Rare Book Monthly Articles - April - 2012 Issue

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

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...

Tips from an eBay Power Seller

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...

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

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 ...

Travel Books Auction at Drouot, Paris

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...

ABAA New York in April!

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...

Auctions:  April in New York

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...

Another Hugely Successful Comic Book Sale

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...

Huge Book Theft Uncovered in Germany

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....

eBay:  I bid you not

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...

Britannica Closes Down 244-Year-Old Printed Encyclopedia

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...

Couple, Separated Almost 200 Years, Reunited at the Rosenbach

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...

Imperial Russian Law Exhibited at Yale Law Library

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...

To Helen Back

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...

10 Catalogues Reviewed in Section Two

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 ...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • 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.

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