Rare Book Monthly Articles - September - 2019 Issue

Rare Book Hub: Sweet 17

It seems like only yesterday we started the Americana Exchange but in fact it’s been 17 years.  We joined the information age for the rare book field in September 2002 when we began to digitize standard references for the rare book field.  As a collector I wanted quick, broad access to what was known.  In time this led to our providing broad auction coverage as the number of auction houses, events, and lots exploded.  Soon after, we developed a single search of all upcoming auction lots in the books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera fields.   Fast forward, the world now expects up-to-date i...

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Mulvihill Collection acquires celebrated Scots astronomer, Mary Somerville

While the Mulvihill Collection focuses mostly on pre-1700 women writers (English, Irish, Dutch), it has recently acquired a special newcomer: Mary Somerville, her 1834 classic, On the Connexion of ...

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Here is How to Search All of the Auctions with One Mouse Click

We are about to enter the busy season for book and paper auctions. From now through the winter holidays you can expect to see the most, and much of the best material come up for sale. With so many ...

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Wright Howes and Howes’ Usiana Revisited

The Lives and Work of Wright and Zoe Howes and the Story of U.S.iana   For collectors of a certain age Wright Howes, the Chicago book dealer and author of Howes’ U.S.iana, is a mythic figure.  Bo...

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Comic Relief: Comic Thief Attempts to Sell Stolen Books to the Wrong Party

Here is a theft story with a happy ending. Actually, it is more than an ordinary happy ending as the irony is absolutely beautiful.   Martin Casas of St. Louis owned a collection of 3,000 comic b...

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New Dealer Finds Much to Recommend in the Book Trade

Morgan Brynnan, 56, has a longstanding interest in books. The Gridley, CA. resident started as a library page in 1991, eventually got her degree and became a medical and academic librarian. Along t...

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Sep. 24: Artist books and other Italian material at Il Ponte Casa d'Aste

On September 24, 2019, Il Ponte Casa d’Aste’s sale of Books and Manuscripts is bringing 230 lots of interesting and varied material to auction in Milan. Some of the highlight sections include artis...

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Arthur Dunkelman Appointed Curator of the Kislak Collection at the University of Miami Richter Library

Arthur Dunkelman, Director and curator of the Jay I. Kislak Foundation has been appointed Curator of the Kislak Collection at the University of Miami’s Richter Library.  On September 5th the Kislak...

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Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair September 7-8

The Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, now in its 6th year, returns to the Brooklyn Expo Center, Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Saturday and Sunday September 7-8.  This is a Marvin Getman event, 1 of 6 in th...

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Le Gentil de la Barbinais, Too Gentle a Circumnavigator

Le Gentil de la Barbinais is the alleged first French circumnavigator. He left Cherbourg, France, in 1714, and came back 4 years later with a detailed relation, Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde (Pari...

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Art Work of Ulster County

When you collect extensively in a relatively narrow field and have been conversant in the subject for more than fifty years you don’t expect to find that you’ve never seen or even heard of a primar...

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Annual Boxborough Paper Fair Set for Saturday, September 21, 2019

The annual Boxborough Paper Fair is set for Saturday, September 21, this year. Hours are from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 pm. It will be held, naturally enough, in Boxborough, Massachusetts, at the Boxboro Re...

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Scholium Group Experiences Slight Loss for the Year

Scholium Group, parent of rare book seller Shapero Rare Books, reported their financial results recently for the year ending March 31, 2019. They were essentially flat, sales up some, but the botto...

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Flood Washes Out Tens of Thousands of Books

We have occasional stories of destruction of libraries caused by the elements in the West, but this one from India tells of destruction on an enormous scale. Some 60,000-90,000 books have been dest...

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Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

We are just finishing the summer doldrums, so there are only five new catalogues reviewed this month. Michel Bouvier offers a catalogue of material by and about Victor Hugo and his family. The Will...

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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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