Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2015 Issue

If you want to have collectors . . .

If you want to have collectors of books manuscripts, maps and ephemera collecting today and into the future this community will have to have time, interest and money.  Education plays an important part as well but many collectors are self-educated so I don’t feel it’s an absolute requirement, in fact I think collecting is sometimes a compensation for having less education.  Taken as a group [or category] collectors are complex, many of them intensely interesting, a fair number of them over-the-top eccentrics.  They are also the bedrock of collecting in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephem...

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Row 14B, Bay 3, Shelf 2: A Most Incredible Story of a Missing $600,000 Print, the Police, FBI, a Resigning Library President, and Lost & Found at the Boston Public Library

In the summer of 2014, some people at the Boston Public Library realized that a valuable print was missing. The missing item was Albrecht Dürer's Adam and Eve (some call it The Fall of Man), estima...

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An Interesting Exposition in San Francisco: ending on July 5th

A compelling show of Contemporary Bindings of Private Press Books is on display June 6th to July 5th at the San Francisco Center for the Book on the south side of the San Francisco at 375 Rhode Isl...

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Forty Years Going: The Newtown Book Sale

For forty years, the Newtown Book Sale has been an annual event taking place in Newtown, CT, where an increasingly larger amount of material has appeared for sale over the years. In 1975, it began ...

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Pennsylvania Woman Arrested for Theft of Prints and Books Valued at Over $650,000

An arrest has been made in the case of a major theft of prints and books in Pennsylvania. This is not the typical case of library theft, or stealing from a collector. These prints and books were st...

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Collecting the Culture Wars: LGBT, Pot, Race, and other Hot Button Issues

The "culture wars" is a phrase that is bandied around a lot in the news. Current American battleground issues include legalized recreational drugs, the gender spectrum, sometimes abbreviated to LBG...

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Opportunities for One Lot Collectors

Collecting can take years but in a few cases just a few minutes.  Those who treasure the hunt need not read further for if you want a day by day, month by month accumulation of objects purchased at...

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Two More Stolen Books Returned to the Swedish National Library

Two more books, discovered missing from the National Library of Sweden over a decade ago, made their way back home this past month. They are among at least 56 old and valuable books taken from that...

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Brunk Auctions Sale: July 16-18

Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Brunk Auctions has been offering sales of fine and decorative art for over thirty years. Their upcoming sale, running from Thursday, July 16th to Saturday, July ...

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Commodore and the Patagonians - The Tallest Lie

In 1767, a peculiar book entitled Voyage Autour du Monde fait en 1764 1765 (Paris, 1767) reached the shores of France. This first edition of Commodore Byron’s voyage around the world shut the mout...

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31st Annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair Set for July 31-Aug. 1

The 31st annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, July 31 and August 1 in Denver this year. On Friday, doors will open at 2:00 and stay open until 8:00. On Sa...

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Dreweatts Bloomsbury offers Western Manuscripts & Miniatures on July 8th

Dr. Timothy Bolton, late of Sotheby’s and now head of Western Manuscripts Miniatures at Dreweatts Bloomsbury is conducting his first sale since joining the firm.  It is an auspicious beginning.  T...

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Eight New Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we received eight new catalogues to review. This time, most could be described as varieties or miscellanies, rather than the highly focused subjects we often see with booksellers' catalo...

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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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