Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2019 Issue

Site Changes Coming on Rare Book Hub: the only constant is change.

For Americana Exchange and more recently its successor Rare Book Hub change has always been part of the equation.  Change online is necessary as the structure of the Internet evolves, speeds increase, and underlying assumptions about how websites function and are used, change.  Early on the focus was on duplicating print services electronically. The idea was to create a great portable library that researchers could access at their desks.  For those who tried it in 2002, it worked but most did not need it because the post-World War II structure of the rare book business was still, if waverin...

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A Complex Year for collectors, libraries and dealers

The world is in flux.  Books have a history but do they have a future?  Let’s consider the perspectives.   Change has always been part of the human experience but rarely have the changes been so ...

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Unique Charlotte Bronte Book Makes It Home after a 189-Year Journey

A book by Charlotte Bronte is finally coming home, after passing through the hands of two criminals, 189 years after it was written. The home of Charlotte and her star-crossed sisters is now the Pa...

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Books Are Disappearing from an Idaho Library, But It's No Theft

Books disappearing from library shelves is a longstanding problem that still plagues libraries despite all the security cameras and measures taken over the years. However, a strange case of disappe...

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William H. Bonney Lives on

Billy the Kid was a bad guy who achieved immortality killing people back when killing people one at a time still made the news.  These days it takes 5 to make the papers on a busy day or occasional...

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A Library Dies, Its Books A-Mouldering in Their Grave

The sad story of the death of a library in Jackson, Mississippi, recently completed its final act. The library board has abandoned its interest in the building, its 34,000 books destroyed, and many...

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Cartouche ou Le Vice Puni: First, Pirate and Best Editions...

Louis-Dominique Cartouche (1693-1721), the most famous French robber of the Ancien Régime, inspired many writers including Nicolas Racot de Grandval, who published Le Vice Puni, ou Cartouche (Anver...

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Shapero Rare Books' Parent Reports a Return to Profitability

Things are looking up for rare book seller Shapero Rare Books and its parent company. Shapero Rare Books is part of publicly traded company Scholium Group, which means it is required to provide aud...

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Allom’s Chinese Empire Series Images Are Wide Ranging & Detailed

Described as,”Arguably one of the most appealing pictorial books published during the mid-1800s, The Chinese Empire Illustrated, (known also as China, its scenery, architecture, social habits c. il...

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Offering the Repugnant

Recently in Germany at auction house Hermann Historica in a sale of German Contemporary History, 842 lots including hundreds of Nazi items were sold.  For many the idea that such material is availa...

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Annual Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair Held on December 6-7

The annual Northampton Book and Book Arts Fair will be held on Friday, December 6, and Saturday, December 7 this year. Hours on Friday are 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Hours on Saturday are 10:00 a.m. - 4...

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eCatalogues: just in time for the holidays

As we enter this holiday season we want to remind our members and visitors of the cataloging trend now well underway, that is seeing the decline of the printed catalogue in favor of the eCatalogue ...

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Fourteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

For December we review 14 new bookseller catalogues. The Raab Collection celebrates 30 years in the field with a selection of important autograph material. Mark Funke Bookseller offers a spectacula...

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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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