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<b>Bunch Auctions: Rare Books & Fine Prints. January 22, 2019</b><b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> Dickens, Charles. <i>A Tale of Two Cities,</i> first edition with inclusions. $18,000 to $26,000<b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> John James Audubon. A la poupee color engraving on paper "Stanley Hawk." $6,000 to $12,000<b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> [FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE] Dickens, Charles. <i>Oliver Twist</i>, London, 1838. 3 vols. $8,000 to $10,000<b>Bunch Auctions: Rare Books & Fine Prints. January 22, 2019</b><b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> Land indenture between William Penn and Thomas Gell, dated October 12, 1681, wherein Gell purchased 500 acres Pennsylvania farmland; signed by Penn. $4,000 to $6,000<b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> Thomas Hart Benton, lithograph on paper "The Woodpile", pencil signed, original AAA certificate. $1,500 to $2,500<b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> Helen Dryden, <i>Vogue</i> cover design lithograph completed in hand watercolor, proof design for September 1922 issue. $600 to $800<b>Bunch Auctions: Rare Books & Fine Prints. January 22, 2019</b><b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> Fisher, John D. <i>Description of the Distinct, Confluent, and Inoculated Small Pox, Varioloid Disease, Cow Pox, and Chicken Pox,</i> Boston, 1829. $600 to $800<b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> [Rare Dust Jacket] Crane, Stephen. <i>The Red Badge of Courage,</i> NY, 1896. $500 to $700<b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> after Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920), chromolithograph on paper "Lunia Czechowska", signed in plate, artist's proof (A/P). $200 to $400<b>Bunch Auctions, Jan 22:</b> Samuel Arlent Edwards, color mezzotint on paper "A Visit to the Boarding School", pencil signed. $100 to $200 -
<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Kingsborough, Edward King. <i>Antiquities of Mexico: Comprising Facsimiles of Ancient Mexican Paintings and Hieroglyphics…</i> London, 1831-1848. $80,000 to $120,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Paul Revere. <i>The Bloody Massacre perpetrated In King-Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Reg. Boston, 1770.</i> $150,000 to $200,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Battle of the Alamo. <i>Suplemento al Diario del Gobierno de la Republica Mexicana.</i> (Núm. 326. Tom. IV.). Mexico City: Imprenta del Aguila, Dirigida por José Ximeno, 1836. $6,000 to $8,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> The Declaration of Independence. The first book-form printing of the Declaration of Independence. $300,000 to $500,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Treaty of Paris, Ratification. By the United States in Congress Assembled, A Proclamation … Annapolis, [Ca. 16-17 January 1784]. $800,000 to $1,200,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Declaration of Independence. The only known privately held copy of the celebrated William J. Stone facsimile for which provenance can be traced back to a direct ancestor who received it in 1824. $600,000 to $800,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Crockett, David. Autograph letter signed ("David Crockett") to George Patton, announcing his intention to travel to Texas. $70,000 to $100,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Wytfliet, Cornelius. <i>Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum, Sive Occidentalis Notitia Brevi Commentario Illustrata.</i> Leuven: Johannes Bogaerts 1597. $35,000 to $50,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Schedel, Hartmann. <i>Liber Cronicarum cum Figuris et Ymaginibus.</i> Nuremberg, Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 12 July 1493. $70,000 to $100,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> New York Mets. Baseball from the first victory of the New York Mets. $25,000 to $35,000<b>Sotheby’s NY, Jan 24:</b> Robert E. Lee. Autograph letter signed ("R E Lee") as Confederate commander, to Rabbi Max Michelbacher, declining to furlough Jewish Confederate troops for the high holy days. $150,000 to $250,000 -
<b>Case Antiques: Historic Winter Fine Art and Antiques Auction.<br>January 26, 2019</b><b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> Archive of five items related to John Singleton Mosby, the Confederate “Gray Ghost,” including 3 ALS and 2 colored lithographs. $2,800 to $3,200<b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> Defoe, Daniel. Double Fore-Edge Painted Robinson Crusoe, 2 Vols., 1820. $800 to $1,000<b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> McCarthy, Cormac. <i>Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West.</i> First edition, 1985. $1,000 to $1,200<b>Case Antiques: Historic Winter Fine Art and Antiques Auction.<br>January 26, 2019</b><b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> Chagall, Marc. “Le Bouquet Rouge,” limited edition color lithograph. October, 1969. $10,000 to $12,000<b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> Stern, Bert. Marilyn Monroe’s “Last Sitting” for <i>Vogue,</i> signed photograph and two books. $1,800 to $2,200<b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> Five single fore-edge painted Bibles. $1,000 to $1,200<b>Case Antiques: Historic Winter Fine Art and Antiques Auction.<br>January 26, 2019</b><b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> Sander, August. “Painter Brockmann” and “Courtyard Musicians” gelatin silver prints. $2,000 to $2,400<b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> after Sheng Mou, Qing Dynasty scroll, landscape painting, ink and color on silk, signature of Wang Hui (Chinese, 1632-1717). $1,800 to $2,200<b>Case Antiques, Jan 26:</b> Russell, J. Map of Kentucky, London, 1794, showing Tennessee as a SW Territory. $1,200 to $1,800 -
<b>Bonhams: The Medical & Scientific Library of W. Bruce Fye. New York, March 11, 2019</b><b>Bonhams NY, Mar 11:</b> VESALIUS, ANDREAS. 1514-1564. <i>De humani corporis fabrica libri septem.</i> Basel: Johannes Oporinus, June 1543. $300,000 to $500,000<b>Bonhams NY, Mar 11:</b> HARVEY, WILLIAM. 1578-1657. <i>De motu cordis & sanguinis in animalibus Anatomica Exercitatio.</i> Leiden: Joannis Maire, 1639. $25,000 to $35,000<b>Bonhams NY, Mar 11:</b> BERENGARIO DA CARPI, GIACOMO. 1460-1530. <i>Isagogae breves perlucide ac uberrimae in Anatomiam humani corporis.</i> Bologna: Benedictus Hectoris, 15 July 1523. $15,000 to $25,000<b>Bonhams NY, Mar 11:</b> FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN. 1706-1790. <i>Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America…</i> London, 1769. $10,000 to $15,000<b>Bonhams NY, Mar 11:</b> BENIVIENI, ANTONIO. 1443-1502. <i>De abditis nonnullis ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis.</i>Florence: Filippo Giunta, 1507. $8,000 to $12,000
Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2005 Issue
ILAB Launches New Website
ILAB sports cleaner, easier to read new home page.
By Michael Stillman
ILAB recently completed a major overhaul of its website, which gives us an opportunity to look at this book dealers' organization and its bookselling website. ILAB stands for the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, and it is the largest such group in existence today. Formed in 1947, it includes members of twenty different national associations. The largest is America's ABAA, The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. However, even the ABAA comprises only about one-quarter of the membership of ILAB. This is truly an international organization, and its booksellers naturally offer books from all over the world.
Among the services offered is a book listing search of members' inventory. These include the listings which can be searched through the ABAA website along with material posted by members of the 19 other worldwide organizations. This covers approximately 4 million books from 2,000 vendors. In another era, this would have been astonishing. However, with Abebooks now boasting of 70 million books for sale, it sounds small. ILAB cannot compete in number of books available. What, then, can they offer the collector?
For starters, ILAB member organizations are composed of serious booksellers. This is not to say that nonmembers aren't also serious. There are many worthy booksellers who are members of other organizations, or operate independently of such groups. However, anyone who has searched through the mega-listing sites will be aware that many of those who list are rank amateurs, people with little true knowledge of books who post what they find in attics or garage sales. Their descriptions of what they offer, particularly when it comes to condition, can be wanting. Others simply deal in used books. There is nothing wrong with this. I buy used books this way as it is a much easier method of buying a recently out of print title than trying to track down a new copy. However, if you are searching for an antiquarian or rare title, it may be hard to find among the swarms of recent reprints posted on these sites.
Finally, there are the complete frauds; people who post books they don't even own, but look to fill their sales from other booksellers' inventories, after tacking on a healthy up-charge for providing absolutely no value. And then, or course, there are the "books-on-demand" reprints. This is a useful service for people seeking a reading copy of a hard-to-find book, but these listings are a nuisance for those seeking the original itself. ILAB filters out such extraneous material.
