What is my book worth? It depends who you ask.
A few days ago, I received an email from a Swiss rare book dealer who questioned why a book such as Alan Mann’s 2012, A Life of Chance, is priced on Abebooks from CHF 900 to CHF 2,986, on Amazon from $790 to $2,015 and on eBay new for $140 while the original price in 2012 was $79.50. On waterstones.com website it’s listed at BP55 but shown to be out-of-stock.
Here is how Waterstones describes it:
Alan Mann was one of the great motor racing team managers of the 1960s. A successful race driver himself, he played a key role in Ford's...
Here is the ultimate example of turning lemons to lemonade. A book theft from a university library was turned into a movie, which is now being used to raise funds for that library. The thieves cert...
In case you hadn’t noticed cookbooks still sell. Old and new, bright or faded, pristine or with loose hinges, covered with pencil scribbles and pages interleaved with clipped recipes…. macht nichts...
Browser Books at Fillmore and Sacramento in San Francisco has been in business since 1976. In other words, its forty-two-year corporate life spans the period from the last decade of pre-Internet t...
The University of Illinois reported that it had recently obtained an important late 17th century document for its Rare Book and Manuscript Library. It did not come cheaply. They paid $275,000 for i...
I recently bid on and won an interesting Sammelband of printings from the years 1841-1843, all of which appear to have been printed in and around New York. On the binding the first, and longest it...
This is both a very ordinary and extraordinary document! A four-page booklet printed on uncut paper in 1733. There are hundreds of those Arrêts de la Cour du Parlement—official publications emanati...
The fourteenth of June marks the date of two sales at Christie’s in New York. Two sales, with different sale numbers, but truly they are one (and in fact the first sale contains just one item, lot ...
Some of the world's earliest written "books" are being returned to their homeland. For many years, cuneiform tablets and such were regularly taken from their homes in the Middle East. Sometimes, th...
Collections and inventories are organized for retrieval and study and every collection is a combination of items in support of a theme. On June 7th Swann will sell a broad cross section of single ...
Editor's Note: The following remembrance of Lord John Kerr has been prepared by his friend and colleague, Rupert Powell.
Lord John Kerr, one of the true doyens of the antiquarian book world,...
Two hundred eighty-seven lots comprise Bonhams June 12thsale in New York of Fine Books and Manuscripts, and they cover a lot of ground. From incunabula to World War II, focused collectors of many s...
If thievery is the best form of flattery, comic books are a hot item these days. Once upon a time, comic book theft usually meant some kid walking out of a newsstand without paying for his latest c...
The rare book business is in transition and we are all looking for a solution. Turns out some of the answers are on the silver screen. The movie is the “Book Club”, the story of four women and th...
It is long overdue, but one of America's greatest writers, orators, and voices of freedom has finally received a degree from his hometown university, the University of Rochester. It is an honorary ...
This month we review nine new bookseller catalogues. They are a varied group. Ursus Rare Books has a selection of artistic works from the 20th century. Shapero Rare Books focuses on natural history...
Sotheby's Fine Books & Manuscripts Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Balthus, Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights, New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1993. 6,600 USD.
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. Complete Works, Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott Company & Chapman & Hall, LD, 1850. Limited Edition set of 30 volumes. 7,500 USD.
Sotheby’s: John Lennon, Yoko Ono. Handwritten Letter from John Lennon and Yoko Ono to their Chauffer. 1971. 32,500 USD.
Sotheby’s: Winston Churchill. First edition of War Speeches, Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1941. Set of 7 volumes. 5,500 USD.
Sotheby’s: Andy Warhol, Julia Warhola. Holy Cats First Edition, Signed by Andy Warhol. 1954. 30,000 USD.
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