Rare Book Monthly Articles - September - 2015 Issue

Changing Valuations

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...

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Breaking Down Borders: London Bookseller Peter Harrington Reaches Into the American Market

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...

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Susan Heller: The Road to Retirement with a Detour

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...

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The Auction Season Begins – Here's How to Search Them All

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...

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Gossiping in Montignac-Lascaux - Is the only summer auction in France worth attending?

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...

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Libraries Morph to Homeless Shelters

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...

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Brooklyn Books Art Photos & Design a Two Day Affair September 19-20

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...

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Annual Labor Day Weekend Mark Twain Library Fair in Redding Connecticut, Boxborough Paper Fair Set This Month

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...

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PBA Moves Uptown

  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...

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Old World Auctions: Maps, Maps, Maps from September 2nd to the 16th

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 ...

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Thirteen and Counting

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 ...

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In The News: A Couple of Libraries Struggle with Book Problems

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...

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Eleven New Book Catalogues Reviewed This Month

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...

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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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