Rare Book Monthly Articles - May - 2016 Issue

The New York Book Fair: Great Fun

  One of the great pleasures of the New York Antiquarian Book Fair in New York every April is its certainty.  Life has its ups and downs but somehow each April the leading dealers, institutions and collectors find a way to get past life’s debris to rally around the material on which the field thrives; rare, beautiful and unusual works on paper.  In some years events in the real world crowd out the joy and pleasure in the Park Avenue Armory, in others the skies are clear, the daffodils are out, and smiles are everywhere.  The 2016 NYABF goes into the records as a very strong event, as David...

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An Open Letter to the Trustees of the Armory

Rebecca Robertson, President and Executive Producer Park Avenue Armory 643 Park Avenue New York, New York 10065   Dear Ms. Robertson;   Concerning the Armory and its relationship to the prin...

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A Shakespeare First Folio, Long Lost, Is Found

A long lost copy of Shakespeare's First Folio has been discovered, in just the sort of place you would most likely expect to find one – in the forgotten corner of a Scottish castle on the Isle of B...

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Winnie the Pooh celebrates 90th Anniversary in 2016

"Winnie-the-Pooh," (a bear of very little brain) turns 90 this year. The fictional English bear and other characters created by A.A. Milne first appeared in print in 1926 in a small volume that was...

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A Foundation and a Museum Battle Over Maurice Sendak's Estate

The dispute over the estate of children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak has turned from ugly to downright personal, according to an article recently published by the Philadelphia Inqui...

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British Bookseller Brutally Murdered

A British bookseller was brutally murdered in his Oxford home early last month. Adrian Greenwood, who was also a historian, antique seller, and writer, was found dead in the hallway of his home by ...

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Cartouche, or The Thieves of the 5th Republic

The economic crisis, the Panama Papers affair, the Protection of trade secrets law and the many financial scandals lately revealed in France have weakened the current 5th Republic and generated a g...

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May 25: Landmark Abolitionist Material and Americana at Sotheby's New York

It's not often the autographs of nearly a quarter of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence are available in a single sale. Implausibly, this fact isn't even the biggest story of said s...

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The London Antiquarian Book Fair: Live at Olympia

What New York is to the new world London is to the old.  In May, Thursday -Saturday the 26th to the 28th, 180 dealers from the United Kingdom and beyond will meet again at the National convention h...

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The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book & Paper Arts Fair Celebrates its 10th Anniversary

The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book Paper Arts Fair Celebrates its 10th Anniversary. The St. Louis Fine Print, Rare Book and Paper Arts Fair, presented by the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the U...

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Tenth Annual Rose City Book & Paper Fair Set for June 3-4

The tenth annual Rose City Book Paper Fair has been scheduled for Friday, June 3, and Saturday, June 4 this year. The City of Roses is Portland, Oregon, and every spring booksellers and collectors...

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Yet Another Book Theft – This Time $200,000 Worth of Comics

Another month, another book theft. The stories are distressingly repetitive. This month it is comic books, the books we collected as kids and our mothers threw away. They didn't understand. Actuall...

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Laws of Baseball

Recently SCP Auctions, who specialize in sports memorabilia, sold “Laws of Base Ball” for $3.26 million.  It’s a great price although 25% less than the same house sold, in 2012, a Babe Ruth 1920 je...

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Its All in the Name

The answer to struggling booksellers' sales issues is so simple and obvious it is a wonder so few have picked up on this before. The answer comes to us from Melbourne, Australia, where high rents o...

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17 Booksellers' Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we have 17 book catalogues to review. A wide range of subjects for collectors are covered by these selections. Dr. Jorn Gunther Rare Books offers a spectacular collection of early bibles...

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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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