Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2018 Issue

Bill Reese: In Memoriam

In the rare book business a few names resonate down through the ages, their quotes, collections, statements, catalogues and books so substantial that even their ephemera and paraphernalia become collectible.  Often their hard edges and hard truths dissolve in the alchemy of death that transforms careers into dirges of praise.  Bill Reese is the latest of such men, one of the very few who can be mentioned in the company of Streeter, Eberstadt, Rosenwald, Rosenbach and Huntington.  As collectors and/or dealers they had their strengths and weaknesses but in the fullness of time have emerged as...

Every Merchant May Soon Have to Collect Sales Taxes for Every State Thanks to Supreme Court Decision

The U. S. Supreme Court reached an important, not particularly unexpected decision on sales taxes that potentially effects everyone who sells anything into a state other than their own. The court h...

Stolen Columbus Letter Returned to its Home

Columbus has sailed back home, in a manner of speaking. A Columbus Letter, one of the high points of any collection of Americana, has been returned to its rightful home. That home is in the Vatican...

Reading and Writing: hum

Reading primarily from printed forms, as a fundamental skill to engage with the world, seems to be under some pressure.  The issue isn’t that people can’t read.  Rather it’s that the forms of readi...

“Bibliomania”: Do You Have a Collection or Do You Have a Disease?

    As a child I would accompany my book buying dad on his frequent rounds to the various basements and sub-basements of Goodwill Industries in Detroit, where the books were not shelved, but piled ...

July 10 & 11 at Forum Auctions: The Rothamsted Collection: Rarities from the Lawes Agricultural Library

Editor's note: Rupert Powell, the International Head of Books at Forum Auctions, has been part of the book world since 1985 (longer than I've been alive). After a long career at Bloomsbury, he has ...

The C.H. Booth Book Sale: July 7-11

As they have for many years, the C. H. Booth Library in Newtown, Connecticut is holding their annual Book Sale on July 7-11.  You have been to book fairs but you have not been to one on the grand s...

Suetonius and the 12 Caesars, Lives (almost) Uncensored

At the end of the 1st century, Pliny the Younger wrote to Suetonius: “Do me a favour, let me read your name at the frontispiece of a book.” Two thousand years later, Suetonius’ Lives of the 12 Caes...

Bookies Gathering in Detroit

No, it’s not the depression and it’s not the Mafia [although for safety sake [mine] I’m capitalizing it].  The Bookies, for the second year are gathering in Detroit for their Bookfest aka the Annua...

Great Catalogues by Master Booksellers

John R. Payne, bookman and appraiser, has cut the collecting apple in an unusual way.  He has written a folio volume about the best, preferred, and desirable cataloguers and catalogues he happened ...

July 28: Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions

This month, Chicago-based Potter Potter Auctions is hosting a July 28th sale of Fine Books Manuscripts comprising 619 lots of diverse material. Books and manuscripts certainly make up a large por...

Library of Congress Receives Enormous Donation of Comic Books

The Library of Congress has received an enormous book donation, though not the sort of books one might expect to see in Congress' library - comic books. Perhaps, these are what our Congressmen and ...

San Francisco Map Fair: September 21-23, 2018

The San Francisco Map Fair will take place in the Lodge at the Regency Center, 1290 Sutter St. in San Francisco, California.   Opening night Reception and Preview:  September 21st, 5:00 pm - 7:30...

"Law's Picture Books" Wins American Association of Law Libraries Award

Law’s Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection, a book published to accompany an exhibition of illustrated legal texts, recently won the 2018 Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award from the...

Sixteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month, we review 16 new bookseller catalogues. The variety is deep and wide. Several focus on travels and explorations. Maggs Bros. has a catalogue devoted to travels and voyages. Shapero Rare...

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