He encourages visits by appointment and stresses that there is no obligation to purchase. The material is highly organized, divided by subject and category. His collections sit cheek and jowl among priced material but do not compete for the buyer's attention. They simply illustrate his skill and interest. Estimates of the volume of material range from 40,000 to 50,000 items including 6,000 books, 2,000 to 3,000 pamphlets, 5,000 pieces of ephemera, 2,000 maps, several thousand coins and more than 25,000 philatelic covers, mainly printed envelopes and letters from the 1840-1900 period. If you visit you'll be busy browsing. Only 4,000 items are online. You can spend a day here looking at reasonably priced material that no one ever sees.
The stock divides 75-25 between North America and Europe, is primarily non-fiction, virtually all of it antique, in the categories of travel, cartography, reference, history, and science.
Taken together, these three dealers suggest a world of collecting the internet only hints at. It turns out the net is robust but not remotely complete. Books are best represented. For maps, pamphlets, letters and ephemera the internet is still inadequate to the challenge. For these materials you need to travel. If you do, you will be rewarded.
Separately I have prepared a story about the two Boston book fairs. It appears elsewhere in this issue of AE Monthly under the title Affairs of the Heart.
Argosy Books
116 East 59th Street
New York, New York 10022
Hours: M-F 10-6:00, Sat 10-5:00
Telephone: 212 753-4455
Email: gallery@argosybooks.com
Website: www.argosybooks.com
J & J Hanrahans
Joyce & Jack Hanrahan
Wells, Maine
By Appointment
Telephone: 207 646-1811
Email: hanrahan@maine.rr.com
Eveleigh Books and Stamps
Leigh Stein
Dover, Massachuetts
By Appointment
Telephone: 508 785-0931
Email: estein300@aol.com
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. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<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.")
