Economic theories have been developed to explain future economic behavior by developing concepts that explain past behavior. Over the past three centuries, as economies moved beyond subsistence farming a steady flow of mechanical, scientific, health and travel improvements made it possible to rely less on human resources and more on science and engineering to grow ever larger crops with ever fewer people that, increasingly unneeded on farms, gravitated to cities to find work. Initially this was almost exclusively an English phenomenon.
This population, over time released from subsiste...
AbeBooks recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in business. That was the opening salvo in the new means of book selling that changed the trade as it had been known for over five centuries. Start...
Once a year I get a heads up from Peter Luke that he has assembled a stack of ephemera for me. He’s an antique, book and paper dealer in the upper Hudson Valley of New York State who, about once a...
Gibson Auction Service is a family owned and run business operating out of central Virginia. Serving mainly the local and drivable population, they offer all sorts of items for auction: personal pr...
There will be an amazing collection of Americana sold by Case Antiques Auction Appraisals of Knoxville on July 30. Books, autographs, early photographs, maps, and other paper, including a slave ar...
A recent find in the storage area of a Moscow art museum throws renewed light on the greatest pillage of books in recorded history. The tracking down of a stolen book, such as the recent return of ...
Winner’s Auctions and Exhibits is a branch of Judaica Jerusalem, the first auction house in Israel to host Judaica auctions on an international level. Based in Jerusalem, Winner’s brings over thirt...
The 32nd Annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair - Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6, 2016 in the Expo Building at the Denver Mart
A chance to see much of the regional field under one r...
Book theft is not a problem limited to the U.S. or even the West. RAPSI, the Russian Legal Information Agency, reports that three "members of an organized gang" have been sentenced to terms of 3.5 ...
“Would you believe that an unhappy book, nowadays insignificant and pale when compared to what we can say or write against our kings; that such a small book caused the death of several people?” ask...
It doesn’t happen often that I’m tasked with previewing an auction in which I struggle to find a single lot dating from later than the 16th century. Yet this is the case for Bloomsbury Auctions’ sa...
One more for the collectors of famous cases.
Whitey Bulger is still committing crimes but buyers of his memorabilia will have the last laugh. Whitey Bulger, the Boston criminal, now spends his...
A major controversy from last year over a library's plan to sell some of its rare books appears to have been quietly resolved in a way that will please those who support retention of the full colle...
Last month, my Dad Bruce wrote about a new London-based auction house called Forum Auctions, a venture by Stephan Ludwig, the founder of Bloomsbury Auctions. Forum describes themselves as London's ...
If you are an American bookseller selling your wares to out of state customers, be it online, through catalogues or the phone, one of these days you will probably have to collect all of those state...
This month we review seven new catalogues. Samuel Gedge Ltd., Forest Books, and Erasmushaus offer catalogues with a variety of mostly antiquarian works from what are, for the time being anyway, Eur...
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.
