Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2018 Issue

On 14 June Christie's to auction the Portland Audubon

Christie's recently announced it will be selling the Portland copy of Audubon’s double elephant folio Birds of America that was published 1827-1838.  This same set was sold in 2012 and returns to the rooms for another rendezvous with history, fate, money and the auctioneer’s hammer.  It will encourage comparisons and may be a bellwether for a market that is skewing both high and low.  The overall market has been in a soft decline while the best material has been rising.  Audubon is the best of the best.  The estimate will be $8-12 million and the proceeds go to benefit charitable conservati...

Read More

Software Used to Catch Plagiarizing Students Nabs Shakespeare

Poor Shakespeare. For centuries, people have claimed he didn't actually write his plays. Various names have been put forth as the real author of Shakespeare's plays by people who cannot believe an ...

Read More

The ABAA New York Book Fair

Come the second weekend in March the American Antiquarian Booksellers' Association [aka ABAA] will host their 58th Annual New York International Book Fair at the Seventh Regiment Armory at 643 Park...

Read More

New York: The Shadow Fairs

The ABAA Rare Book Fair is a New York institution.  Exhibitors are limited to they who are members of the ABAA or ILAB, the international umbrella association for 22 national antiquarian bookseller...

Read More

March Auctions in New York

Until a few years ago a book collector could expect the New York ABAA Book Fair to draw the cognoscenti from around the world in early April.  Well, that was then and this is now and the ABAA’s New...

Read More

The Curtis Census – Locating Every Extant Copy of Edward Curtis' North American Indian

In 1906 Edward Curtis took on a massive project. Curtis was a self-taught photographer, a man with no more than an eighth grade education who managed to set up a studio in Seattle doing photographi...

Read More

Mar. 9: Extraordinary Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams

Every month I cover a handful of sales for Rare Book Monthly, and “Fine Books and Manuscripts” might be the most commonly used sale title I’ve come across. This month, however, Bonhams has upped th...

Read More

Woman Sentenced to Six Years in Prison in $100,000 Comic Book Theft Case

An Illinois woman has been sentenced to six years in prison, and almost $400,000 in restitution, which the judge noted she will never be able to repay, for the theft of an author's comic book colle...

Read More

The Portable Lavater: Never judge a book by its forehead

As Jamaican singer Horace Andy once sang: you see a man’s face, but you can’t see his heart—well, actually you can read a man’s thoughts on his face, providing that you know of a little book from t...

Read More

Swann Swinging for the Fences

March has been transformed from a quiet month for rare books and historic paper into an important month, the cause the shift of the ABAA Fair at the Armory from an April to a March event to accommo...

Read More

British Librarian Steals Books, Burns Them to Cover Up the Crime

A British librarian has been sentenced to 6 months in jail for stealing books from her library, and another two months for burning some of them to hide the crime. That latter crime is even worse, t...

Read More

Wiener Werkstätte - The Luxury Of Beauty

Unless you’re a hard core Vienna enthusiast in love with the many kinds of art, architecture and design produced by the Wiener Werkstätte (WW) between 1903 and 1932, you might want to scroll past t...

Read More

Would You Like to Be a Published Author? It's Easier Than You Think

Is it not the dream of readers and everyone else connected to books to someday be an author yourself? Well, the other day, the opportunity came to me in an email, tucked away in my spam folder. A f...

Read More

The Science History Institute Posts Its Collection Online

A collection of images from the Science History Institute, primarily related to chemistry, is now available for viewing online, with many free for the download. There are currently just over 5,000 ...

Read More

Six New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

There are six new booksellers' catalogues reviewed this month. Langdon Manor Books has a collection of African Americana. The George S. MacManus Company targets the American West. The William Reese...

Read More

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.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions