• 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
  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    20 March 2024
    Koller, Mar. 20: DADA - Der Zeltweg. Redaktion: Flake, Serner, Tzara. Zürich, 1919. CHF 5,000 – 8,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Jespers, Floris - Peeters, Jan. Kinderlust. Antwerpen, J. F. Bogaerts & R. R. Dodson, [1923]. CHF 2,000 – 3,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: FARBENLEHRE - Chevreul, M. E. De la Loi du contraste simultané des couleurs et de l'assortiment des objets colorés. Paris, 1839. CHF 4,000 – 5,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: BOTANIK - Schrank, Franz de Paula von. Flora Monacensis, seu plantae sponte circa Monachium nascentes. München, 1811-1818. CHF 20,000 – 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: French Bible manuscript. Latin manuscript on parchment. With 81 illuminated, ornamental and figurative initials. Paris, c. 1250. CHF 90,000 – 120,000
    Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    20 March 2024
    Koller, Mar. 20: Gradual for the use of a Dominican convent. Latin manuscript on parchment, with Flemish rubrics in black and red. Mecheln (?), c. 1520. CHF 25,000 – 40,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Calendar. French manuscript on parchment. With 12 large colored thorn leaf initials on a gold background. Paris, c. 1380/1390. CHF 40,000 – 60,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Freud, Sigmund. Collection of 23 handwritten letters to Alphonse Maeder in Zurich. In addition to 4 letter drafts from Maeder to Freud. 2 February 1910 - 21 September 1913. CHF 50,000 – 80,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Jung, Carl Gustav. Collection of 26 autograph and 3 typescript letters and a postcard to Alphonse Maeder. 1911-1918. CHF 20,000 – 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Nietzsche, Friedrich, philosopher. Handwritten letter signed to Richard Wagner. Basel, September 27, 1876. CHF 20,000 to 30,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas

Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2020 Issue

12 Defendants Sentenced in $3 Million “Mission Impossible” Book Theft

The day of reckoning finally arrived for 12 of the participants in the extraordinary “Mission Impossible” book theft in January 2017. That was when three of them climbed down a rope from a skylight in a London warehouse and rose back up 5 hours later with over 200 rare and valuable books. As to why they chose to remove them that way, other than the obvious that the books did not belong to them, the answer was to avoid the alarm sensors which were all aimed at the doors. The valuable rare books, belonging to two dealers from Italy and one from Germany, were in the warehouse awaiting shipment...

John Crichton: a career in the rare book trade

John Crichton, career antiquarian as proprietor of The Brick Row Book Shop, lives comfortably within the two worlds in which rare books and collectible paper exist; between commerce and academics. ...

Suspect Arrested in 10-Year-Old Cold Case Murder of Salt Lake City Bookseller Sherry Black

On the morning or early afternoon of November 30, 2010, Salt Lake City bookseller Sherry Black was brutally murdered in her shop. She had been stabbed at least 20 times and beaten, her body sexuall...

In the Age of Ephemera

Books have long been the mainstay in the ‘printed’ category while other printed forms have periodically captured the headlines and imaginations of collectors and collecting institutions.  But we se...

Shakespeare First Folio Sells for Record Breaking Price of Almost $10 Million

A copy of the first edition of William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, better known as the “First Folio,” sold at Christie's on October 14 for a record-smashing price of just a hair ...

The ABAA rethinking the world

Susan Benne is the Executive Director of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America.  A substantial portion of her work normally relates to building awareness of the association’s activiti...

Dada Data: Books and Boîtes by Marcel Duchamp and Others online 9—16 November 2020 at Sothebys.com

Carlos Alberto Cruz a distinguished Chilean architect, art collector, and connoisseur, was also a renowned bibliophile and Honorary Director of the Sociadad de Bibliofilos Chilenos. He assembled a ...

Everything Old is New Again. Marvin Getman Finds a Strong Market for Virtual Book Fairs. Others Also Offer the Online Fair Experience.

“I worked very hard to be first,” said Marvin Getman, 70, the longtime Boston based businessman whose company Book Paper Fairs has hosted book fairs for 40 year. Traditional events were hit hard b...

AbeBooks Top 10 Most Expensive Sales for the Third Quarter of 2020

The third quarter of 2020 may have been a difficult quarter for most everything else, but it didn't discourage AbeBooks' higher-end buyers. The effect the pandemic would have on in-store sales was ...

Baseball Card Sells for Record Price of $3,936,000

Move over Honus Wagner. Wagner, the turn-of-the-century baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, has long ruled the collectible works on paper field known as baseball cards. We used to flip thes...

Ecce Homo: La Faute à Voltaire...

On October 16, French teacher Samuel Paty was murdered and beheaded in the middle of the street, near Paris, France, by a Muslim fanatic. Paty had shown Muhammad’s caricatures (see our article on C...

The Annual Boston Antiquarian Book Fair (Now Virtual Fair) Will Be Held Nov. 12-14

The annual Boston Antiquarian Book Fair will be held on November 12-14 this year. While this is the 44th annual fair, it is also the first Boston Virtual Book Fair. Hopefully, if there is a second,...

Nov. 20-22: 80+ booksellers exhibiting at IOBA's 2nd Virtual Book Fair

It’s an unfortunate reality that Covid-19 continues to seriously affect many countries around the world. The rare book field has certainly not been immune. Book fairs, like virtually every aspect o...

November 4-18: Old World Auctions' November auction focuses on fresh material

Old World Auctions has offered multiple sales of rare maps and books for a long time. The business has been around since 1978, and since 2011, Eliane and Jon Dotson have been sole proprietors of th...

Print is losing its grip

Utah is losing two of its’ daily newspapers, The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.  This story was printed on October 29th in America’s paper of record, The New York Times.  It’s another chap...

Upcycling Your Old Books

Alternative uses for books have become something of a rage recently. Over the first five centuries of their existence, there weren't many of these. Other than for reading, some books became items f...

In America: Vote

Vote   John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke to the ages at his inauguration on January 20th, 1961 when he said,   "We observe today not a victory but a celebration of freedom – symbolizing an end as w...

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review five new catalogues. Bull's Head Rare Books has issued their first catalogue and it's a “mixed grill.” Langdon Manor Books offers a selection of African Americana. Johnathan A....

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.

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