Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2012 Issue

If you like dessert ... an auction

The world of book, manuscript, map and ephemera auctions has long been dominated by the major cities in the United States and Europe.  It’s been this way so long it feels natural, even inevitable.  Over the past decade though there has been a broad proliferation of houses that, while continuing to be near major cities, are filling the interstices and increasingly demonstrating strength.  The trend is broad and deep.  In looking at the December auction schedule I’m struck by the solid strength of the offers across the entire field.  True, this month we don’t/won’t have the majestic high flie...

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Could Selling an Old Book Become Illegal?

Most of us have probably sold an old book at a yard sale, on eBay, given it to a library, or some such thing. We probably never gave it a second thought. Maybe we need to. Maybe we are criminals, v...

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The Circus Comes to Town

As a child there were few announcements of greater import.  Even the big towns in the Hudson Valley were too small for significant events but when both your town was small and you were small it did...

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ALDE: A Book Auction Sale at Rossini’s in Paris

“I run the one and only French auction sale house exclusively dedicated to books and manuscripts”, proudly states the 39-year-old Jérôme Delcamp. As a matter of fact, the name of his auction house,...

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What Do Newsweek and Twinkies Have in Common?

Food for the soul? No, that's not it. Unless you have spent the last few weeks hiding under a rock, you undoubtedly know that both will cease to exist as we have known them. Newsweek, the venerable...

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2012 In Review: Borders Liquidates, Sendak Dies, Digital Eats Print

Any way you measure it 2012 was a difficult and transitional years for books including publishing and book selling Be it new or used, popular titles or antiquarian rarities, the transition from pri...

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Auctions in December

It’s the holiday season and the end of the fall auction season is at hand.  The last scheduled December auction is, as of today, on December 28th.  For the month of December 83 events are scheduled...

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Bonhams:  A Group of Important Sales Early in the Month

Bonhams starts its run of December auctions with four sales over two days, on December 4th and 5th, two of which are single-owner collections. At 1pm on December 4th there is the long anticipated D...

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Solid, If Somewhat Surprising Results at the Chelsea Book Fair

The promoters of the Chelsea Book Fair in London last month report that it was a busy event, with sales up for most participants. However, total sales were down, somewhat of an anomaly, and somethi...

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An Untimely Passing

A few years ago the James S. Copley Collection of rare books and manuscripts made news quarter after quarter as Sotheby’s systematically loaded their cannons and sent exceptional material careening...

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Italian Officials Respond to Massive Library Theft with Some Needed Help

Sometimes, good can arise from the bad. One of the largest book heists in decades unraveled over the past year. An Italian library, The Girolamini Library in Naples, was the victim of a theft estim...

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20 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review 20 new bookseller catalogues. Pickering and Chatto offers a selection of English books and manuscripts. James and Devon Gray Booksellers, on the other hand, offers books in Eng...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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