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Fonsie Mealy’s
Chatsworth Summer Fine Art Sale
18th June 2025Fonsie Mealy, June 18: William IV, c1830, oversized slope-top Rosewood Davenport Desk, Attributed to Gillows of Lancaster. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde.Fonsie Mealy, June 18: William IV, c1830, oversized slope-top Rosewood Davenport Desk, Attributed to Gillows of Lancaster. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde.Fonsie Mealy, June 18: William IV, c1830, oversized slope-top Rosewood Davenport Desk, Attributed to Gillows of Lancaster. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde.Fonsie Mealy, June 18: French Bateau Bed, exhibition piece from the Exposition Universelle—The Paris World’s Fair, 1878. Third quarter of the 19th century. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde. -
Bonhams, June 16-24: KELMSCOTT PRESS. RUSKIN. The Nature of Gothic. 1892. $1,500 - $2,500Bonhams, June 16-24: ASHENDENE PRESS. The Wisdom of Jesus. 1932. $2,000 - $3,000Bonhams, June 16-24: CHARLOTTE BRONTE WRITES AS GOVERNESS. Autograph Letter Signed, 1851. $15,000 - $25,000Bonhams, June 16-24: FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS. BRONTE, Emily. New York, 1848. $3,000 - $5,000Bonhams, June 16-24: IAN FLEMING ASSOCIATION COPY. You Only Live Twice. London, 1964. $7,000 - $9,000Bonhams, June 16-24: DELUXE EDITION WITH ORIGINAL PAINTING. BUKOWSKI, Charles. War All the Time. 1984. $3,000 - $5,000Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN'S MOST POWERFUL STATEMENT ON THE ATOMIC BOMB. Original Typed Manuscript Signed, "On My Participation in the Atom Bomb Project," 1953. $100,000 - $150,000Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN ON SCIENCE, WAR AND MORALITY. Autograph Letter Signed, 1949. $20,000 - $30,000Bonhams, June 16-24: SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. WASHINGTON, George. Engraved document signed, 1786. $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 16-24: AN EARLY CHINESE-MADE 34-STAR U.S. CONSULAR FLAG. $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 16-24: SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN WITH HIS SON TAD. 1864. $60,000 - $90,000Bonhams, June 16-24: MALCOLM X WRITES FROM KENYA. Postcard signed, 1964. $4,000 - $6,000
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Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 567. One of the Earliest & Most Desirable Printed Maps of Arabia - by Holle/Germanus (1482) Est. $55,000 - $65,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 681. Zatta's Complete Atlas with 218 Maps in Full Contemporary Color (1779) Est. $27,500 - $35,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 347. MacDonald Gill's Landmark "Wonderground Map" of London (1914) Est. $1,800 - $2,100Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 1. Fries' "Modern" World Map with Portraits of Five Kings (1525) Est. $4,000 - $4,750Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 539. Ortelius' Superb, Decorative Map of Cyprus in Full Contemporary Color (1573) Est. $1,100 - $1,400Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 51. Mercator's Foundation Map for the Americas in Full Contemporary Color (1630) Est. $3,250 - $4,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 667. Manuscript Bible Leaf with Image of Mary and Baby Jesus (1450) Est. $1,900 - $2,200Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 226. "A Powerful Example of Color Used to Make a Point" (1895) Est. $400 - $600Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 290. One of the Most Decorative Early Maps of South America - from Linschoten's "Itinerario" (1596) Est. $7,000 - $8,500Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 62. Coronelli's Influential Map of North America with the Island of California (1688) Est. $10,000 - $12,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 589. The First European-Printed Map of China - by Ortelius (1584) Est. $4,000 - $5,000
Rare Book Monthly
Cause Marketing: Increase Sales (and do a lot of good)
The next thing we did was to create discrete PayPal and eBay accounts for the agency. The PayPal account is linked directly to one of the agency's bank accounts. The eBay account is linked to the approved MissionFish account, listing the account as a "direct seller." This means that when the agency itself sells items on eBay virtually all the eBay fees are rebated. I set up my eBay account as a "community seller," i.e. someone selling on eBay who was going to direct part of her sales to the non-profit (This does have the additional advantage, by the way, of rebating to my company a percentage of eBay's fees whenever I set up a listing with a donation).
Next we set up a completely open and non-threatening trial run. We wanted to keep it simple so that we could see if there were any issues that needed to be addressed. I selected 5 items from our rare book collection and put them up on eBay, using the Sunday-to-Saturday cycle. Since my items were of particular interest to buyers in the United Kingdom, I made the end-time within the parameters of a British evening. I designated 10 to 25% to the non-profit for each listing.
In our first week, we sold $1,000 worth of material, and donated $150 to the agency. And we also received some warm and encouraging email. MissionFish automatically collects the donation from the vendor. Note that this takes a little time. I made the mistake of manually paying my agency the donation amount, but we had to reverse the transaction because MissionFish was going to duplicate it. At the same time, one of my colleagues at the agency, who had been selling odd items for them on eBay, was using the new accounts and non-profit status to more profitably do what she was doing.
With a successful experiment behind us, I designed a marketing plan to expand eBay sales. After a quick search on eBay's advanced search engine, I realized that there were thousands and thousands of both casual and extremely serious eBay vendors within 25 miles of our location. These are folks selling all manner of things, some for very high prices.
The marketing plan has multiple parts. The first thing I did was to identify the ways in which the agency could be driving sales to the listings benefiting it on eBay. eBay creates a unique "home page" for each charity on its site, with a logo and a mission statement. It lists all the auctions currently benefiting the charity. One can also designate key words (like "homeless", and "mortgage foreclosure") which can be searched, as well as the location and name of the agency.
In our case, we identified the agency's web site, email blasts and appeals routinely sent to existing and prospective donors, and the media, pointing people to the agency's home page on eBay. We are aiming for about $2500/week net to the agency in eBay sales, all in valuable unrestricted funds. And for our company's part, we are more than happy to be participants. This is a win for us, a win for the agency, and most importantly, a win for our community and our friends and neighbors in crisis.
For more information on cause marketing, I will be more than happy to answer questions with a modest donation to my agency, which helped over 7,000 local families last year, and served an unbelievable 43,800 meals.
Renée Roberts can be reached at renee@roses-books.com.