Rare Book Monthly Articles - April - 2012 Issue

At Christie's:  The Nebenzahl Collection - Remnants of a Golden Age

The book business is a tough racket and the proof of this statement everywhere.  Many people try their hands and most make some money.  A few make a career of it, a very few make it to the top.  Ken Nebenzahl is one of the few who has made it both as dealer and collector and continues to ride the high surf all the way into his eighties.  The clock and responsible judgment lead him a year ago to plan his exit and retirement and he then entered into a contract with Christie’s to handle the dispersal of his and his wife Jossy’s personal collection of important atlases and high points from thei...

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Tips from an eBay Power Seller

Here’s my little secret: I’m an eBay Power Seller. I find that amazing. It’s 2012 and I’ve been selling on eBay since 1998. That’s 14 years of taking pictures, writing descriptions, shipping vint...

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Department of Justice May Initiate Action for E-Book Price Fixing

Reports have come out that the U.S. Department of Justice is planning to sue five book publishers and Apple Computer for price-fixing of electronic books. This legal action by the government would ...

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Travel Books Auction at Drouot, Paris

THE EXPERT’S CHOICE   The Drouot auction house, in Paris, has something of a 19th century brothel look with its tiny staircases leading to different rooms, upstairs or downstairs, the red carpet...

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ABAA New York in April!

New York, New York what a hell of a town.  What this means depends on who you are talking to.  Me, I like the place and would live there if it was practical.  It’s not but there are no prohibitions...

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Auctions:  April in New York

The signal event for book, maps, manuscripts and ephemera collectors in America is the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America’s annual New York Book Fair in April that attracts the most im...

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Another Hugely Successful Comic Book Sale

When our mothers threw out our old comic book collections years ago, we all breathed a sigh of resignation, and moved on. It was not until many years later that we really began to wonder if she did...

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Huge Book Theft Uncovered in Germany

Quietly, in the dark shadows below the radar screen of publicity, great collections are still being built today. One such collection was being assembled until recently in the German state of Hesse....

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eBay:  I bid you not

Recently on my browser, Chrome, the id number of eBay lots drifted down the item description page and lost a few point sizes making it a bit less obvious to those who use third party bidding softwa...

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Britannica Closes Down 244-Year-Old Printed Encyclopedia

An institution in print is coming to an end after a long and storied career. It is a time for mild nostalgia, but not really one for sorrow. The Encyclopedia Britannica, long a dominant presence on...

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Couple, Separated Almost 200 Years, Reunited at the Rosenbach

On a bright sunny day in 1831, or perhaps a cloudy one, we do not know, Benjamin and Maria Gratz sat for portraits. The painter was Thomas Sully, one of the foremost American portrait artists of th...

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Imperial Russian Law Exhibited at Yale Law Library

The latest exhibition from the Yale University Law Library's Rare Book Collection is on display from now through May 25, 2012. This exhibit takes a look at Monuments of Imperial Russian Law. This b...

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To Helen Back

These past ten years no name has so often crossed my lips, The cheery solitude of certainty, she And reality the darker hand maiden Together have traversed the printed landscape Kept me co...

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10 Catalogues Reviewed in Section Two

There are 10 catalogues up for review for the month of April. Garrett Scott, Bookseller, has a new collection of odd and unusual books and pamphlets. Eureka Books takes us out of this world, quite ...

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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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