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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
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ABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
abaa.org/vbfABAA VBF: Holiday EditionNovember 30-December 2
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Sotheby’s
Fine Books from a Distinguished Private Library
28 November 2023Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Captain Thomas Brown | Illustrations of the American ornithology. £80000-120000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: William Hamilton | Campi phlegraei. £40000-60000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Nicola Zabaglia and Domenico Fontana | Castelli, e ponti con alcune ingegnose pratiche. £6000-8000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Bible, German | Nuremberg: Koberger, 1483. £40000-60000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Bible, English | King James version. £8000-12000 -
Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Saint Jerome penitent, woodcut with contemporary hand-colouring and letterpress text beneath, [Augsburg], [Johann Froschauer], [c.1498]. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Elimithar (Elluchasem) "Ibn Butlan". Tacuini sanitatis, first edition, Strasbourg, Johann Schott, 1531. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: [Missale Romanum], Latin, Incipit ordo missalis secundum consuetudinem Curiae Romani, manuscript in Latin, on vellum, 234ff. [c. 1400]. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Foyle copy.- [Shakespeare (William)]. Macbeth. A Tragedy: With all the Alterations, Amendments, Additions, and New Songs. As it is now Acted at the Theatre Royal, for Hen. Herringman, 1687. £5,000 to £7,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Dickens (Charles). A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, first edition, first impression, first issue, Chapman & Hall, 1843. £12,000 to £18,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Lawrence (T.E.) Revolt in the Desert, working draft typescript, 1927. £10,000 to £15,000.Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Hampstead Bindery.- Phillips (Stephen). Marpessa, exquisitely bound by The Hampstead Bindery, almost certainly P.A. Savoldelli, 1900. £6,000 to £8,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Matisse (Henri).- Joyce (James). Ulysses, one of 1500 copies, this one of 250 signed by the author and artist, New York, The Limited Editions Club, 1935. £8,000 to £12,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Burroughs (Edgar Rice). Tarzan at the Earth's Core, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to his son, New York, 1930. £5,000 to £7,000.Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Fitzgerald (F. Scott). Tender is the Night, first edition, first printing, signed by the author, New York, 1934. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Fleming (Ian).- Hooks (Mitchell) and David Chasman. Dr. No, British film poster, Stafford & Co Ltd, [1962]. £10,000 to £15,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: America.- California.- Palou (Francisco). Relacion Historica de la Vida Y Apostolicas Tareas delVenerable Padre Fray Junipero Serra..., first edition, second issue, 1787. £6,000 to £8,000.
Rare Book Monthly
Book Descriptions: The Key To Reselling
By Bruce McKinney
Thousands of people collect books. The various book fairs around the country attract essentially local collectors and among the more than fifty serious book fairs each year in America there appear to be well over 100,000 people who visit them. Estimates of the total number of active book collectors run all the way to 200,000. Certainly the number of people who will collect if the hobby/avocation is more intelligently structured is even higher.
Let’s take a look back for a second. Historically book collecting has been a relatively small field, geared towards wealth, with collectors often more financially capable than knowledgeable. Such collectors relied upon their dealers for collecting advice as well as for the books that they acquired. If cost was an issue it wasn’t always apparent. The books were as often later given to institutions as they were resold. Such collecting was more about prestige than about economic sense.
In time, a generation of knowledgeable dealers and collectors evolved to embrace the emerging opportunities to understand and collect American history. With increasing interest in the details, book descriptions elaborated and book prices rose. And what for many had been a vanity hobby slowly developed into a solid intellectual pursuit. Year to year book prices tended to rise, fed by a scarcity that was both real and controlled. If a title suddenly became too common, dealers would sometimes withhold copies, often for years at a time.
And then the unexpected happened: in the 1990s the internet emerged as a new venue for people with books to display and sell their material. Small in scale at first, it has, as we all know, grown relentlessly. Today there are perhaps seventy-five times as many books for sale on the web as all the major dealers in the world together own. Today, control over the world of books has shifted to the net. With this shift to the net, collectors begin to have the opportunity to resell their books at attractive prices. To do so, they need to be able to convincingly describe their book collections. In many cases, the books they bought and seek to sell were well described initially. They will eventually be able to resell efficiently if they can use these written book descriptions. Thus the written book description becomes a necessary part of any rare or antiquarian book transaction. Which brings us to the issue at hand, these written book descriptions and their irreplaceable value in the book reselling process. Let’s start by taking a look at the formulaic “book description.”
By time honored practice, when a book dealer offers a book for sale he or she (for the purposes of brevity, we’ll use the male pronoun from hereon in) develops a written description to accompany the asking price. This is both his explanation and his justification for the price his book commands. This description is increasingly if unofficially divided into three parts. The first section contains basic details such as title, author, date printed, place published and a physical bibliographical