Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2013 Issue

Slow Auction

For many reasons books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera get sold.  In the collectible field we tend to think of single items but there are reasons for selling larger quantities too.  It can be someone who is narrowing his or her focus or a dealer preparing to retire.  For collectors it’s the material personally appreciated but outside the current collecting scope or already passed over as other items have been sold or been consigned, in other words; the residue.  For material in all these categories and, inevitably others I simply haven’t thought of, there comes a time when the need to dispo...

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Collecting Efficiently, the goal of Collectorsfolio

Collections can take many forms but they share some characteristics.  One can collect books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera and never leave the world of works on paper.  Many collections are built ...

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There Are Still Six-Figure Books to be Found in the Attics and Walls of Old Houses

There's nothing quite like the story of finding a valuable old book in an attic, garage sale, eBay, or the like. Once in awhile, these dreams actually come true. One man who can attest to this is D...

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More Tips from an eBay Power Seller

A while back I wrote as an eBay power seller and gave a few tips I’d learned along the way from more than 14 years of selling on that the site. At this writing I have a 100% positive feedback ratin...

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38th Annual Book Sale at the C. H. Booth Library in Newtown Connecticut

This past December the citizens of Connecticut experienced the horrific outcome of a murderer methodically killing small children, their teachers and other adults in Newtown.  We are grown accustom...

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A Casual Tour through the Salon du Livre in Paris

Last April, I was officially invited to a “wonderful journey” and urged to “follow the footsteps of my ancestors”... To make it simple, I went to the Salon du Livre in Paris. Since 2007, it takes p...

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A Success for the London Antiquarian Book Fair

Organizers of the London International Antiquarian Book Fair report a most successful three-day run this past month. The annual fair at Olympia saw an increase in attendance, sales just slightly sh...

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From the Police Blotter: Book Thief Sues Prison Over Their Library; Book Theft in the Electronic Age

Some criminals have more nerve than others. From Lancaster, Pennsylvania, we have the story of Hans George Alexander, first reported by the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal. Mr. Alexander had the ho...

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Heritage Adding Live Bidding to their Weekly Internet Book and Autograph Auctions

The only constant in the old and rare book business these days is change and Heritage once again is changing the structure of their weekly book and autograph auctions to give bidders additional tim...

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A Transaction Reversed: AbeBooks Sells Chrislands Back to Founder

Five years ago, amid great fanfare, it was announced that AbeBooks was purchasing Chrislands, the bookseller's website hosting service. At the beginning of May 2013, almost exactly five years later...

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Say it ain't so

Recently Mike Stillman wrote a story about a manuscript and book theft from the 1970’s that was solved with the admission of a person long associated with the Lambeth Palace Library that they had s...

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War of 1812 Archive Purchased by Canadian Government

The Canadian Government is not noted as one of the largest buyers in the works on paper field, but last month they made a substantial purchase at a Bonham's auction in London. The bidding went far ...

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Yale Libraries Purchase Largest Private Collection of English Law

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Lillian Goldman Law Library, both of Yale University, have combined to purchase the largest library of 13th-19th century English law in private...

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Auctions in July

July this year is a quiet month with 49 events on the calendar.  Not so many years ago 49 would have ranked among the busiest months but the market has been changing. Tues. July 2nd               ...

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Manuscript of Beckett's First Novel to be Sold July 10

“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” With that happy introduction, we can report what Sotheby's describes as “one of the most important 20th century literary manuscripts in p...

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Nine New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

For July, we review nine new catalogues from the bookselling world. David Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has a new catalogue of books and pamphlets from early America. The William Reese Company is f...

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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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