Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2008 Issue

From eBay to Christies in 81 Days

By Bruce McKinney UPDATE: December 5, 2008 The book described in this article sold at Christies in New York for $52,500. Michael Burnley is a Southern California Bookseller with a Beverly Hills business address, a penchant for research and the luck of Bishamon, the Japanese deity of good fortune. A few months back his diligence and luck paid off handsomely as he scanned eBay listings over a Saturday night and came across a rare book that included an even rarer map. This copy of "A Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage..." Hartford, 1783, the first American book on Hawaii, is...

Seven Million Books Later, the Dust Begins To Settle

By Michael Stillman The recent legal settlement between Google and book authors and publishers revealed a statistic that Google had previously kept close to its vest - just how many books have t...

Death Defying Success

By Bruce McKinney On November 19th in New York Bloombury sold the Jay T. Snider collection of Philadelphiana. The house, bidding to enter the rarified space of super-premium auction selling occ...

<i>In The News:</i> Shakespeare Good and Bad, Sales Tumble at Barnes & Noble

By Michael Stillman The man accused of stealing a Shakespeare First Folio from the Durham University Library (UK) was rearrested last month as a result of additional evidence gathered in the cas...

The Future of Bookselling

By Bruce McKinney Alice Through the Looking Glass The purchase and sale of rare and collectible books that has been, since the Gutenberg era always improving, now approaches the moment when p...

Interview with a Classic Bookman

By Karen Wright Ed Glaser is the owner of Edwin V. Glaser Rare Books in Napa, California. Ed has held a well-respected place in the book business for more than forty years. If I had a question...

Hollywood: No Laughing Matter

By Bruce McKinney For a few days in LA this month it is going to seem like Hollywood memorabilia is a dime a dozen. This is because it literally will be. The contents of the Collectors Book St...

Alibris Attempts to Encourage Collecting

By Michael Stillman Alibris announced the opening of a new section of their website designed to snare more buyers in what looks to be a difficult holiday shopping season. Alibris' primary busine...

The Bookseller's Dilemma: Dealing with the Listing Bottleneck

By Renée Magriel Roberts When the bookselling industry moved into virtual marketing and sales over the internet from a brick-and-mortar environment, a huge (and in some cases insurmountable) pro...

New England Book Auctions purchased by James Cummins

By Bruce McKinney James Cummins, the New York bookseller, has purchased New England Book Auctions of Sunderland, Massachusetts and will assume control on January 1st, 2009. For the five years tha...

What Happened to the American Discount?

By Michael Stillman These have been tough times for booksellers, American ones in particular. The advent of intense competition as a result of online listing sites and eBay has changed the face ...

16 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Sixteen new catalogues are featured in the Review section of AE Monthly for December. Very early works are featured in Leo Cadogan Rare Books' first catalogue, and in the latest from Samuel Gedge R...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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