Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2019 Issue

Acknowledging the increasing importance of Collectors in the Auction Rooms

Books at auction is not a new idea but rather one factor in the complex evolutionary chain that a hundred years ago efficiently recycled material from collectors to dealers who resold it.  And since 1980, what had been a wholesale market for dealers, began to become the retail market it is today.   Along the way many factors changed.  Databases exploded and most people with books of value consult them today.  These databases have also made it possible to identify the scale of non-standard subjects that are becoming the focuses of choice for many new collectors.  How is this done?  By deve...

AbeBooks Announces Top 10 Highest Prices for Third Quarter of 2019

AbeBooks has released their list of the Top 10 highest prices paid on their book selling website during the months of July-September. They fall into three categories: books or authors you know, ver...

The Boston Antiquarian Book Fair Nov. 15-17

A right of passage in New England each fall, the ABAA Book Fair in Boston, returns to the Hynes Center November 15-17.  This is one of the ABAA’s fairs and a stalwart event for east coast dealers a...

Boston Book, Print & Ephemera Fair Saturday 16 November, 2019

Boston, MA—On Saturday, November 16, 2019, the Boston Book, Print Ephemera Fair returns to the Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley at Stuart St., for its eight edition. The show features 60 deale...

A Classic Comic Strip is Making Its Return

There are no superheroes in this comic strip. No one is paying millions of dollars for a copy of her first edition. No one is spending tens of millions of dollars turning her into a super action fi...

Mark Twain's Signed Cave Finally Found

It is not too difficult to find items signed by Mark Twain. There are lots of signed books, letters, photographs, postcards, documents, even checks out there. However, a first for Twain autographs ...

Skinner’s Fine Books & Manuscripts Running from November 11th to the 17th

During the week of the Boston book fairs Skinner’s is running a 530 lot online auction of collectible paper including books, manuscripts, maps, photography, and ephemera.  It’s a very interesting s...

An Atheist History of Jesus Christ, Cursed are the meek...

In 1770, the atheist Philosopher Paul Henri Thiry, baron d’Holbach (1723-1789), revisited the history of Jesus Christ in his book Histoire critique de la vie de Jésus-Christ/A Critical History Of J...

The “Homicide Library” Has Opened in Los Angeles

A new library has opened in Los Angeles, but it is not your typical library. Rather, it is officially known as the “Homicide Library.” It will house what are called “murder books.” This is not a pl...

For the Love of Books by Thatcher Wine & Elizabeth Lane

In the past year I’ve seen cultured approaches to collectors and collecting presented in magazines both by Freeman’s of Philadelphia and Christie's of everywhere else and thought this makes sense b...

The 18th Paris Map Fair Will Be Held on November 9

The 18th Paris Map, Instruments Globes Fair will be held on November 9 in, you guessed it, Paris, France. It will bring dealers in the map field from all over the world to one of the world's favor...

A Lighter Touch, Eight Vintage Fun Reads

Suicide, depression, anxiety, tornadoes, homelessness, hurricanes, tidal waves, impeachment, climate change, corruption and an unending litany of bad news 24/7. Yes my fellow book people, it’s scar...

Sometimes Worlds Converge

Kevin Kelly, an ABAA dealer and resident of New Paltz, New York is someone I’ve known for many years.  I grew up in New Paltz and was first introduced to book collecting there by Bill Heidgerd in t...

Dressy Books (or Bookish Dresses)

Here is a creative use for your old books now that no one reads anymore, except, maybe, on an electronic device. Credit this original idea to French fashion designer Sylvie Facon. According to her ...

Eight New Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review eight new bookseller catalogues. Aleph-Bet Books is offering a new selection of children's and illustrated books. Hordern House focuses on Australia and the Southern Hemisphere...

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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