By Bruce McKinney
We are going to learn a great deal over the next few months about the tone and direction of the increasingly separate iconic and traditional rare book, manuscript and ephemera markets. They have been moving in diverging for some time. Great examples of rare and unique items have been selling for substantial prices while no less rare but less known and less coveted material has gone unsold or brought lower than expected prices. As the market has become increasingly transparent the many now see what the few have long known and it is changing what people buy and how muc...
By Michael Stillman
A significant piece of legislation designed to regulate auctions is working its way through the New York State legislature. While what happens in one out of 50 states in one ...
By Susan Halas
As book values slide and taste changes, boomers age, and new technologies play an ever larger role in the book trade - dealers and collectors increasingly ponder their exit stra...
By Tom McKinney
The Internet contains all sorts of mechanisms that allow collectors and book dealers to find each other, and enrichen their book-related worlds. Facebook has finally reached a sa...
By Bruce McKinney
Frederick Copley, water colorist [1828-1905]
Note: I acquired a portfolio of his watercolors and sketches in February,2010. Many examples are now accessible in a Wiki Bibl...
By Michael Stillman
The library of a bizarrely, and not always legally, acquired collection of books, ephemera and art was sold at Leslie Hindman's Auction in Chicago on March 16. FBI investigat...
By Karen Wright
Our latest trip to the southern regions of the U.S. was prompted by an urge to eat boudin and hear some Cajun music. We had some tickets on Southwest that we had to use as well,...
By Bruce McKinney
Book Fairs are important but have for years been losing ground to the internet and an aging audience. An option for revitalizing shows is available to show promoters: require...
By Tom McKinney
Last month, I wrote a bit about the development of a thing called the Attention Age, an offshoot of the greater Information Era. In reading my piece before last month's AE Monthl...
By Michael Stillman
A 52-year-old Michigan man has been arrested in one of the more unusual cases of library book theft in recent memory. Ypsilanti police say the man entered the local public li...
By Michael Stillman
The 32nd annual Antiquarian Book Seminar is scheduled for August 8-13, 2010, at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. This seminar carries a reputation as one of the best pla...
This month we review 13 new catalogues from booksellers. Western Americana is the feature of catalogues from Back of Beyond Books and Gene Baade, Bookseller. David Lesser Antiquarian Books offers A...
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.
