Rare Book Monthly Articles - September - 2008 Issue

Phillip Gennuso Purchases Zobel Inventory

Phillip Gennuso Purchases Zobel Inventory

By Bruce McKinney The remaining general stock of Zobel Book Service was recently sold to the Phillip Gennuso Book Company of Cornwall, New York. The company is located at 246 Main Street. The number of books included in the sale has been estimated at between 40,000 and 90,000 volumes. The material has, for decades, been stored in the Zobel's bookbarn, double-shelved on planks extending ten feet into the air. Because of the large quantity of shelves no one is quite sure of the exact number of books. Mr. Gennuso estimates it as north of 50,000. The price was $3,250 and the material ...

The Zobel Inventory Sold on Craig's List - A Perspective

The Zobel Inventory Sold on Craig's List - A Perspective

By Bruce McKinney More than a year ago I heard from Miriam Zobel of the Zobel Book Service that she had some books to sell. I did not initially know that she lives in upstate New York in Clinto...

Posting to Craig's List

Posting to Craig's List

By Tom McKinneyCraigslist is a free website that provides a collection of online resources including classified ads and discussion forums. In this article we'll be going over how to take advantage ...

eBay Slashes Fixed Price Listing Fees...<i>But Why?</i>

eBay Slashes Fixed Price Listing Fees...<i>But Why?</i>

By Michael Stillman Ebay has announced that it is slashing its charges, effective September 16, on fixed price listings. These are no small adjustments. In an August 20 posting on the eBay site,...

Book Collectors to See Stars

Book Collectors to See Stars

By Bruce McKinney If you are a movie buff or simply like movie stars in the buff I know where you'll be in early December - at the auction, close-out and house cleaning of the Collector's Bookst...

Amazon Purchases AbeBooks... The Book Community Yawns

Amazon Purchases AbeBooks... The Book Community Yawns

By Michael Stillman It was like the giant Sequoia tree which fell in the forest. No one knows whether it made a great sound because no one really cared enough to pay attention. A month ago, in w...

Bookselling: Making it Personal

Bookselling: Making it Personal

By Renée Magriel Roberts It is Tuesday morning and we have just finished printing up today's orders. Like most days, it is a mix of foreign and domestic orders. We have one book going out to a c...

A Traditional Cataloguer in Search of the New Collector

A Traditional Cataloguer in Search of the New Collector

By Bruce McKinney Thomas, Tom, Cullen, the upstate New York bookseller doing business as the Rockland Bookman in Orchard Park, has issued an interesting catalogue in both traditional and electro...

Bookseller Heaven; or The Thirtieth Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar

Bookseller Heaven; or The Thirtieth Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar

By Karen Wright When I wrote an essay about why I should be awarded a scholarship to the Thirtieth Annual Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, way back last winter, I didn't really expect to get i...

Pierre Beres, Legendary French Bookseller, Dies at 95

Pierre Beres, Legendary French Bookseller, Dies at 95

By Michael Stillman One of the giants of the 20th century book trade died on July 28 in Paris. Pierre Beres was a bookseller and collector for the latter 75 years of the 20th century, and the so...

History on the Cheap

History on the Cheap

By Bruce McKinney Recently I searched Google for information about a book I purchased this past month - "A History of the Minisink Region" by Charles E. Stickney. It's the gift to posterity of...

BookFinder Announces the Most Sought After Books of the Year

BookFinder Announces the Most Sought After Books of the Year

By Michael Stillman Bookfinder.com recently released its fifth annual report of the most sought after old books on its book searching website. BookFinder's Top 10 reports are fascinating as the ...

The Civil War as Collecting Focus

The Civil War as Collecting Focus

By Bruce McKinney This month's issue of the Comet focuses on the American Civil War and by extension, all other such wars that are always occuring and seem to have always been occuring. The Civ...

11 New Catalogues Up For Review

11 New Catalogues Up For Review

Eleven new booksellers' catalogues are considered in this month's AE Reviews. Science, medicine, and natural history are the focus of BL Rootenberg Rare Books. Navigation and travel manuscripts are...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: HAMILTON, Sir William (1730-1803) - Campi Phlegraei. Napoli: [Pietro Fabris], 1776, 1779. € 30.000 - 50.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [MORTIER] - BLAEU, Joannes (1596-1673) - Het Nieuw Stede Boek van Italie. Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1704-1705. € 15.000 - 25.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: TULLIO D'ALBISOLA (1899-1971) - Bruno MUNARI (1907-1998) - L'Anguria lirica (lungo poema passionale). Roma e Savona: Edizioni Futuriste di Poesia, senza data [ma 1933?]. € 20.000 - 30.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: IL MANOSCRITTO RITROVATO DI IPPOLITA MARIA SFORZA. TITO LIVIO - Ab Urbe Condita. Prima Decade. Manoscritto miniato su pergamena, metà XV secolo. € 280.000 - 350.000
  • Sotheby's Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Balthus, Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights, New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1993. 6,600 USD.
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. Complete Works, Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott Company & Chapman & Hall, LD, 1850. Limited Edition set of 30 volumes. 7,500 USD.
    Sotheby’s: John Lennon, Yoko Ono. Handwritten Letter from John Lennon and Yoko Ono to their Chauffer. 1971. 32,500 USD.
    Sotheby’s: Winston Churchill. First edition of War Speeches, Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1941. Set of 7 volumes. 5,500 USD.
    Sotheby’s: Andy Warhol, Julia Warhola. Holy Cats First Edition, Signed by Andy Warhol. 1954. 30,000 USD.
  • Forum Auctions
    Online: India
    Ends 19th February 2026
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 40
    Ramasvami (Kavali Venkata). A Digest of the Different Castes of India, 83 charming hand-coloured lithographed plates, Madras, 1837. £5,000-7,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 50
    Watson (John Forbes) & John William Kaye. The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations...of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan, 8 vol., 480 mounted albumen prints, 1868-75. £4,000-6,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 53
    Afghanistan.- Elphinstone (Hon. Mountstuart). An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, first edition, hand-coloured aquatint plates, a fine copy, 1815. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 57
    [Album and Treatise on Hinduism], manuscript treatise on Hinduism in French, 31 watercolours of Hindu deities, Pondicherry, 1865. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 62 Allan (Capt. Alexander). Views in the Mysore Country, [1794]. £2,000-3,000
    Forum Auctions
    Online: India
    Ends 19th February 2026
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 76
    Bird (James). Historical Researches on the Origin and Principles of the Bauddha and Jaina Religions..., first edition, lithographed plates, Bombay, American Mission Press, 1847. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 100
    Ceylon.- Daniell (Samuel). A Picturesque Illustration of the scenery, animals, and native inhabitants, of the Island of Ceylon: in twelve plates, 1808. £5,000-7,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 123
    D'Oyly (Charles). Behar Amateur Lithographic Scrap Book, lithographed throughout with title and 55 plates mounted on 43 paper leaves, [Patna], [1828]. £3,000-5,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 139
    Gandhi (known as Mahatma Gandhi,) Fine Autograph Letter signed to Jawaharlal Nehru, Sevagram, Wardha, 1942, emphasising the importance of education in rural communities. £10,000-15,000
    Forum Auctions
    Online: India
    Ends 19th February 2026
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 140
    Gantz (John). Indian Microcosm, first edition, Madras, John Gantz & Son, 1827. £10,000-15,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 146
    Grierson (Sir George Abraham). Linguistic Survey of India, 11 vol. in 20, folding maps, original cloth, Calcutta, Superintendent Government Printing, 1903-28. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 195
    Madras.- Fort St. George Gazette (The), No.276-331, pp.493-936 and Index to all of 1834 at end, modern half calf, Madras, 2nd July - 31st December 1834. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 205
    Marshall (Sir John) and Alfred Foucher. The Monuments of Sanchi, 3 vol., first edition, 141 plates, most photogravure, [Calcutta], [1940]. £3,000-4,000

Article Search

Archived Articles