Rare Book Monthly Articles - February - 2019 Issue

2018 - It Was a Very Good Year (for Books and Paper at Auction)

Prices rose sharply at auction in 2018 for collectible books and paper. The median price was up 6% over 2017, reversing a trend of flat to down since 2014. Prices in 2018 were the fifth highest on record. Another 2% increase will be sufficient to take prices above three of those higher years - 2014, 2006, and 2005. However, it will take another 16% to bring them above the skyrocketing prices of 2007, the year before the recession of 2008. Ten years later and there is still ground to make up. That is a reflection of just how serious the recession was. The only longer gap came after the Great...

Richard Ramer: A life of Books

Recently Richard Ramer, the New York and Lisbon Rare Book Antiquarian specializing in Portuguese and Spanish material, issued a 50th Anniversary catalogue to celebrate a half century in the field. ...

Lahaina Printsellers, Ltd.: Hawaii Antiquarian Dealers who Became Pioneers in High Quality Map & Print Reproduction

Alan and Charlene “Char” Walker have just completed their 40th year as owners of Lahaina Printsellers, Ltd., where they’ve been antiquarian dealers of maps and prints, pioneers in high quality digi...

Christina Geiger: Appointed Head of Books and Manuscripts at Christie's, New York

Christina Geiger has been appointed to one of the storied positions in the auction world:  head of the rare books and manuscripts department at Christie’s in New York.  It’s a role in which several...

AbeBooks 25 Most Expensive Sales for 2018

AbeBooks.com, the largest of the online old and rare book selling websites, has released their list of the Top 25 highest prices paid in 2018. AbeBooks has tens if not hundreds of millions of books...

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers Acquires Cowans of Cincinnati

We have, for years, seen more and more auction houses appearing online.  Some are new, others long established but only recently embracing the internet.  And so overall, year after year, the number...

After a 20 Year Wait, Books Are Again Entering the Public Domain

The year 1923 may not have been the greatest one in literary history, but it brought the first published work by one of the century's most notable writers, Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was only 24 y...

The 52nd California International Antiquarian Book Fair at Oakland February 8-10

This, every other year, event in the San Francisco Bay Area returns to the Oakland Marriott City Center in downtown Oakland for a three day run:  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, February 8 – 10.  Abo...

At Christie’s Paris on 20 February: Exceptional Material

On 20 February 2019, at 9, avenue Matignon, in Paris, Christie’s will sell to the highest bidder the Bibliotheque Marc Litzler.  They have prepared a significant catalogue that suggests confidence ...

Feb 2: Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions

Taking place a day after the February 2019 issue of Rare Book Monthly is released, Chicago-based auction house Potter Potter Auctions will be hosting a sale of Fine Books Manuscripts on February ...

Newseum Soon to be in the Past Tense

We are caught in that particular moment when old men, remembering their dreams, pay homage to them.  In some cases they remember a past no longer anchored in the present.  As a case in point, the G...

Aesop’s Fables, An Overshadowed Classic

Around 1775, printer Pierre Seyer from Rouen, France, put out a peddling book with dozens of engravings, La Vie et les Fables d’Esope—The Life and Fables of Aesop. Originally written in the 7th cen...

Houston Public Library Wins Suit Over "Drag Queen Storytime"

Libraries have frequently found themselves in the middle of censorship controversies, someone or other wishing to ban books they dislike for some reason or other. The Houston Public Library recentl...

Sacramento Man Charged with Stealing Thousands of Books from Library

A 46-year-old man has been arrested and charged with stealing a large number of books from the Fair Oaks Library, part of the Sacramento (California) Public Library system. When we say a large numb...

10 New Catalogues Reviewed for February

This month we review 10 new bookseller catalogues. Back of Beyond Books and Walkabout Books have combined to create a large catalogue of material relating to America's National Parks. Richard C. Ra...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Doyle, May 1: Thomas Jefferson expresses fears of "a war of extermination" in Saint-Dominigue. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An exceptional presentation copy of Fitzgerald's last book, in the first issue dust jacket. $25,000 to $35,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The rare first signed edition of Dorian Gray. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The Prayer Book of Jehan Bernachier. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Van Dyck's Icones Principum Virorum Doctorum. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The magnificent Cranach Hamlet in the deluxe binding by Dõrfner. $7,000 to $10,000.
    Doyle, May 1: A remarkable unpublished manuscript of a voyage to South America in 1759-1764. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Bouchette's monumental and rare wall map of Lower Canada. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An rare original 1837 abolitionist woodblock. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An important manuscript breviary in Middle Dutch. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An extraordinary Old Testament manuscript, circa 1250. $20,000 to $30,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Isaac Newton on chemistry and matter, and alchemy, Autograph Manuscript, "A Key to Snyders," 3 pp, after 1674. $100,000 - $150,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Exceptionally rare first printing of Plato's Timaeus. Florence, 1484. $50,000 - $80,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: On the Philosophy of Self-Interest: Adam Smith's copy of Helvetius's De l'homme, Paris, 1773. $40,000 - $60,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: "Magical Calendar of Tycho Brahe" - very rare hermetic broadside. Engraved by Merian for De Bry. c.1618. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Author's presentation issue of Einstein's proof of Relativity, "Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkur aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie." 1915. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: First Latin edition of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. Paris, 1520. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: De Broglie manuscript on the nature of matter in quantum physics, 3 pp, 1954. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Tesla autograph letter signed on electricty and electromagnetic theory. 1894. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Heinrich Hertz scientific manuscript on his mentor Hermann Von Helmholtz, 1891. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: The greatest illustrated work in Alchemy: Micheal Maier's Atalanta Fugiens. Oppenheim, 1618. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Illustrated Alchemical manuscript, a Mysterium Magnum of the Rosicurcians, 18th-century. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Rare Largest Paper Presentation Copy of Newton's Principia, London, 1726. The third and most influential edition. $60,000 - $90,000

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