Rare Book Monthly Articles - April - 2011 Issue

On the Road to Damascus

On the Road to Damascus

For someone who will visit a book fair it may be an act of premeditation or whim.  Plans will be made and unmade, commitments adjusted, weather and health considered.  Some collectors will fly across the country and others take a subway.  Once inside the Park Avenue Armory at 67th in New York they will become part of a sprawling mass of enthusiasms that leap to life as thousands of the faithful and addicted make their way in.  For collectors the New York Antiquarian Book Fair is a measure of their year.  Made money, sold some investments?  The fair is a place to reap tangible rewards conver...

Auctions in New York in April

Auctions in New York in April

A cottage industry of Newport Mansions has grown up around the ABAA Book Fair in New York over the past twenty years.  The leading dealers, collectors and institutions come together in April for a ...

AbeBooks Purchases ZVAB/Choosebooks

AbeBooks Purchases ZVAB/Choosebooks

A major combination, and contraction in terms of the number of companies engaged in the book listing business, occurred on March 2 when AbeBooks announced that its European division had purchased G...

Two Generations in the Book Trade - Looking back with the dealer’s daughter

Two Generations in the Book Trade - Looking back with the dealer’s daughter

Part I – Eighty Years and Counting On April 1, 2011, perhaps just as you are clicking on this file, I will celebrate my 32nd year as antiquarian dealer based on Maui. It was not my original goal ...

eBay:  Innocents Abroad

eBay:  Innocents Abroad

A recent article in Kingston, New York’s daily newspaper, the Freeman about an early [1777] copy of the New York State Constitution offered on eBay ignited the passions of members of the Ulster Cou...

Court Strikes Down Google Settlement and Part of Google Books

Court Strikes Down Google Settlement and Part of Google Books

"The benefits of Google's book project are many.  Books will become more accessible. Libraries, schools, researchers, and disadvantaged populations will gain access to far more books. Digitization ...

Let the Bunting unfurl  in April:  an auction for charity

Let the Bunting unfurl  in April:  an auction for charity

On April 20th, in Los Angeles and New York, the collections Charles Williamson and Tucker Fleming go up for bid.  Mr. Williamson was a long time PADA member and sometime actor.  Anyone who has ever...

My Account:  Here's Your Scoreboard for AE Services

My Account:  Here's Your Scoreboard for AE Services

This month we are going to take a look at your "My Account" page here at AE. Everyone is entitled to one. Access comes by signing up for any level of membership, including free, and then logging in...

Old Guides as Maps to the Future

Old Guides as Maps to the Future

Ten years ago, David Gerstel of Montreal, Canada, a long time collector of travels and voyages, searching for a less costly collecting opportunity began to collect American Stranger’s Guides, books...

Books and Libraries:  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Books and Libraries:  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

These are apocalyptic times in the book and library world as we know them. The year 2000 may not have been the beginning of end of the world for humanity, but for the book and library world, in hin...

Sixteen Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Sixteen Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review 16 catalogues in Section Two of AE Monthly. Peter Harrington offers 75 important works. Pages of Yesteryear has some uncommon items, Garrett Scott, Bookseller, unusual ones. Jo...

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.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th March 2026
    Forum, Mar. 26: Book of Hours.- Heures a lusaige de Romme, printed on vellum, with 14 full-page illuminated miniatures, Paris, N. Higman for J. de Brie, [c.1521]. £20,000-30,000
    Forum, Mar. 26: France.- Book of Hours, perhaps Use of the Abbey of Saint-Gildas de Rhuys, with thirteen miniatures surviving from an original cycle of at least twenty, [c. 1430]. £15,000-20,000
    Forum, Mar. 26: Milton (John). Paradise lost. A Poem in Ten Books, first edition, Pforzheimer's sixth state, S. Simmons, 1669. £8,000-12,000
    Forum, Mar. 26: Blake (William). Illustrations of the Book of Job, one of 215 first issue "Proof" copies, this one of 65 copies on "French" paper, Published by the Author, March 8, 1825 [but March, 1826]. £15,000-20,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th March 2026
    Forum, Mar. 26: Christie (Agatha). The ABC Murders, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £15,000-20,000
    Forum, Mar. 26: Halley (Edmund). Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, no. 297, pp.1882-99, March 1705. £10,000-15,000
    Forum, Mar. 26: Haytham (Ibn al) [known as Alhazen]. Opticae Thesaurus...Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X..., first edition, Basel, August, 1572. £20,000-30,000
    Forum, Mar. 26: Kepler (Johannes). Dioptrice seu demonstratio eorum quae visui & visibilibus propter conspicilla non ita pridem inventa accidunt, first edition, Augsburg, David Frank, 1611. £12,000-18,000
  • Books & Autographs
    Wednesday 25 March
    Koller, Mar. 25: KAFKA, FRANZ, SCHRIFTSTELLER. Eigenh. Brief mit Unterschrift. Prag, 20. Oktober [19]15. CHF 30,000-40,000.
    Koller, Mar. 25: EINSTEIN, ALBERT. Zwei eigenhändige Briefe an Ernst Gabor Straus, unterschrieben "A.E" bzw. "A. Einstein". [Princeton], [19]45. und [1950]. CHF 30,000-40,000.
    Koller, Mar. 25: HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNAIS, MUTTER VON NAPOLEON III. Album aus ihrem Besitz mit 69 Aquarellen und Pinselzeichnungen in Sepia oder Grau… CHF 14,000-18,000.
    Koller, Mar. 25: ZOOLOGIE - ORNITHOLOGIE - Seligmann, Johann Michael. Verzameling van uitlandsche en zeldzaame Vogelen. Teile 1-8 (von 9) in 2 Bänden. Mit 421 prächtig altkolorierten Kupfertafeln. CHF 14,000-20,000
    Koller, Mar. 25: BOTANIK - Berlèse, Lorenzo und Johann Jakob Jung. Iconographie du genre camellia... 3 Bände. Mit 300 Farbstichtafeln "a la poupée.” Paris, [1839-]1841-1843. CHF 12,000-18,000.

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