• 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 - March - 2021 Issue

The Literary Way of Death

Covid-19 has changed everything. The losses are deep and personal. We lose friends and family, we also lose some of our own possibilities. 

 

Yet as history shows, disaster often invites an explosion of ingenuity, creative ways of managing loss.  Thanks to endless online platforms and options, literally at our fingertips, we can transform sad testimonials, memorials, and funerals into Celebrations Of Life. And, yes, some of these homages have now entered the commercial book market with what can only be called In Memoriam auctions. A whole new approach here -- let’s take a look:

 

Consider Graham Arader’s offering this past fall. He reoriented his important map auction, scheduled in early October, by rewriting it as a memorial to Seymour Schwartz, the legendary map collector who left us on August 28th.  It would become, by dollar value, one of the largest sales in 2020: USD $18,610,968.  So it appears that a new tack, a new modus operandi, has been introduced by sellers: they’re folding into their sales an attractive layer of emotional resonance, so that buying becomes a gesture of respecting the deceased, a way of participating in the final good-bye. Is this the new gold standard in 2021 selling? Is this the clever new marketing approach, a new psychology for sellers to plumb and mine? From my perch at the Rare Book Hub, where my staff and I see a steady, daily stream of sales literature and auction notices, facts and feelings are now connected in fresh, inventive ways. 

 

Covid, its wicked spectre, puts me in a sentimental mood: it makes me confront my own mortality. And I see that it is no coincidence that sales are up these days in death literature – widow narratives by Joyce Carol Oates, Joan Didion, et al.; reflections on death by Christopher Hitchens (Mortality, 2012) and especially by Siddhartha Mukherjee (The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, 2011). As I move into my seventh decade (dear friends, it’s been a joyful run!), I have many to thank. Certainly it’s both appropriate and possible to celebrate those lives whose career or preoccupation with the printed word has captured them and shaped their destiny. Let us not let those occasions slip by. For my part, I am grateful to acknowledge:

 

Contemporary Writers: Their material often appears randomly in dealer catalogues, at auction, or in online databases. Remembering them, as their related objects change hands, is simply confirmation of talent well used and appreciated. All hail, writers!

 

Collectors: Their acquisitions, spares, and duplicates at auction and in special dealer catalogues are a way to remember and connect.  When you pursue subjects seriously, it’s logical to learn about and appreciate kindred spirits whose collecting ambitions mirror your own.  And in time, you’ll notice that the best cataloguers emphasize provenance, because the history of ownership, particularly when it extends over decades and centuries, adds considerable value, as well as historical gloss, with references to sequential ownership by storied collectors. Yes, the collectors: they, too, should be thanked and remembered.

 

Dealers: Far from salesmen, these individuals often play an outsized role because of their knack for discovery. Their challenge these many centuries has been to find the prize copy: the great copy. And to that end, they skillfully craft the item description; if necessary, they gussy up their pitch. They set a price and terms. They wait for the promised payment(s) to arrive and hopefully clear the bank. And all the while, only the dealer – the critical interface between the item and the buyer -- knows all the secrets, all the details.

 

Librarians! Our colleagues, our guides in so many instances. Their contributions and accomplishments merit grateful attention. Why, a knowledgeable librarian can save a writer, a collector, a dealer, and a potential buyer hours of fruitless delving, not to mention serious printed errors and pricey missteps. Collectors tend to think that dealers and auction houses determine the boundaries of collecting, but I suggest it is the  librarians and those who adopt their practices and methods who identify the historical significance and timely relevance of an item. It is the librarians who keep up with the material and the bibliophilic vogues. It is the librarians who often bring early attention to new directions in book ownership, reading habits, and so on. My favorite is Callimachus, librarian of the great library at Alexandria; we thank him for devising organizational methods of accessing information, such as the bibliography! Yes, Librarians: let us acknowledge our gratitude.

 

Ne’er-do-wells: An amusing, if necessary, species. This curious miscellaneous set of all-purpose, unfulfilled geniuses, makes a career swinging at the ball, often missing -- but always out there trying. Every dealer and librarian accepts their calls, hoping as much as they do that they have found the Holy Grail. Keep swinging!

 

Our Associates: All the long-suffering partners, spouses, friends, and support staff. They, too, should have their day of celebration. They have lived with the victories, crises, resolutions, failures, and grab-bag of final results. They bear the battle scars, too, and are often unrewarded when Fortune smiles. But they endure, hopeful as we are for the cry, “Whale ahoy!”

 

Many are the opportunities for us to say thank you and congratulations to all of these individuals who have assisted us in these dire, uncertain times. They have helped us pragmatically in our buying choices and financial investments; but well beyond that, they have lent a human dimension of care and support to what we continue to do.

 

We offer this in gratitude.

 

_________

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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