For many, probably most of the world’s serious booksellers, selling books
is more than having the right material at the right price. It’s essential to have the right customer.
For acquirers, who increasingly are aware of online inventory, it often turns out there are several copies of the same book in varying states and if left to their own devices simply choose the apparent best copy for the money. That judgment will be logical if narrow and possibly ignore other often-invisible factors such as collection appropriateness, other possible copies and editions and collecting trends. Thi...
Eight years ago, a request to see an old map of the Mississippi River from a patron at the Royal Library of Sweden led to the unraveling of one of the greatest book and map thefts of recent memory....
Though bookselling with an open shop where buyers browse and money changes hands at retail is a dying occupation, it is still one of America’s most popular fantasies.
Scratch any serious reader...
August was once the quietest month in the auction business but a look at this year’s auction calendar tells us that scheduled events are increasing. To this point we have 34 events posted, up from...
He was one of America's foremost collectors of presidential material as well as being an advisor to several U.S. Presidents on matters of protocol. Now he is going to jail for seven years. It is no...
Comics have come of age. Your teachers may have looked at them with disdain; your mother threw them out the minute they began collecting the slightest bit of dust. This was not literature, not some...
On August 8th in Chicago Leslie Hindman Auctioneers is offering a primer on collecting – a broad and, by American standards, large sale of material chosen to appeal to collectors. The sale is Fine...
Last June, an auction sale held by Pierre Ségeron in Poitiers, France, featured an interesting selection of De Courtilz’ hard to find works. A prolific writer, author of Mémoires de D’Artagnan (170...
Billy the Kid landed in a New Mexico prison for shooting a man. Lori Teel didn't have to do anything quite so dramatic. Mrs. Teel spent her night behind bars for failing to return a library book on...
To put together a library organized book fair is a cooperative affair that requires countless donors and dozens of volunteers striving for the benefit of their institution. It requires intelligenc...
One of the more unusual book theft cases occurred this past month in the upscale, coastal Connecticut community of Westport. Two men picked up a selection of books at the local Barnes Noble, but n...
This may be the slow summer season, but we have received 10 new bookseller catalogues anyway. The William Reese Company starts us off with Part I of a tribute to the great Americana bookseller and ...
This month there are 18 eCatalogues posted to section III of AE Monthly. Together they represent more than a thousand interesting possibilities drawn from a variety of collecting disciplines.
Wh...
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary pair of books from George Washington’s field library, marking the conjunction of Robert Rogers, George Washington, and Henry Knox. $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary letter marking the conjunction of George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Benjamin Franklin. $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: Virginia House of Delegates. The genesis of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. $350,000 to $500,000.
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: (Gettysburg). “Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle”: Autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrated by fourteen maps and plans. $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: President Lincoln thanks a schoolboy on behalf of "all the children of the nation for his efforts to ensure "that this war shall be successful, and the Union be maintained and perpetuated." $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Jan. 27:</b> [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9d2762bc-9f26-47ef-96de-1c28070e19f6.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Jan. 27:</b> [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.")