Recently I asked Mr. Barlow what he is collecting today and true to form he is leaning into the future collecting in many ways many things. He continues to pursue Baskerville imprints in the traditional way: through dealers who know the material only half as well as he but know he is a motivated buyer. He also collects stamps and the more esoteric substrata - machine cancels. On eBay he collects Duncan Hines, the salesman turned food critic, who through his books became an authority on quality food. Mr. Hines published four categories of books, each distinguishable by their colors -- red, blue, green and yellow to the cognoscenti and Adventures in Good Eating [restaurants], Lodging for a Night [accomodations], Vacation Guide [Good Places to Spend an Enjoyable Vacation] and Adventures in Good Cooking [cookbooks] to the uninitiated. It is the perfect eBay project --material widely distributed that bubbles to the surface every day. As we speak there are 264 Duncan Hines lots available. No doubt Mr. Barlow knows this material better than Duncan did.
He also collects the post cards of restaurants whose post card mug shots are part of the collecting world of Duncan Hines. He has a meaningful collection of the 10,000 or so issued between 1936 and 1962. He also acquires the printed menus of these restaurants and their "top marked" china when he finds it.
In support of his Baskerville collection he has collected book auction catalogues. He has about 30,000, his American sales very complete back to 1900 and reasonably complete from there to 1850. He uses them to track appearances, the denier of his collecting twill apparent in these numbers and approach.
He has also collected honors. In 1989 he received the Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting and in 2004 the Hubert Howe Bancroft Award. He is currently president of the Machine Cancel Society, honorary consultant to the American Antiquarian Society, past Council member of the Grolier Club and past president of the Bibliographical Society of America and the Book Club of California. During summers he teaches at the Rare Book School.
He tells the story of tracking down Hines signs to a place back east where they all were sent to die, each of them leased, not owned by restaurants and always required to be returned. They are today the rarissima of this particular obsession so if Mr. Barlow disappears for a few days to points unknown the chances are good he's discovered these dinosaur bones in some old warehouse and, hard hat on tight, is stepping through debris, brushing away dirt hoping to be able to then say "Yes, I think that's one. I'd like to buy it."
In San Francisco it's now 2:00 pm and the postman and UPS drivers have come and gone. A few packages, the day's arrivals, wait quietly their cues to trundle into view. For a few moments they are the prize, the day's communion wafers of postcards, menus, stamps, cancels and books. For tomorrow to be blessed these delivery men must again return and chances are they will.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
