Bookseller’s are by their nature, argumentative. They split hairs; see black and white where the rest of the world sees shades of grey. They are a talmudic breed, tending to dispute rather than agree. Why is your copy better? It’s a question whose answer can bend light beams to both shine on a competitor’s defects and this seller’s virtues. After all these dealers are selling so much more than printed materials. Inclusion in their world, introductions to the best collector organizations, and first opportunities to buy the rare and special are as much the currency of the trade [at the h...
AntiquarianAuctions.com, the bookseller-run auction house, recently upgraded their website, making it more user-friendly, particularly for use with mobile devices. The upgrade gives us an opportuni...
Two lifetimes ago Clare Van Norman’s father, Clarendon Van Norman Sr., was a serious and respected Lincoln specialist in Illinois. His business, the Van Norman Book Company, founded in Peoria in t...
Recently we received a newly published magnificent leaf book. We will stay away from vagaries of official book sizes to note that it is 10” x 14”, bound in full calf leather, and ornamented in intr...
As winter gives way to spring, and the pace picks up for things in the northern hemisphere, so too does the auction game for works on paper. For Dreweatts Bloomsbury Auctions, no less than eightee...
Some authors take a while to write that second book. Sophomore slump, writer's cramp, any number of reasons can make that second book hard to write, even, maybe especially, if the first was a great...
On March 2, 2015 Dr. Seuss will be 111 and readers young and old will celebrate.
When history looks back on American writers and illustrators of the 20th century it may well turn out that the c...
AbeBooks, the world's largest book listing site, set a record price for a book purchased through their site recently. They didn't just set a record, they blew the old one away, with a price almost ...
The devilish “poire d’angoisse” (pear of anguish, or choke pear) is an iron instrument of torture invented by Palioly, a French villain of the 17th century, who sure had a big bag of tricks. One or...
Among the atrocities committed by the self-styled Islamic State, ISIS, or whatever its name, book burning sounds rather tame. The horrific slaughtering of people conducted by this group long ago re...
Two years ago, we reported on a reprieve several hundred thousand library books were granted from a sentence of destruction (click here). It turns out the reprieve was temporary. In late 2012, the ...
It is common now for a hundred auctions in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera fields to be scheduled in a single month. It seems, in fact, that we’ll see a two hundred-auction month in the ...
Princeton University has received its largest gift ever, and it comes in the form of books and manuscripts. The gift has been appraised at approximately $300 million, and as you look at what is in ...
Over 500 stolen books are making their way back to their home in Italy, just one of many pieces to one of the largest book theft cases ever. The books are estimated to have a value €2.5 million (US...
Eight new catalogues are reviewed in this month's edition of Rare Book Monthly. Erasmushaus offers a selection of superlative antiquarian books, dating as far back as the 15th century. Peter Harrin...
ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections Open for Bidding 2-17 April
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.
