Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2018 Issue

Where Is the New Book Collector? How About on the New Social Media

Where is the new book collector? Maybe where the young congregate? Certainly, they can be found on social media, and even the older folks know Facebook, probably even have a page and participate. The young have not quite moved on from Facebook, but its role in their lives has diminished. Instead, other social media are taking up more of their time, and the greatest growth the last few years has come from Instagram. Not so many older people use Instagram, but the young do. In a relatively short time (it was created during this decade), it has grown to encompass a billion members. If I had ju...

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Jay Kislak: An Appreciation

Recently Grolier Club members received word that one of the brethren, Jay Kislak, had slipped away.  Death can be delayed but not avoided and we know this because, were it possible to beat death, J...

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Bill Helfand: gone but not to be forgotten

Bill Helfand, [William H. Helfand], an exceptional collector and member of the Grolier Club since 1978, passed away recently at 92 and left us much to consider.  He had a drug problem, that is, a l...

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Preliminary Hearing Held in $8 Million Book Theft Case

A preliminary hearing was held at the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in the case of the $8 million theft of books and maps from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library. Two individuals, library archivis...

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Voting in America

If you are eligible to vote in the US elections on November 6th I hope you will, regardless of your personal perspective.  Too often outcomes of elections are determined by who doesn’t vote.  Pleas...

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AbeBooks Top 10 Most Expensive Items for the Third Quarter of 2018

AbeBooks has released the list of their ten most expensive sales for the third quarter of 2018, July-September. It ranges from a couple of the great 17th century philosophers to some of the most po...

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Nick Aretakis to run the Americana Department at the William Reese Company

A few days ago we learned that Nick Aretakis, long a crucial part of the Reese team, after a four year absence while he established his own rare book business in California, will return to head the...

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Robert Chevalier de Beauchêne - The Real Fake Story of a Buccaneer

Robert Chevalier de Beauchêne was a bold and bloodthirsty buccaneer from New France (Canada). No wonder his memoirs were highly attractive in 1732, especially since they were put together by the po...

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Women Who Dared: From Sappho to Suffrage at the Bodleian through February

On the heels of its blockbuster Tolkien, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England hosts another important exhibit titled WOMEN WHO DARED: FROM SAPPHO TO SUFFRAGE. The show runs through February 2019...

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Museum of the Bible Finds Its Dead Sea Scroll Fragments Are Forgeries

The importance of authentication reared its head again in a discovery by the Museum of the Bible concerning fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in their collection. They aren't. Scientific research o...

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Abebooks to Restrict Seller Privileges for Four Countries

Recently a flurry of messages on ExLibris [exlibris-l@list.indiana.edu] indicated that dealers in various countries would lose listing privileges on Abebooks.com at the end of November.   Here is...

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Raptis Rare Books Adopts Invisible Marking System to Protect Books from Theft

Raptis Rare Books has become the first antiquarian bookseller to employ what is known as "synthetic DNA" to protect its clients from theft. Synthetic DNA is an invisible marker that is placed on bo...

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Now thru Nov. 14: Old World Auctions offers pictorial and persuasive maps

By the time November’s issue of Rare Book Monthly goes out, Old World Auctions’ Auction 170 will have been live for half a day or so. As always, their sale is online only, and this freshest offerin...

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Important Jewish and Israeli Material Offered in sale at Kedem Auction House

Kedem Auction House of Jerusalem is hosting a major sale of Jewish and Israeli material on November 13. You don't have to be present in Jerusalem to participate. Collectors all over the world may b...

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Man Arrested for Attempting to Steal Magna Carta

We have it on good authority, because the Guardian, Washington Post and NBC News have reported it, that a 45-year-old man recently decided to acquire one of the four [of 13 said to have once existe...

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Exhibition Catalogue Reproduces Maurice Sendak's Illustrations for William Blake's Songs of Innocence

In 1967, the acclaimed children's (and adults') author Maurice Sendak traveled to Britain to promote the first English edition of Where the Wild Things Are. It was almost his last trip anywhere. La...

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"The Holy Grail of Whiskey" Sells for $1.1 Million

In news from the world of collectibles, a bottle of whiskey sold last month at Bonham's for $1.1 million. It is described as the "Holy Grail of Whiskey." Holy Cow! Did someone drink up that bottle ...

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Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review five new bookseller catalogues. Michael D. Heaston Rare Books and Manuscripts presents an "Intercontinental Athenaeum," a collection of various subjects with most from the Nort...

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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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