By Bruce McKinney
One hundred and forty souls traveled to New York to eat spinach and listen to a succession of speakers assembled by the Grolier Club of New York to discuss "Books in Hard Times." Seats were hard to obtain. The Grolier is a walled garden, pretty on the inside and difficult to penetrate. They have over the years provided discussions and forums on important matters pertaining to the world of books, manuscripts and ephemera. This conference is in keeping with that tradition.
For an account of the proceedings I rely primarily on Jeremy Dibbell [pronounced de Bell with...
By Michael Stillman
Has the time come for a parting of the ways? Is it time for libraries and books, embattled institutions, each struggling for relevance and survival in a technologically accel...
By Bruce McKinney
Look out upon the fields of book, manuscript and ephemera collecting and from a distance you can see generations of amber waves of grain, a seamless continuum extending in memo...
By Michael Stillman
The settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers that would allow the internet giant to make the text of out-of-print books available to the publi...
By Bruce McKinney
In the course of book collecting over a lifetime broken into parts, growing up, work and business development, two decades overseas, a thirty-two year marriage, children and se...
By Karen Wright
I probably shouldn't tell you about this; there were too many people there as it was, but here goes, anyway. We were getting itchy feet last month and decided we needed a couple...
By Michael Stillman
BookFinder.com has issued its annual lists of the most sought after out-of-print books. The times they are a-changin'. A lot has happened since last year's lists were compile...
By Bruce McKinney
Book collecting is a difficult undertaking that requires luck, determination and perseverance and then only occasionally achieves success sufficient to warrant enduring approba...
By Michael Stillman
There is a strange case from the Denver Library, and some interesting exhibitions In The News this month. It's been a tough time for the Denver Public Library lately. The cit...
By Bruce McKinney
A look at the titles of the most recent book, manuscript and ephemera sales indicates the increasing presence of prints, drawings, maps and decorative illustrations in sales th...
By Michael Stillman
A little while back, we reviewed the wonderful new autograph guide published by autograph dealer The Raab Collection (click here). Among the reams of information provided by ...
By Michael Stillman
There is a most useful, at times jaw-dropping series of books out today with the title Eat This Not That, by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding. I will not attempt to review t...
This month we review 13 new bookseller catalogues. They're a varied lot. Maggs Bros. and the William Reese Co. are focused on voyages and travel. Helen R. Kahn and Associates offer books pertaining...
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.
