Rare Book Monthly Articles - May - 2017 Issue

The World as it will Be

Books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera are real but their world has, for years, been losing locations on Main Streets, High Streets and Broadways around the world.  Why?  Parts of it are, [1] changing tastes, [2] rising prices, [3] thinning markets, [4] the Internationalization of these markets, and [5] the aging of core buyers and collectors.  These changes have remade the field into a more event based business with a succession of collector/collecting shows and auctions to capture the attention of the everyday market.   The decline of shops has long been understood to be a disaster becau...

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The World from Afar

Occasionally my wife Jenny and I get a few days to a few weeks away.  Recently we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary and spent two weeks in Japan.  The trip reprised part of my first trip to A...

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Booking It in South America

Hola! We finally did it. We went around Cape Horn after reading about it and talking about it for years and it was a grand adventure. We are two old traditional sailors/booksellers, who are getting...

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Three Years After a Print Went Missing, Boston Public Library Invests $15.7 Million to Preserve Its Rare Book and Manuscript Collection

Three years ago, in the summer of 2014, an assistant in the Print Department of the Boston Public Library noticed two old prints were missing. This was not a small matter. One was a Durer valued at...

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Insuring Valuable Books: Some Comments from a Specialist

Even though there are a great many companies that advertise themselves as insurance specialists for collectors, when you visit their sites you find there is precious little specific information pro...

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Sex, Androids and Quilts: It's Time for Bookfinder's Most Highly Sought After Out-of-Print Books

Bookfinder.com has published its list of the most sought after titles from 2016. It's an eclectic bunch. Bookfinder is a meta-search engine, that is, it searches multiple book listing sites, rather...

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Pick of the Litter

Once a year or so I receive an unpretty box that is wrapped in a nuclear-proof way to ensure the contents arrive in good order.  The shipper is one of the great holdouts to today’s upscale packing ...

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A Long Ago Stolen Library Book and A Guilty Conscience Lead to a Remarkable Reunion

Few book thefts are resolved by a guilty conscience, particularly when the victim doesn't even know the book was stolen. Usually, the guilty conscience only comes into play after the thief is caugh...

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Frank Herrmann [1927-2017]

Frank Herrmann, writer, publisher and auctioneer died at his home In Essex on Sunday, a month short of his 90th birthday, following a long battle with illness.   After a distinguished career in p...

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Results at Publicly Traded Scholium (Shapero Rare Books) "Stabilised" and "Improving"

After a rough first half of their fiscal year (year ending March 31, 2017), Scholium Group, parent of English bookseller Shapero Rare Books, reported conditions have stabilized and are now looking ...

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May 22: Rare Books and Manuscripts, Very Old (and Some Newer) Material at Il Ponte Casa d'asti

This article is one of three previews of international sales I've covered this month. Il Ponte Casa d’Aste, the Milan-based auction house that was founded in 1974, will be holding a sale of Books a...

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Isert: A Voyage Through Slavery

Why do we read travel books instead of travelling ourselves? Well, only an old book like Paul Erdman Isert’s Voyages en Guinée dans les îles Caraibes en Amérique (Maradan, 1793) will take you to t...

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May 9: 1343 AD to the State of Israel and Everything in Between: Rare Jewish Material at Kedem Auctions

For the month of May, I’ve written three previews of international events. One of these is a sale by Kedem Auctions, an auction house headquartered in Jerusalem that was established in 2008. The na...

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AbeBooks Top 10 Highest Prices for the First Three Months of 2017

Which books are bringing the highest prices on the listing sites right now? AbeBooks, the largest of them all, has released their list of the top 10 highest prices paid on their site during the fir...

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May 9: Maps and Atlases Take Center Stage at Sotheby's London

This month I’ve written three previews of international sales, one of which is Sotheby’s sale of Travel, Atlases, Maps Natural History on May 9, 2017 in London. One hundred twenty-eight lots are o...

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The Decades-Old Amazon Sales Tax Battle Comes to an End, But a Second One Begins

A war was waged between Amazon and the states over the issue of sales tax collection for almost two decades. It was a pitched battle, with states passing legislation, going to court, and looking to...

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Portland's Annual Rose City Book Fair Set for June 16-17

Dates have been set for the annual Rose City Book and Paper Fair. This is a favorite in the City of Roses, aka Portland, Oregon. This year's fair with be the 11th, and will draw 50+ dealers, and an...

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Eight New Book Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review eight new booksellers' catalogues recently published. There isn't much in common between them other than they all offer books. Dr. Jorn Gunther Rare Books has a catalogue of "V...

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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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