Now that the new year has arrived, it's time to look back at the old. Once again, we have tallied the Rare Book Hub Top 500 highest prices paid at auction in the books and paper field for the past year – 2016. Each individual item is something of a curiosity, but taken as whole, these lists can tell us something about the market. Perhaps we should specify about the top end of the market, because most collectors will never purchase anything in this range. With this kind of money, they will purchase something more practical, like a house.
Nothing reached the $9 million level this year, as...
A year ago as we made the year-end turn from 2015 to 2016 we reported that the Rare Book Hub Transaction Database had reached six million full text records. It’s now a year later and as we start 2...
Welcome to this third and final installment in my Guest Series on new editions of 17th-century women writers. This last essay discusses an extraordinary figure whose writings are a rich weave of in...
If you look at a slice of history, at a single area with very strong records, and if you then document in full text and cross index a fair approximation of all related printed and manuscript mat...
A collection of ephemeral material said to be worth £5 million* (about $6.3 million U.S. dollars) went up in flames on November 26 last. The fire was deliberate. It was a protest. However, while re...
Sven Becker recently was announced as new head of Books and Manuscripts at Christie's in New York and in early December assumed the post after serving in various capacities at Christie's in London ...
A new law concerning the sale of autograph material in the state of California, which caused booksellers much consternation when it was passed in September, goes into effect on January 1. It applie...
Sotheby’s bears no need for introduction, and their reputation often garners the attention of consigners with incredible material. While many auction houses can claim decades of auctioneer experien...
On December 1st Eric Caren announced in Rare Book Monthly that he would be selling his enormous archives of paper Americana. Less than a week later he was in discussion to sell a category of mater...
For many, the AbeBooks' website is a great place to buy used books for a low price. Students and casual readers have made the most of their bargains for twenty years. But then, there is a rarefied ...
In 2016 a variety of themes emerged in the Rare Book Monthly articles. Tracking the market was one of our most frequent and high visibility topics:
“Are books a good investment?” asked an artic...
According to the authoritative Larousse dictionary, the French word “badaud” refers to someone who “wanders around town, being curious of the various spectacles of life, and stopping to contemplate...
Case Antiques, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based auction house specializing in art and antiques, began having their rare books, maps, manuscripts, and ephemera lots added to the Rare Book Transaction Hi...
If Mohammed will not come to the mountain the mountain will come to him. Or so it seems. Mr. Murian, a man of bibliographic attainment with a shop in Scottsdale, Arizona explains in a clear way h...
Important old books tend to become harder and harder for collectors to find, as the best are either purchased by or given to institutions. Once there, it is expected they will never return to publi...
The Texas Booksellers Association is holding its annual Austin Book, Paper, Photo Show at the Norris Conference Center in Austin on Friday and Saturday January 13th and 14th. About 60 exhibitors ...
This month we review 13 new catalogues. Whitmore Rare Books features a selection of literary classics. Patrick McGahern Books is focused on the Arctic world. Samuel Gedge Ltd. offers a varied colle...
