Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2023 Issue

Welcome to the New World!

Ephemera will be understood systematically

Ephemera will be understood systematically

What was not so long ago called book collecting has been transforming into the field of collectible paper.  What kept traditional book collecting understandable were the fixed boundaries provided by the many reference materials that made it possible for the interested to immediately understand what they were researching.  Quick clarity has always been vital given that books were often offered in open shelves.

 

Of course, the Internet has recast the book buyer and seller equations and now name and title searches provide transaction history in a flash.  We get a sense of how tedious searching pre-Internet was when you occasionally find seller’s lists today that aren’t searchable.  Good grief.  Do you really want to browse through hundreds of items with no clear expectation what you’ll find?  Life is simply too short to waste time that way.

 

Fortunately books are close to a settled matter.  Certainly previously unknown copies come to light.  Attics, garages and basements still hold a sense of potential discovery and often the hopeful are rewarded.

 

But for what will soon be the new wild world of collectible paper – ephemera – is barely in its organizational stage.  That term appears only 121,559 times in our Transaction History in the 13,057,177 records today.

 

Into the future, most of the tens of millions of potentially collectible ephemera will not be catalogued until images are captured and software analyzes them automatically.  Bingo shazam.

 

The nub?  Ephemera usually lacks some or all of the standard identifiers.  Image comparison will be the key and such technologies will have to find a financial basis to justify their development and implementation.

 

Certainly famous and important ephemera appear at auction and in dealer and library catalogues today because they are known to be important and/or valuable.

 

But until the rarity and value of the millions of random papers and printings that are stuffed in boxes and buried in attics worldwide, is established, there are millions of ephemera that will have to wait for their moment in the sun.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000

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