Rare Book Monthly « January - 2014 « Rare Book Hub - Rare Books, Book Auctions, Antiquarian Book Collecting

Rare Book Monthly Articles - January - 2014 Issue

68aff2f6-75c6-41e0-8251-58972675140f

The AE Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction for Books and Works on Paper in 2013

Another year comes to an end, and once again it is time to look back at the highest prices paid at auction for items in the books and works on paper field. This will again be a year for record volume at auction. At the top end, we saw a record high price paid for a printed book, and a record for a manuscript letter. The former was noted for its age, the latter its content.

All of the AE Top 500 for 2013 sold at prices of $67,950 or higher. That is down slightly from last year's $71,700. Nine items exceeded $1 million in price, versus 11 last year. However, this year's record for a ...

Read More

28c6e3d7-d84a-4b12-90a6-4dd2079e275b

For the Marcus Bookstore it is now or never

The Marcus Book Store sits in the lower Fillmore section of San Francisco at 1712 Fillmore Street, just north of Geary Boulevard that routes traffic east west from the downtown to the affordable ne...

Read More

9ec72d70-7b26-447e-a57c-0aecc8354ccd

AED: the numbers are in the stars

Clarity about the future is rooted in clarity about the past. The picture that emerges will not always be appealing and will sometimes be inconvenient, particularly in a period of regression ...

Read More

F4089e50-9ba0-4e5d-8d55-54c40fb77d26

The Easy Way to Track Lots at Auction

We are now entering the start of the 2014 auction season. The season builds from now through May, when it slows for the summer. There will be many fascinating items offered, great deals for buyers,...

Read More

Aab853b3-d3d6-4bd8-b0bb-708363606cee

Book Released on Life of Eccentric Book Thief Raymond Scott

An updated account of the life of eccentric book thief Raymond Scott was recently published. The title is Shakespeare & Love. The Inside Story of the Book Crime That Stunned the World. It is a ...

Read More

59c571c8-7126-4090-837b-9c5a62bdebbc

Whitmore looking to the Future

It is in the nature of the book trade that the field is always adjusting the relationship between tradition and change. The percentages will vary through the decades, prosperity is a dampener...

Read More

994b475c-770b-4f74-9d1d-f80b203ea679

Lady Montagu Naked in a Turkish Bagnio

One day, a bookseller from New York tried to convince me to buy one of his books despite some minor defects: “I’ve been in the business for more than thirty years and trust me, the beau...

Read More

B268d59f-a773-49de-8efc-7491e4656aa0

Mary Poppins & Nelson Mandela the Odd Cultural Couple for 2014

New Movies Highlight Popularity of the Books

A pair of new movies now in wide theatrical release should bring new attention to books by two authors who are already extremely well known.
&...

Read More

66d191b7-aeaf-4c41-9bb2-e334c3f5bd62

Auctions In January

Numbers do not always tell the whole story but when the number is the quantity of scheduled auctions in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera category for a specific month we can make compariso...

Read More

E61d953b-8522-4627-b094-1533de0934da

Courts Reach Contrary Decisions on Collection of Sales Tax by Out-of-State Retailers

The confusion over which out-of-state companies must collect sales tax in which states was ratcheted up another level as a result of a recent U.S. Supreme Court non-decision. The Supreme Court decl...

Read More

C6969642-dbcc-42ec-87d6-f5023748dc3c

Mr. Munsell: waiting quietly

On a grassy knoll in Albany, New York Joel Munsell rests as he has since 1880 when his printer’s heart ran out of ink. Mr. Munsell was a local printer who left an outsized mark that was...

Read More

B8235e08-99c0-4ede-bcfc-43c334b54061

20 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This is a busy time of year in the cataloguing business. Twenty new bookseller's catalogues arrived in the past month. A couple of them celebrate anniversaries. From legal specialist The Lawbook Ex...

Read More

Rare Book Monthly

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Manuel Orazi, <i>La Maison Moderne,</i> 1900. $40,000 to $60,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Maxfield Parrish, <i>The Century, Midsummer Holiday Number,</i> 1897. $2,000 to $3,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Alphonse Mucha, <i>Medee, Sarah Bernhardt,</i> 1898. $12,000 to $18,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> H.A. Volodimer, <i>Grand Prix d’Endurance de 24 Heures,</i> 1923. $12,000 to $18,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Aldo Mazza, <i>Vini d’Italia,</i> circa 1920. $7,000 to $10,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Leonetto Cappiello, <i>l’Oie d’Or,</i> circa 1930. $3,000 to $4,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> <i>James Bond Does It Everywhere in “Thunderball!”</i> designer unknown, 1965. $1,500 to $2,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Emil Cardinaux, <i>Palace Hotel, St. Moritz,</i> 1920. $10,000 to $15,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Joseph C. Leyendecker, <i>“Contour” Arrow Form-Fit Collars,</i> 1917. $3,000 to $4,000.

<b>Swann Auction Galleries Feb 18:</b> Sascha Maurer, <i>Ski at Lake Placid,</i> 1938. $2,500 to $3,500.
<center><b>Case Antiques<br>Two-Day Winter Auction<br>Jan. 30 & 31, 2021</b>

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> Rare 1778 Engraved map of Colonial Philadelphia after George Heap (1714-1752) and Nicholas Scull (1687-1761). $10,000 to $12,000.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> Author signed and inscribed <i>THE FOUNTAINHEAD,</i> stated First Edition, by Ayn Rand, published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, New York, 1943. $2,000 to $2,400.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) hand-colored aquatint engraving, "Yellow-billed Magpie, Stellers Jay, Ultramarine Jay and Clark's Crow," Plate Number CCCLXII. $1,800 to $2,200.

<center><b>Case Antiques<br>Two-Day Winter Auction<br>Jan. 30 & 31, 2021</b>

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) autograph letter, signed, as President, to Nathan Reid detailing Jackson’s intervention on behalf of Reid's grandson. $1,800 to $2,200.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> Edward Steichen (Luxembourg/American, 1879-1973) portfolio of photographs, "The Early Years 1900-1927, 12 Hand-Gravure Prints" #41/1000, printed in 1981. $1,400 to $1,600.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, TLS, one-page typed letter on The White House, Washington, D.C., stationary to John Marshall Butler. $1,400 to $1,600.

<center><b>Case Antiques<br>Two-Day Winter Auction<br>Jan. 30 & 31, 2021</b>

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> Two Pre-Civil War slave related letters, including one written by Mariah, a female domestic slave of James Vincent Musgrove (1814-1890) to her daughter. $1,000 to $1,200.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> Two author signed and inscribed Ayn Rand related books, including one Rand signed <i>WE THE LIVING,</i> London 1940 edition. $1,000 to $1,200.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> PLAN DE LA VILLE DE MEMPHIS (ETATS-UNIS) 40,000 HABITANTS pen and ink with watercolor hand drawn drainage system map, circa 1870. $700 to $900.

<center><b>Case Antiques<br>Two-Day Winter Auction<br>Jan. 30 & 31, 2021</b>

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> Scarce Mezzotint portrait of Thomas Pownall, Colonial Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (1757-1760) and South Carolina (1760). $600 to $700.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> VIEW OF NORFOLK FROM COSPORT, VIRGINIA, John Hill, engraver, after John Shaw (U.K., 1776-1832). $600 to $700.

<b>Case Antiques, Jan. 30-31:</b> THE BURNING OF THE MERCHANT'S EXCHANGE, NEW YORK CITY -THE GREAT FIRE OF DECEMBER, 1835. Scarce color lithograph, a 1909 reissue of the original 1836 print. $500 to $700.
<b><center>Christie’s<br>Paul Destribats:<br>Une Bibliothèque des Avant-gardes<br>Part III<br>2-3 and 4 February 2021</b>

<b><center>Christie’s<br>Paul Destribats:<br>Une Bibliothèque des Avant-gardes<br>Part III<br>2-3 and 4 February 2021</b>

<b><center>Christie’s<br>Paul Destribats:<br>Une Bibliothèque des Avant-gardes<br>Part III<br>2-3 and 4 February 2021</b>

<b><center>Christie’s<br>Paul Destribats:<br>Une Bibliothèque des Avant-gardes<br>Part III<br>2-3 and 4 February 2021</b>
<center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts<br>and Works on Paper<br>28 January 2021</b>

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Schedel (Hartmann). <i>Liber Chronicarum,</i> first edition, Nuremberg, Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 1493. £30,000 to £50,000.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> [Greek Orthodox Church].- <i>Menaion,</i> manuscript in Greek, on paper, in Greek letters, [Eastern Mediterranean], [c. 1400]. £5,000 to £7,000.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> American Revolution.- Loyalist's cow powder horn, engraved with the cypher "GR" for George III surmounted by a crown, an inscription, and on reverse an engraving of the "North River" [Hudson River], 1777. £5,000 to £7,000.

<center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts<br>and Works on Paper<br>28 January 2021</b>

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Illuminated prayer book.- <i>Maria Carcer y Trigueros... Santa Misa y Oraciones,</i> illuminated manuscript in Spanish, on paper, [c. 1850]. £5,000 to £7,000.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Hardy (Thomas). <i>The Mayor of Casterbridge,</i> 2 vol., first edition in book form, original cloth, 1886. £2,000 to £3,000.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> [Austen (Jane)]. <i>Emma: A Novel,</i> first edition, Printed for John Murray, 1816. £7,000 to £10,000.

<center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts<br>and Works on Paper<br>28 January 2021</b>

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Brontë (Charlotte). <i>Jane Eyre. An Autobiography,</i> 3 vol., first edition, Smith, Elder and Co., 1847. £10,000 to £15,000.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Cruikshank (George). <i>The Road to the Derby,</i> one of two proof copies, Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1882. £600 to £800.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Meunier (Charles, binder).- Gruel (Leon). <i>Manuel Historique et Bibliographique de l'Amateur de Reliures,</i> 2 vol., Paris, 1887.-1905. £3,000 to £4,000.

<center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts<br>and Works on Paper<br>28 January 2021</b>

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Burne-Jones (Sir Edward). <i>The Work of Edward Burne-Jones,</i> edited by Philip Burne-Jones, one of 200 copies, [c.1900]. £4,000 to £6,000.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Nazraeli Press.- <i>Six by Six,</i> 36 vol. [a complete set], one of 100 sets, each with signed photograph, Portland, Or., 2010-16. £10,000 to £15,000.

<b>Forum Auctions, Jan. 28:</b> Australasia.- Péron (Francois) and Freycinet. <i>Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes,</i> 5 vol. including Atlas, second edition, Paris, 1824. £6,000 to £8,000.

Archived Articles

Ask Questions