Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2020 Issue

Every Auction Has a Story and sometimes they get dark

Every Auction Has a Story and sometimes they get dark

On 16 May 1870 the inventory and collection of Edward P. Boon was offered at auction at Leavitt Strebeigh in New York.  It was an important sale because of its contents and significant that its consignor selected Leavitt rather than Bangs, who was the perennial leader in New York auctioning collectible paper.  Boon's first sale was committed earlier while two other sales remained to be confirmed.  Bangs wanted them.  The market was already off and Leavitt in an increasingly strong position.  As an auction power since the 1840’s, Bangs had been through thick and thin periods but 1870 was fee...

Rant of the eBay Power Seller: Part III

Rant of the eBay Power Seller: Part III

Remember me, your friendly Hawaii antiquarian dealer, frequent Rare Book Hub contributor and long time ‘Power Seller’ on eBay with 1,566 feedback comments and a 100% positive rating? I’ve written t...

The Voynich Manuscript Code Finally Broken...Again

The Voynich Manuscript Code Finally Broken...Again

At last, the code to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript has been broken. Stop me if you've heard this before. Many have tried to break this code, almost as many have claimed to, and yet the language...

Marvin Getman:  the book fair visionary

Marvin Getman: the book fair visionary

Marvin Getman, the established book fair promoter, saw that business brought to a full stop by the emergence of Covid-19 in early 2020.  His response was to develop another way to replicate the sho...

AbeBooks Top 10 Prices for April-June

AbeBooks Top 10 Prices for April-June

AbeBooks has announced its Top 10 highest prices paid for books on their website during the second quarter of 2020. There is something for everyone here, at least everyone with a healthy amount of ...

Rare Book Hub: into the great beyond:  10,000,551 full text records

Rare Book Hub: into the great beyond: 10,000,551 full text records

Rare Book Hub, nee Americana Exchange on September 3, 2002, began its journey into building a complete record of auction appearances and outcomes of collectible books, manuscripts, maps and ephemer...

Help A Salt Lake City and American Tradition Survive the Virus

Help A Salt Lake City and American Tradition Survive the Virus

Ken Sanders Rare Books has been serving customers throughout the American West and beyond for most of five decades from their store in Salt Lake City. The book business has been challenging in rece...

Isaac Weld in America, or when America was (about to be) great.

Isaac Weld in America, or when America was (about to be) great.

When was America great? Maybe in its infancy, just after the glorious War of Independence? Wasn’t it then a promising land of freedom and opportunity? A New Jerusalem, and a shelter for those who l...

Are Live Book Fairs Done for the Year?

Are Live Book Fairs Done for the Year?

There is still almost half of the year left, but it may not be too soon to ask, will there be any more live book fairs in 2020? The last of the major fairs this year was held at the beginning of Ma...

A New Paltz Clock:  a moving experience

A New Paltz Clock: a moving experience

A New Paltz Clock:  a moving experience   Almost two years ago I ran across an old clock described as “Rare Sidney Wall Clock” at auction at Fontaine’s Auctions online during the summer of 2018. ...

Is It Legal to Create Digital Copies of Copyrighted Books?

Is It Legal to Create Digital Copies of Copyrighted Books?

Last month we wrote about a contentious dispute between the Internet Archive and four large book publishers over the use of digitized copies of printed books (click here). The Internet Archive hold...

Money Money Money

Money Money Money

Covid-19 and the turgid economy present a lethal mixture of possibilities that will work themselves out over the next five years.  For book dealers and collectors these issues will present addition...

It Was a Profitable Year for Shapero Rare Books, But...

It Was a Profitable Year for Shapero Rare Books, But...

Scholium Group, parent of London bookseller Shapero Rare Books, recently released their earnings report for their past fiscal year, ending on March 31, 2020. It was a good year. The firm, of which ...

A New Use for Old Books – Commercialized Art

A New Use for Old Books – Commercialized Art

The sin of book desecration has a new convert and the outrage has spread through the world of social media like a video of a cute kitten playing with a ball of yarn. We have seen people cut books a...

Only One New Catalogue This Month

Only One New Catalogue This Month

The coronavirus has taken its toll on book catalogues. Most booksellers appear to be hunkering down to weather the storm, rather than aggressively promoting into it. Add to that summer being the sl...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1481 ❧ THE FIRST VIEW OF VENICE. ROLEWINCK, WERNER. 1425-1502. $8,000 - $12,000.
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1496 ❧ GREEK INCUNABLE. MANUTIUS, ALDUS. 1449-1515. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1544 ❧ THE SQUARING OF THE CIRCLE. FINÉ, ORONCE. 1494-1555. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1544 ❧ ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SCIENTIFIC BOOKS OF THE RENAISSANCE. $12,000 - $18,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1544 ❧ RENAISSANCE CYPHERS AND REBUSES. PALATINO, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. 1515-1575. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1588 ❧ "ONE OF THE MOST ELEGANTLY PRODUCED OF ALL TECHNOLOGICAL TREATISES." $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1618 ❧ THREE DUTCH EMBLEM BOOKS BY DANIEL HEINSIUS BOUND IN ONE. $5,000 - $8,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1710 ❧ A BEAUTIFULLY COLORED "PRINT BIBLE". BASNAGE, JAKOB. 1653-1723. $12,000 - $18,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1818 ❧ EARLY COLOR LITHOGRAPHY. BARTH, JOHANN AUGUST. 1765-1818. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1896 ❧ KELMSCOTT CHAUCER: THE FINEST BOOK SINCE THE GUTENBERG BIBLE. $60,000 - $90,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1903 ❧ DOVES PRESS MAGNUM OPUS: THE DOVES BIBLE. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, May 5 and Apr. 27 – May 6: 1680 ❧ FREIBERG FÊTE BOOKS FROM THE GOURARY COLLECTION. $1,000 - $1,500
  • One of a Kind Auctions
    Tesla, Einstein & The American Presidency: Rare Historical Documents
    Ending April 30, 2026
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: The Republican Court; Autographs of George Washington, (Signers) Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, John Dickinson, Charles Carroll of Carrollton and More!
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: Nikola Tesla Signed Holograph Manuscript Page from "Tidal Wave to Make War Impossible," Describing the World's First Conceived Remotely Operated Weapon of Mass Naval Destruction.
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: Albert Einstein — Incredible possibly Unique Signed & Inscribed Einsteins hand “Relativitätstheorie / A. Einstein” Booklet: Relativitätstheorie, 10th Ed., 1920, Original Wrappers.
    One of a Kind Auctions
    Tesla, Einstein & The American Presidency: Rare Historical Documents
    Ending April 30, 2026
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: James Joyce Personal Copy of Finnegan's Wake (With Signature).
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: Buster Keaton Flamingo Films / Kennedy Productions Archive Group, 1933–1937.
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: Extremely rare Josiah Henson (Uncle Tom) Signature & Harriet Beecher Stowe Cabinet Card.
    One of a Kind Auctions
    Tesla, Einstein & The American Presidency: Rare Historical Documents
    Ending April 30, 2026
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: William Livingston (Signer of DOI), the New Jersey State Convention had unanimously ratified the Federal Constitution.
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: Complete 1927 Tunney-Dempsey "Long Count" Fight Ticket Signed by George Getz, with 1923 Dempsey-Firpo Dinner Card and Jack Dempsey Signed Photograph.
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: James Buchanan Cabinet Signed Autograph album
    One of a Kind Auctions, Apr. 30: CHARLES LINDBERGH SIGNS HIS NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL BANQUET INVITATION, JUNE 14, 1927 — THREE WEEKS AFTER THE TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT
  • Gros & Delettrez, May 5: APRÈS de MANNEVILLETTE, Jean-Baptiste d’- Le Neptune Oriental.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: DELISLE, Guillaume – Atlas françois,1725.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: HONTER. SOPHOCLE - Recueil composite réunissant deux ouvrages.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: PHÉROTÉE DE LA CROIX, A. - Algemeene weereld-beschryving.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: LA PÉROUSE, Jean-François de Galaup de - Voyage autour du monde.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: BLAEU, Guillaume & Jean -Septième volume de la Géographie Blaviane.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: TATIKIAN, Boğos - Figures et costumes du Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: GIRAULT DE PRANGEY, Joseph-Philibert -Monument arabes et moresques de Cordoue, Séville et Grenade.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: CHAMPOLLION le jeune. Monuments de l’Egypte et de la Nubie.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: CASSAS, Louis-François. - Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phénicie, de la Palestine et de la Basse Egypte.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: SONNERAT, Pierre. Voyage aux Indes orientales et à la Chine.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: GARNIER, Francis. Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: SUBERBIE, Alix (E. SMITH). Dessins et aquarelles de Madagascar.
    Gros & Delettrez, May 5: BYRON -Viage del comandante Byron.
  • Heritage, May 13: Isaac Asimov. I, Robot. The dedication copy, inscribed to John W. Campbell, Jr.
    Heritage, May 13: Aldous Huxley. Brave New World. A fine copy, in a brilliant dust jacket.
    Heritage, May 13: Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author.
    Heritage, May 13: Robert A. Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land. A fine copy, signed by the author.
    Heritage, May 13: Jules Verne. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Exceedingly rare true first American edition, first issue.

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