Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2011 Issue

Ready or Not?

Ready or Not?

Rare books don’t rule the world.  They are part of the world and while intellectual, primarily appeal to the emotions.  They are baubles whose appeal for some is magic, for others unimportant.  They are, in the complex online world, now the makings of jigsaw puzzles conceived by individuals, and executed over varying time and with changing focus.  They are the polar opposite of stamp collecting for there are few specifics and many variables and the success of a collection is often not known until long after the last book, manuscript or object has long gathered dust. Traditional collecting ...

The ABA Takes On Amazon

The ABA Takes On Amazon

In June, we reported on a major sales tax battle taking place in the hinterlands between the world's largest online bookseller, Amazon.com, and various American states. The ABA (American Bookseller...

Breaking:  The Parts are Sometimes Worth More than the Whole

Breaking:  The Parts are Sometimes Worth More than the Whole

The subject of breaking is one of the touchiest and most controversial in the book world, but if you handle printed material long enough you will certainly come across books and magazines that are ...

No Borders:  Pioneer Bookseller Closes Down on Both Sides of the Pacific

No Borders:  Pioneer Bookseller Closes Down on Both Sides of the Pacific

Borders is no more. The once great bookseller, begun as a small local bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 40 years ago, is closing all of its stores. The firm's President, Mike Edwards, issued a state...

A Book Auction in Maine August 16th

A Book Auction in Maine August 16th

On August 16th in Fairfield, Maine just off Route 95, at Poulin Antique and Auction Gallery, an authentic collection of gems and rhinestones in the books, maps and ephemera field come up for sale. ...

Amazon Purchases England's The Book Depository

Amazon Purchases England's The Book Depository

Amazon.com has reached an agreement to add another bookseller to its stable of book websites. This one is The Book Depository, an English online-only book company. The Book Depository describes its...

Leslie Hindman No. 167 - an interesting sale

Leslie Hindman No. 167 - an interesting sale

Leslie Hindman, the Chicago auction house, continues to increase its footprint in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera fields with the issuance of a sumptuous catalogue, No. 167, a full size p...

A Whale of a Sale

A Whale of a Sale

The C. H. Booth Library Fair has done it again.  A great spirit, plenty of volunteers, an energetic audience and voila you have a success.  The mystery is in the elbow grease and good thinking. In...

A 17,000-Book Auction Sells Out

A 17,000-Book Auction Sells Out

A book auction was held recently in Minnesota, and a most atypical one at that. The starting bids were exceptionally low, though perhaps not for the rather ordinary material offered.  Books were pr...

Old World under New Management

Old World under New Management

Old World Auctions has moved to Richmond, Virginia under the new leadership of Eliane and Jon Dotson.  For the last 15 years, Curt and Marti Griggs had been growing the business until they decided ...

Google's New Image Search - Matching Pictures on the Internet

Google's New Image Search - Matching Pictures on the Internet

This is a work in progress. It is not quite up to a Google word search. It's understandable. Matching words is one thing, matching pictures something else. That sounds near impossible, but give Goo...

Why doesn't this happen in my town?

Why doesn't this happen in my town?

Space is apparently at a premium in Jerusalem, and it has gotten so bad that the National Library on the Hebrew University’s Givat Ram campus has been caught throwing away important books with the ...

10 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

10 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review 10 new catalogues in Section II, with many of the new ones quite topic specific. David D.Newell presents a collection of Shaker literature. Bruce McKittrick Rare Books has a se...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Case Antiques
    2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
    January 31 and February 1, 2026
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 1775 Map of Virginia, Fry and Jefferson, ex-John Tyler. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Albrecht Durer Engraving, The Peasant Couple at Market. $3,400 to $3,800.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 1777 Map: Wm. Faden, British Colonies in N. America, ex. John Tyler. $2,000 to $2,400.
    Case Antiques
    2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
    January 31 and February 1, 2026
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 30 Vols. George Eliot 1st Editions; Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Deronda, etc. $1,400 to $1,800.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Celestial Floor Globe c. 1800. $1,400 to $1,800.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1866 London MacMillan. $900 to $1,200.
    Case Antiques
    2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
    January 31 and February 1, 2026
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: President Andrew Jackson Signed Patent, 1831. $1,000 to $1,200.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Civil War Tintype of Calvin “Old Ballie” Walker, CSA 3rd TN Infantry, KIA, plus 3 Union Images. $800 to $1,000.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: 1855 Georgia Pocket Map, W. G. Bonner. $800 to $1,000.
    Case Antiques
    2026 Winter Fine Art & Antiques
    January 31 and February 1, 2026
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Audubon c. 1835 Birds of America Common Cormorant, Havell Edition. $800 to $900.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1st Edition in 8 Volumes. $600 to $800.
    Case Antiques, Jan. 31-Feb. 1: Four NASA Moon Survey Photos; 144M, 148M, 149M, 149H1. $400 to $600.
  • Sotheby’s
    Year in Review
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: A Rare Hebrew Bible with Micrographic Masorah. Sold: 1,514,000 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: "The Freedman's Primer.” Sold: 241,300 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Smith, William. "The Map that Changed the World." Sold: 139,700 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Psalter, C13th. Illuminated Psalter. Sold: 330,200 GBP
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Lincoln, Abraham. The abolition of slavery. Sold: 13,697,500 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Vergilius. Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1501. Sold: 1,041,400 USD
  • University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Jefferson's Owned & Signed "Plutarch's Morals" Vol. 4. - 1st Time At Auction In Nearly 200 Years!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Flown NASA Hasselblad 203S Space Camera On Endeavour STS-111, With Components, Data Module & Flown Film Magazine!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: One Of The Finest Lincoln Assassination Letters Extant, April 15, 1865 - Illustrated & Beyond Dramatic! 8pp.
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Isaac Newton Highly Important Religious Manuscript With 85+ Words In His Hand, Ex-Bonhams
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Marilyn Monroe Gorgeous Signed & Inscribed Photograph, PSA Authenticated
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Rare Ernest Hemingway, 1 Of 10 Signed Presentation Copies Of "Farewell To Arms"
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Ayn Rand 11pp Revised AMS "The Cold Civil War" For LA Times Newspaper- 900+ Words In Her Hand!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Mary Todd Lincoln Calls Abe A "great & good man, who loved & served his country so well"
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Abraham Lincoln Gives Rebel Woman Pass To Visit Prisoner Of War Husband, Showing A Very Human Lincoln!
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Babe Ruth PSA Type II Signed Conlon Photo, With Ruth Miniature Louisville Slugger, 16.25"
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin Signed Photo - Prime Crew Apollo 11 - PSA Authenticated
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Huge Abraham Lincoln Hesler Photo, Ca. 1880 - As If He Were In The Room!

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