Rare Book Monthly

Articles - April - 2022 Issue

Contrary to Popular Belief, There Are Young Women Collectors, and the Honey & Wax Collecting Prize for Young Women is Now Open for Entries

Applications now being accepted for the 2022 Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize.

The sixth annual Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize is open for applications from U.S. women collectors age 30 and under. Say what? Who is going to apply? Everyone knows book collectors are old men. Go to any one of the major book fairs or old-line book collecting clubs and you will see for yourself.

 

We asked Heather O'Donnell, who with Rebecca Romney founded the Honey & Wax collecting prize in 2017, where they find these elusive new collectors. It turns out they are out there but go unnoticed as they are not traditional collectors, may not even see themselves as book collectors. They are more likely to be found on social media and the internet than traditional collector venues. Their interests are different. They collect, just not the same things as earlier generations.

 

Heather O'Donnell explained, “Rebecca Romney and I started the Honey & Wax Prize in 2017 in part to counter the common wisdom that 'women don't collect' and 'young people don't collect,' comments we heard all the time as dealers at the book fairs you mention. We wanted to shine a light on the kinds of collecting happening outside the fairly insular antiquarian book world, which does, as you observe, traditionally skew older and male. Most of our prize contestants had never visited a rare book fair or auction or gallery -- in part, because they were young, without a lot of money to spend, and in part because those venues didn't do much to draw them inside.”

 

Looking at the topics of the past five winners reveals different interests from most traditional collectors. They were not of famous authors like Hemingway and Dickens, nor common subjects such as Americana or travels and voyages. They were: Romance Novels of the Jazz Age and Depression Eras, Collecting Leo and Diane Dillon: Six Decades of Unparalleled Illustration, Crimes of Passion: Collecting Fan-made Comics and Doujinshi, Building a Nation of Little Readers: Twentieth-Century Yiddish Primers and Workbooks for Children, and Maria Mitchell Through Time. That's Maria Mitchell (the 19th century astronomer) rather than Margaret Mitchell. That's a change. Runners-up revealed similar new interests such as small circulation self-published zines, how soldiers die, “Collecting Black Equestrian History to Prove We Exist,” Icelandic sagas, history of disasters, and twentieth century travel guides to Russia and the Soviet Union (you don't want to go there now).

 

Ms. O'Donnell noted, “We do find that there is an increasing interest in collecting of all kinds, not just books, among younger women, and younger people generally, driven by communities formed on social media. A striking number of the book collections submitted to the Honey & Wax Prize have a social aspect: they're the subjects of blogs or Tumblrs or Instagram feeds, they're formed through fan communities or online networks, they're created as community resources or public archives.

 

"The internet has made it possible for everyone to share their collecting projects much more widely, at an earlier stage, and to collaborate with others on bibliographies of material that falls outside the standard reference sources. The result is that more material, of all kinds, enters the conversation, and our collective sense of possible objects and angles of inquiry is expanded. As booksellers, that's really what we like to see, and what this prize celebrates.”

 

In reaching out to all new, non-traditional collectors, the contest rules state that they use an expansive definition of 'women' to include trans and other gender non-conforming individuals. We can also note that past contestants include numerous racial and ethnic minorities, and it is doubtful that most are the beneficiaries of great family wealth. It moves us even further beyond the typical stereotype of a book collector as being not only old and male, but overwhelmingly white and of healthy financial means. These collectors, to use a phrase previously coined, look more like America than the old image. If you limit “collectors” to the traditional model, of course it looks like there are few new collectors, but if you look past old stereotypes, you can see the future.

 

Submissions for the 2022 Honey & Wax Collecting Prize are being accepted through June 15. Books, manuscripts and ephemera are all appropriate collectibles and the theme can be whatever you find fascinating, be it a writer, illustrator, subject, printer, bindings, or whatever else is the collection's focus. Size and value aren't important, so long as you created the collection and show how the pieces illustrate the theme. Creativity and originality are welcome. Details on the rules and how to submit an entry are found on the following page: www.honeyandwaxbooks.com/prize.php

 

The prize winner will receive $1,000. Everyone is encouraged to submit as describing it for others will help you understand your own collection better. Maybe only one person can get the prize, but everyone will be a winner.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining, Philadelphia, 1846. $3,500 to $5,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: 17th–19th-century case maps of various locations. $1,500 to $2,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Andreas Cellarius, Haemisphaerium Stellatum Boreale Cum Subiecto Haemisphaerio Terrestri, celestial chart, Amsterdam, 1708. $2,500 to $3,500.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Vincenzo Coronelli, Set of engraved gores for Coronelli’s monumental 42-inch terrestrial globe, Venice, circa 1688–97. $18,000 to $22,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, group of four navigational charts, Antwerp, 1580s. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Thomas Bros, Block Book of Berkeley, Oakland, 1920s. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Nieuhoff & John Ogilby, An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, map of China, plan of Canton, London, 1673. $1,200 to $1,800.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Frederick Sander, Reichenbachia, St. Albans, 1888-1894. $5,000 to $7,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Two early illustrated works on horsemanship and breeding, Nuremberg, early 18th century. $700 to $800.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. Supplement to the First Edition, London, 1834; 1855. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, London, 1808–14. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Oakley Hoopes Bailey, Hackensack, New Jersey, Boston, 1896. $800 to $1,200.
  • CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000
  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Books and Manuscripts
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane] — Isaac D'Israeli. Jane Austen's copy of Curiosities of Literature. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition in boards of the author's debut novel. 70,000 - 100,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Brontë, Charlotte. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me..." 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Eliot, George. The author's magnum opus. 25,000 - 35,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Whitman, Walt. Manuscript written upon the Death of Lincoln, 1865. 60,000 - 80,000 USD

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