Over the past year we have seen substantial changes in auction outcomes as expressed in US dollars. Auctions of course are priced in local currencies, the dollar, pound [-5%] and euro [-12.5] predominate but there are also sales in Mexican pesos, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars [-27.5% ] Swiss francs and occasionally a few others. We always convert to dollars to make comparison easier. This said, this past year has seen dramatic shifts in currency values that are affecting the overall market by creating larger differences in outcome by region.
Of course, in a perfect world, pric...
The advent of the internet twenty years ago changed the centuries-old bookselling process virtually overnight. Books had been sold locally by a local book shop going back to antiquity, when they we...
Introduction by Bruce McKinney
Some people have the book bug and Susan is one of them. She had been a book dealer for some fifty years. Over those years she has raised children, built a busin...
Fall is almost upon us, and this is the busiest time of year for auctions in the books and paper field. Over the next four months, we can expect to match or exceed last year's total of 165,000 lots...
August is the dead period for old books. Drouot closes its doors by mid-July and other websites like interenchères.com only list one auction sale in France for the period, the Galatau Pastaud's, wh...
Libraries have always attracted a certain number of people who just want to come in out of the rain, use the bathroom or snooze away the day in the cool reading room. But a review of recent media c...
This September Impact Events Group of Lexington, Massachusetts is producing a weekend fair in Brooklyn on September 18th and 19th. The venue is the Brooklyn Expo Center. It is a new show and alre...
A pair of well-established book and paper fairs are scheduled for this month in New England. There is no better time to get out and travel New England than late summer when the weather is neither t...
As the population in San Francisco increases, new buildings are being wedged into the available space. So too these buildings are taller and their rents higher. Internet madness has fully take...
Old World Auctions, the online-only auction house specializing in cartographic material, is hosting their 154th auction this month, and as is usual for them, the estimates are conservative and the ...
Thirteen years ago, on September 3rd, the Americana Exchange was launched into a world of printed materials that liked things the way they were. Some few, the founders and 40 paid members, mostly ...
On September 3, 2013, the Library of Birmingham (England) opened to much fanfare. It is a spectacular building. Nearly 2 ½ million people visited this architectural wonder last year. Built at a cos...
This month we have 11 new catalogues under review. Back of Beyond Books celebrates their 25th anniversary with their largest catalogue ever. For W. C. Baker Books and Ephemera, it's a beginning - c...
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary pair of books from George Washington’s field library, marking the conjunction of Robert Rogers, George Washington, and Henry Knox. $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary letter marking the conjunction of George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Benjamin Franklin. $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: Virginia House of Delegates. The genesis of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. $350,000 to $500,000.
Sotheby’s Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana 27 January 2026
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: (Gettysburg). “Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle”: Autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrated by fourteen maps and plans. $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: President Lincoln thanks a schoolboy on behalf of "all the children of the nation for his efforts to ensure "that this war shall be successful, and the Union be maintained and perpetuated." $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Jan. 27:</b> [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9d2762bc-9f26-47ef-96de-1c28070e19f6.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Jan. 27:</b> [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.")