly

Articles - August - 2020 Issue

Rare Book Hub: into the great beyond: 10,000,551 full text records

- by Bruce E. McKinney

Rare Book Hub, nee Americana Exchange on September 3, 2002, began its journey into building a complete record of auction appearances and outcomes of collectible books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera, with no clear idea how far or high this project would extend.   Today we know, and celebrate as the Transaction Database crosses into the never before scale of documentation that scholars, students, dealers, collectors and auction houses have come to rely upon.  In fact, many houses are aggregating their records as a convenience to their customers.

 

What’s different at the Hub is that we focus on all sources both of collectible books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera in the present while simultaneously continuing to document auction lots going back to 1840 – our goal to in time provide a complete record of auction appearances for assessing rarity, importance, and value, leaving the greatest intangible for owners and sellers to wrestle with – condition.

 

As to what this means in terms of scale for the future database we leave this to the imagination.

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Posted On: 2020-08-01 11:44
User Name: sevinseydi

Yet I keep finding important sales not included. The latest is the Blackmer sale, Sothebys October 1989. The prices fetched can indeed be very misleading, but surely it ought to be there.

Posted On: 2020-08-01 20:10
User Name: adminb

Dear sevinseydi,

The database is large but not 100% complete. We require to have a copy of each original catalogue with whatever documentation is possible for review and confirmation. If and when we obtain by purchase, loan or gift missing catalogues we make their addition to the Transaction Database. And on average we add 3,000 fresh records each day. The Blackmer Sale will be scheduled in mid-September.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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