Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2012 Issue

A Hard Sell:  The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material

A Hard Sell:  The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material

Earlier this year Alex Jemal, a Michigan lawyer now in his 80’s, approached me.  He had built a collection of the writings of and as homage to Joyce Carol Oates, the later 20th century prolific.  Over her career Ms. Oates has written more than fifty novels and innumerable other pieces.  She was busy and popular at a time when reading books as a hobby was peaking and has since continued to write as cable television, the internet, iPods and iPads have elbowed books aside as sources of casual entertainment.  She continues today even as books, not so long ago our stalwart companions on planes, ...

Forged Signatures from an eBay Seller Leads to Conviction

Forged Signatures from an eBay Seller Leads to Conviction

There is always a great temptation to go around dealers and other experts to buy significant works on paper. Prices are lower on eBay and from amateurs. Sometimes, cheaper doesn't always work out. ...

Graham Arader on the sell-side at Auction

Graham Arader on the sell-side at Auction

W. Graham Arader is a businessman with a communicable appreciation and love of maps, and watercolors.  He admits to have created the modern market for collectible maps and barely acknowledges that ...

Collecting the Counter Culture - Maggs’ Carl Williams pays a visit to Harvard’s Houghton Library

Collecting the Counter Culture - Maggs’ Carl Williams pays a visit to Harvard’s Houghton Library

Carl Williams is “stoked” to be speaking at Harvard. The London based Maggs Bros. specialist is making a visit to Houghton Library on Wed., November 14 to give a talk on collecting the counter cu...

What May Be the Largest Book Theft in Decades Unravels

What May Be the Largest Book Theft in Decades Unravels

It's the story that keeps getting worse. A massive book heist in Italy apparently has ensnared thousands of books, millions of dollars, and made some important people look very foolish, and others ...

Auctions in November

Auctions in November

Heading into November 115 auction events are scheduled.  This compares with 91 in November 2011.  Through August this year 179,000 lots have been archived, a 29.7% increase from the 138,000 offered...

Book Fairs in November and December

The numbers of book fairs have been declining but they are great fun and worth supporting.  The widespread closing of bookshops adds to their importance for they are now more than ever, the best an...

Hundreds of Thousand of Books Win a Reprieve... for Now

Hundreds of Thousand of Books Win a Reprieve... for Now

Hundreds of thousands of books headed for destruction by the Manchester (U.K.) libraries have won a reprieve, the result of a campaign by various English literary and academic figures. Their ultima...

Who Legally Owns This Signed Photograph?

Who Legally Owns This Signed Photograph?

The New York Times recently reported on an ownership dispute in the works on paper field, in this case a signed photograph. It pitted the family of the individual who was originally given the photo...

The Gutenberg of clear thinking traced to Poughkeepsie

The Gutenberg of clear thinking traced to Poughkeepsie

The engaging book L I A R S published by F. W. Wilson of Poughkeepsie in 1911 is a remarkable condemnation and defense of lying.  The author, whose name is not disclosed perhaps for reasons of pers...

Ian Fleming: The Bibliography

Ian Fleming: The Bibliography

He will never be confused with Shakespeare. “Serious” literature was not the calling card of Ian Fleming. Excitement and intrigue? That is another story. While a few other books emerged from his pe...

Oak Knoll at 300

Oak Knoll at 300

Bob Fleck, the founder of Oak Knoll Books in New Castle, Delaware recently passed by one of those milestones you cannot quickly reach, the issuance of his 300th catalogue.  Few houses get this far ...

Another Settlement in the Google Books Case... Probably No More Meaningful than the Others

Another Settlement in the Google Books Case... Probably No More Meaningful than the Others

A new settlement has been reached in the 7-year-old Google Books (now known as Google Library Project) controversy, albeit a vague and probably minor one. This battle and its related lawsuits could...

The Trinity College Library Obtains Some Classic Books on “Medicine”

The Trinity College Library Obtains Some Classic Books on “Medicine”

We recently received a copy of the first electronic bulletin from the Watkinson Library at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. It is necessary to spell out which Trinity College as there are ...

12 New Catalogues Reviewed

12 New Catalogues Reviewed

For November, we received 12 new bookseller catalogues. We review a spectacular catalogue of newspapers that shaped the world from Timothy Hughes Rare Early Newspapers. From England, we take a loo...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: (Choiseul-Gouffier, Marie). Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, 2 vols, 1st edition, 1782-1822. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, by Sylvanus Urban, 11 volumes. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Shackleton (Ernest). The Heart of the Antarctic, 2 vols, 1st ed, presentation copy, 1909. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Drayton (Michael). Poly Olbion..., London: 1622. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Scheuchzer (Johann Jacob). Ouresiphoites Helveticus, 4 parts in 1, 2nd ed, 1723. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Roberts (Henry, after). Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ..., [1784]. £500-800
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Maffei (Giovanni), Indiarum orientalium Occidentaliumque Descriptio..., 1589. £1,200-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Ortelius (Abraham), Typus Orbis Terrarum, [1598]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Bible [English]. [The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New..., 1613]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Taylor (John). All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-Poet..., 1630. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Pierpont Morgan Collection. Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, 1904 & 1906. £2,000-3,000
  • Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions