Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2007 Issue

The AE Bookseller's Comet: Holidays Ideas on Paper

They arrive occasionally and make a big impression.

They arrive occasionally and make a big impression.


By Bruce McKinney

The magic of the printed word is on display this holiday season in the personal selections of a group of our Books for Sale listing members. These are their ideas of what is interesting, compelling and particularly worthwhile. They own between themselves hundreds of thousands of volumes. In this presentation they suggest one hundred.

We present this material in a form we expect to continue to use so we are giving it a name. We call it The AE Bookseller's Comet because it will appear from time to time. It will provide a focus and catalyst for combining selections of the printed word and image with events, subjects, types of publication, price range and certainly other parameters yet unnamed or considered. Listing members may freely participate subject only to the constraints of subject and whatever rules develop.

In this, the first effort, there is material of virtually every type but the common denominator is personal appreciation. Every person involved with books has volumes they value above all others, not necessarily because they command high prices. It can be a signed copy, a precious copy, a rare copy or simply any copy of a book that has made a difference. After all, all books and all copies of them are not the same. If you don't believe it consider the range of material that emerges here from a request to listing members for their thoughts and ideas. Even a comet does not range as far.

Click On AE Bookseller's Comet to take a step into a world of interesting possibilities!

Best wishes for the holidays!

Rare Book Monthly

  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles
    1500-1800
    22nd July 2026
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 83 – Westall & Owen. Picturesque Tour of the River Thames, 1st edition, 1828. £2,000-3,000.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 88 – Blume. Rumphia, Botanicae de plantis Indiae Orientalis, 1835-1848. £2,000-3,000.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 101 – Michaux. Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale, 1810-1812. £700-1,000.
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles
    1500-1800
    22nd July 2026
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 102 – Miller & Shaw. Cimelia Physica, 1796 [but c. 1816]. £3,000-5,000.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 104 – Parkinson. Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants, London: Thomas Cotes, 1640. £800-1,200.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 159 – Plancius. Orbis Terrarum..., double hemisphere map, 1594-99. £5,000-8,000.
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles
    1500-1800
    22nd July 2026
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 217 – Illuminated Medieval Manuscript. From a Breviary, 14th/15th c. £3,000-4,000.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 224 – The newe Testament … By Wylliam Tyndall…, 1549. £3,000-5,000.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 238 – Douay-Rheims Bible. 3 volumes, 1582/1609/1610. £7,000-10,000.
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles
    1500-1800
    22nd July 2026
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 336 – Ashendene Press. A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle, 1903. £1,000-1,500.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 393 – Sassoon. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, signed limited edition, 1931. £800-1,200.
    Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 402 – Dylan Thomas. Twenty-Five Poems, 1st edition in d.j., 1936. £400-600.
  • Case Auctions
    2026 Summer Auction
    August 1st and 2nd
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Timberlake, Henry: A DRAUGHT OF THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY on the West Side of the Twenty Four Mountains, Commonly Called "Over the Hills". $18,000 to $22,000.
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Manuscript orderly book detailing day to day activities of multiple Virginia regiments in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary,1776-1777. $7,000 to $8,000.
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, Random House, New York, 1965. Signed 1st Edition. $3,800 to $4,200.
    Case Auctions
    2026 Summer Auction
    August 1st and 2nd
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Battle of Kings Mountain Pamphlet by Isaac Shelby, April 1823, Signed. $1,800 to $2,200.
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Large Tintype CSA Lt. Col. Thomas Coke Johnson, 19th GA, w/ Southern Cross, Book. $1,400 to $1,800.
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Rare Civil War Ambrotype, 19th GA Infantry with Johnson Family of GA. $800 to $1,200.
    Case Auctions
    2026 Summer Auction
    August 1st and 2nd
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: A signed note written by Thomas Alva Edison to an unknown recipient, in which he shares his thoughts on Guglielmo Marconi, regarded as the inventor of the radio. $800 to $1,200.
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Rare 1931 TN Grasslands Steeplechase Book, Gallatin. $800 to $1,000.
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: War of 1812 related Broadside, Petersburg Volunteers. $700 to $800.
    Case Antiques, Aug. 1: 2 World War I Posters, “Our Colored Fighters” and “No Slacker”. $800 to $1,000.

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