By Bruce McKinney
Building the American Exchange website has been like building a tire. For it to be effective it has to be complete. A portion of the tread may be interesting but it takes a very imaginative person to see what a portion of the tread can portend. This month, with the introduction of Æ MatchMaker we place the hub, wheel, tire and spokes all in their appropriate place and sequence so that members may see and understand what we are really getting at: a complete and integrated group of services for the Americana field.
The piece we introduce this month, MatchMaker,...
By Michael Stillman
This marks the third month of the Americana Exchange’s “The Collaborative Project,” (TCP for short) and this time we have focused on providing a “how-to” guide. The Collab...
Subject
Searching by subject is handy if you want to know the exact subject heading a library is going to use. For example, if I wanted to find a subject term, I could look up the title, New No...
By Bruce McKinney
So this is day one in the new world of book collecting. It doesn’t seem to be much different to me. I like to collect books. I did before and I do now. So what exactly is...
Next up we find Ross Cox’s 1831 Adventures on the Columbia River…. Cox was a fur-trader who traveled to Oregon in 1812 and back in 1817. His is another first-hand account of travels to Oregon befor...
It’s certainly a better deal than the $50 copy that I see which is described as having “a few ink spots and slight discoloration on the cover” – nothing special when I can get an inscribed copy for...
By Abby Tallmer
Let’s face it: New York City has always been a booklover’s kind of town. From its founding, New York, and specifically Manhattan, has served as a center of cultural literacy ...
By Mike Stillman
This month we present our fourth installment of “The Collaborative Project.” Four associates of the Americana Exchange write about their experiences researching old books and ...
By Abby Tallmer
For this installation of my TCP article, I have decided to explore how and why I can use the “Non-
ÆD Wants” function in MatchMaker to add to my cumulative MatchMaker lists....
By Michael Stillman
In a long ago time, great stretches of what is now the United States of America were under French influence. Not a lot of influence, mind you. Europeans were scarce in this t...
By Bruce McKinney
A month ago MatchMaker was introduced as a new service on the
Æ.
MatchMaker currently allows
Æ Database members to select up to 250 items from among the 385,000 record...
But there aren’t going to be so many incorrect matches. In the Americana field there are currently about 12,000 lots annually. Of course there are many more books because about half of all auctio...
Here’s a brief snapshot from the same auction catalogue introduction as to Mr. Murphy’s bibliophile collection(s) and his interest(s): ….[in adition to being a published author and one mentioned b...
Virtually all Zubal customers visit electronically rather than in person. On any given day several hundred thousand books are for sale. That makes its active inventory about three times the size ...
ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections Open for Bidding 2-17 April
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.