Rare Book Monthly
Hollywood, the land of [bad] dreams
Principia: $191,200 to an internet bidder
As to whether a disappointing LA fair predicts disappointment in New York, while it's not certain it appears that LA made a market bottom. Rare books are sold in many places in many ways and the auction data on AE during 2009 showed clearly that at auction the US bottomed well ahead of Europe and began its recovery sooner. The auction charts [link] turned positive this past December after auction results stabilized last summer. Just as North America and Europe have recovered on different schedules so too it's likely shows recover at different rates. Book selling occurs under a big tent. What happens in the first row and the back rows are probably almost light years apart. Certainly these channels do not move in lock step. That shows may lag the recovery is not entirely surprising. That the New York Book Fair may mark the return to health for book fairs should not surprise either. I believe it will.
That the market channels are evolving independently seems apparent from the three auctions held in LA during fair week. Heritage held two sales: February Rare Books in which 814 lots were offered and 662 sold for $1,750,371; and Historical Manuscripts in which 400 of 464 lots sold for $568,405. Bonhams on Sunday, the 14th sold 220 of 397 lots for $723,913. The Heritage sales were held ahead of the book fair when optimism was present. By Sunday, the mood turned sour and Bonhams faced a tougher audience.
For the New York Fairs in April it's important that dealers bring fresh material, specifically the out-of-the-ordinary and attractively priced. Collectors are ever better able to judge condition and price. They want the unusual, the special and the unique. If dealers bring that type of material they'll turn the show chart positive, something the field needs and collectors will be hoping.
As for LA, not everyone went home empty handed. Bill Reese reports that he and Jim Cummins bought 700 boxes of books and manuscripts, the remainder of the Copley Library that is to be sold by Sotheby's over the next two years.
Rare Book Monthly
-
Dominic Winter Auctioneers
Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles
1500-1800
22nd July 2026Dominic 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 2026Dominic 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 2026Dominic 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 2026Dominic 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 2ndCase 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 2ndCase 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 2ndCase 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.