Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2009 Issue

Perspective on Books and the Net

Perspective on Books and the Net

By Bruce McKinney These days the world of collectible books is a warren of categories - on line listings, shops on Main Street, catalogues on line and through the mail, presentations at trade shows, and auctions, both traditional and eBay. These categories function independently. They sell to different customers - dividing the world of rare and collectible books into a mosaic of hundreds if not thousands of pieces. The scale of the venues for old and collectible books is exponentially increasing, the number of dealers, number of books, the number of auction houses and sales all incr...

W. Graham Arader: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

W. Graham Arader: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

By Bruce McKinney On June 19th the most recent and certainly not final chapter of the Graham Arader story was written in the auction rooms at Sotheby's, as they conducted a 202 lot sale of selec...

<i>In The News:</i>  Crime and Lawsuits

<i>In The News:</i> Crime and Lawsuits

By Michael Stillman A couple of the more notable cases involving books and bookselling have been delayed or deleted. The case of Raymond Scott, of Durham, England, was postponed until August whe...

Google Books:  A Tool for Book Collectors

Google Books: A Tool for Book Collectors

By Bruce McKinney I'm using Google Books to identify additional early [or old if you prefer] material for the Rondout Kingston Wiki Bibliography that I'm building on AE. The subject and purpos...

Browsers as Servers:  Is Change Coming to Bookselling?

Browsers as Servers: Is Change Coming to Bookselling?

By Michael Stillman Opera, the somewhat obscure Norwegian internet browser and software designer, recently announced the development of a browser that also lets your computer function as a serve...

$5-$10 Million Cache of Books and Other Antiquities, Found in Small Chicago Home, Returned to Italy

$5-$10 Million Cache of Books and Other Antiquities, Found in Small Chicago Home, Returned to Italy

By Michael Stillman What the FBI has described as a "literal treasure trove of artifacts," 1,600 relics including over 1,000 books and manuscripts, has been returned to Italy. The collection was...

Bibliopolis and Bookhound - Birds of a Feather

Bibliopolis and Bookhound - Birds of a Feather

By Karen Wright I had been trying to download my antiquated Access book inventory to Bookhound 7c through Biblio.com off and on for months. Bibliopolis, creators of Bookhound, allows the bookse...

Auction Updates:  By email every Sunday night

Auction Updates: By email every Sunday night

By Bruce McKinney Every 18 hours, more or less, a documented traditional auction completes somewhere in the world. The sale may be in North America, Europe, Central America or Australia; in New...

Long Missing Lincoln Letter Returns Home

Long Missing Lincoln Letter Returns Home

By Michael Stillman An interesting Lincoln letter, missing from the National Archives for many decades, perhaps longer, made its way home recently, a gift from a collector who purchased it from ...

Great Gatsby! There is a Light for Collectible Books

Great Gatsby! There is a Light for Collectible Books

By Michael Stillman This has been a tough year for the book trade. Our own figures, gathered from auction results around the world, indicate a drop of 30%-plus in prices since the peak a little ...

Exploiting Marketable Skills - The Bookseller as Knowledge Manager

Exploiting Marketable Skills - The Bookseller as Knowledge Manager

By Renée Magriel Roberts I can't seem to make the same dinner twice. Can't do it. I know that homemaker skills may have traditionally had the pot roast night or the fish night, with well-honed r...

An Update on Summer Possibilities

An Update on Summer Possibilities

By Bruce McKinney We now live in the internet age. This is the same age that just ten years ago was called the television age, which wrested the title from the "age of print" in the 1960s. The...

Now Available:  The Book All Collectors of L. Frank Baum and Oz Must Have

Now Available: The Book All Collectors of L. Frank Baum and Oz Must Have

By Michael Stillman A book has been published that is an absolute must for anyone who collects L. Frank Baum, the Oz books, or anything closely related. The title is The Book Collector's Guide t...

19 New Catalogues Up for Review

19 New Catalogues Up for Review

This month, we review 19 new bookseller catalogues. Literature is the focus of the William Reese Company, while James Pepper Rare Books features literature and film, James Cummins Bookseller litera...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026
    25 March 2026
    Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Andrews (H.C.) Coloured Engravings of Heaths, 4 vol. in 2, first edition, [1710,--94]-1802-1809-[1830]. £10,000 - £15,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- Cramer (Pierre) and Caspar Stoll. De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie Waereld-Deelen…,, 5 vol., Amsterdam & Utrecht, 1779-91. £8,000 - £12,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Voyages.- Darwin (Charles) and others. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, 3 vol. in 4, including Appendix to vol.2, first edition, 1839. £8,000 - £12,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- de Graaf (Willem Diederik Vincent). [Inlandsche Kapellen in beeld], 170 fine original watercolours, [Enkhuizen], [1800-40]. £8,000 - £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026
    25 March 2026
    Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Dresser (Henry Eeles). A History of the Birds of Europe, 9 vol., including supplement, first edition, by the author, 1871-96. £6,000 - £8,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Zoology.- Felines.- Elliot (Daniel Giraud). A Monograph of the Felidæ or Family of the Cats, first edition, for the Subscribers, by the Author, [1878]-1883. £25,000 - £30,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Frisch (Johann Leonard). Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes, 2 vol., first edition, Berlin, Friedr. Wilhelm Birnsteil, [1736]-1763. £40,000 - £60,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Gould (John). The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., first edition, by the author, 1862-1873. £30,000 - £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026
    25 March 2026
    Forum, Mar. 25: Pomology.- France.- Poiteau (A.) Pomologie Française. Recueil des Plus Beaux Fruits cultivés en France, 4 vol., Paris, 1846. £30,000 - £40,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- [Robin (Jean)]. Histoire des Plantes, nouvellement trouvées en l'Isle Virgine…,, 1620; with Geoffrey Linocier L'Histoire des plantes, second edition, 1619-20. £3,000 - £4,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Japan.- Siebold (P.F. von). Nippon. Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan, 7 parts in 6 vol., first edition, Leyden, [1832]-1852. £35,000 - £45,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Valentijn (Francois). Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën..., 5 vol. in 8, first edition, Dordrecht [&] Amsterdam, 1724-26. £8,000 - £12,000.
    Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Australia.- Redouté (P.J.).- Ventenat (Étienne Pierre). Jardin de la Malmaison, 2 vol.,, Paris, 1803-04[-05]. £30,000 - £40,000.
  • ALDE, Mar. 11: AUGUSTIN (Saint). De civitate Dei. Rome, Konrad Sweynheym et Arnold Pannartz, 1470. €20,000 - €30,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: [REGNART (LE LIVRE DE)]. [Le] Docteur en malice, maistre Regnard, demonstrant les ruzes et cautelles qu'il use envers les personnes… Rouen, 1550. €20,000 - €30,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: TRITHÈME (JEAN). Polygraphie et universelle escriture cabalistique. Paris, [Benoît Prévost pour] Jacques Kerver, 1561. €8,000 - €10,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: CAUS (SALOMON DE). La Perspective, avec la raison des ombres et des miroirs. Londres, John Norton, 1612.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: NICERON (JEAN-FRANÇOIS). La Perspective curieuse ou magie artificielle des effets merveilleux de l'optique. Paris, Pierre Billaine, 1638. €6,000 - €8,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: VONTET (JACQUES). L’Art de trancher la viande et toute sorte de fruits… S.l.n.d. [probablement Lyon, vers 1647]. €20,000 - €30,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: HUGO (VICTOR). [Paysage spectral avec une église], [vers 1837]. €20,000 - €30,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: [HERVEY DE SAINT-DENYS (LÉON D')]. Les Rêves et les Moyens de les diriger. Observations pratiques. Paris, Amyot, 1867. €3,000 - €4,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: GACHET (PAUL-FERDINAND). Les Chats de Gachet (Manuscrit). S.d. [avant mai 1873]. €6,000 - €8,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: [REDON (ODILON)]. PICARD (EDMOND). Le Juré. Monodrame en cinq actes… Bruxelles, Mme veuve Monnom, 1887. €7,000 - €9,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: [TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (HENRI DE) ET HENRI-GABRIEL IBELS]. MONTORGUEIL (GEORGES). Le Café-concert. Paris, [1893]. €4,000 - €5,000.
    ALDE, Mar. 11: [TERRY (EMILIO)]. Projet de fontaine. Dessin original au stylo et à l'encre noire. 1938. €2,000 - €3,000.
  • Chiswick Auctions
    Books & Works on Paper
    12th March 2026
    Chiswick, Mar. 12: Churchill: The World in Crisis. Inscribed in 4 vols. 1923-31. £18,000 - £22,000.
    Chiswick, Mar. 12: Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Inscribed. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Chiswick, Mar. 12: Ponting. Polar Photographs (2) 1910-11. £3,000 - £4,000.
    Chiswick, Mar. 12: Gray [Artist.] India. Album 40 original drawings. 1858 - 1862. £2,000 - £3,000.
    Chiswick, Mar. 12: Lane’s Celestial Globe, 1811. £600 - £800.

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