The Dorothy Sloan Auction No. 23 of Americana approaches. The sale will be on April 4th and 5th, 2013. These sales, one or so a year, are prepared with a care most associated with the skeptic. Auctions are resurrections, the always-uncertain process of reconfirmation. Fates will be decided in the rooms but this does not mean that the lawyerly Ms. Sloan will leave any information about the lots in the docket unstated. She always makes her case and it makes her a creditable advocate for sellers and a trusted source for buyers. She takes this seriously, as interested for the buyer and alwa...
In a major case that pitted used book sellers, libraries, museums and other retailers against book publishers, the U.S. Supreme Court came down squarely on the booksellers' side. The Court ruled th...
Things change, so does the French auction house Drouot. The walls of the common parts have been repainted in white, and a gorgeous modern staircase now leads you to the basement rooms. On March the...
The weekly auction update is our effort to separate the long-term history of books [and manuscripts, maps and ephemera] from the ever-changing immediate market for them. There’s a tendency to think...
Our little “Open by Appointment” bookstore is perched at 6200 feet in the Northern Nevada Mountains in Virginia City. But, if it weren’t for my online sales, we could not continue to operate. It is...
53rd ABAA NY Fair
On Thursday April 11th, as they have for more than 50 years, members of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, will hol...
Michael Vinson Americana has acquired the core of what Peter Crawley, author of Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, called “the finest and most important Mormon collection in private han...
100th Anniversary of Landmark 20th Century Exhibit
Many special events on-line sites join in celebration
The Armory Show, even 100 years later the name alone conjures up superlatives: it was hug...
The Roy Davids sale of Poetical Manuscripts Portraits of Poets [A-K] at Bonhams in London on April 10th will test the mettle and self-confidence of the most serious collectors of poetry for there...
Forty years ago Victor Grace and his wife Jackie lived in New Jersey where they built a career and a life around the search for and later sale of beautiful material. Victor from the outset was and...
Freeman’s Auctioneers Appraisers in Philadelphia is holding three sales in April that warrant attention: Rare Books and Manuscripts on the 4th, Posters, Maps and Other Graphics on the 5th, and Ame...
Timothy Hughes Rare and Early Newspapers recently launched a new website. If you like old newspapers, and I will admit to this being a passion of mine, you will love the new site. They have managed...
Do you still believe in newspapers? Many have written them off, consigned them to virtual extinction over the next decade or so. However, one person who does still believe in newspapers is America'...
These are days when the future of bookselling is a bit clouded and the coin and fabric of the field seemingly subject to relentless retesting. Even so there are glimmers of new realities that expl...
If the typical, private bookseller is finding these to be complicated times for retail, then perhaps they can sympathize with their dreaded competitor from the 1990s, Barnes Noble. Barnes Noble s...
This April, as of March 28th, 99 sales with more than 25,000 lots are scheduled. Dates occasionally change, others are added and a few delayed but the events as shown here are substantially what t...
The American Society of Appraisers will be hosting a conference on the role of appraisers in trusts and estates from May 1-3 in Arlington, Virginia (just outside of Washington, D.C.). The purpose i...
For April, we received 17 new catalogues to review. No fooling! The William Reese Company has reached a milestone – their 300th catalogue. It features exceptional Americana. The Raab Collection has...
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
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Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
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![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/00d5fd41-2542-4a80-b119-4886d4b9925f.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.")
