New Street, Wem, Shrewsbury SY4 5JX, in the United Kingdom. A fire tore through a building in Shrewsbury at Wem Industrial Estate overnight on 7 October, closing roads and cutting power to the town. Fire has long been a hazard for the old and rare book trade and a bookshop, Cosmo Books, was located there.
The alarm was raised about 12.30am, the firefighters arriving to find flames shooting from the roof. It started in an adjoining unit to Cosmo Books but spread along the roof space. The fire burned through ceiling panels and onto Mr. Downie's huge collection of books, built up over 2...
I first became aware of Houston based dealer Adam Schachter back in 2012 when he was a practicing bankruptcy attorney moonlighting as a book scout. Since then he’s transitioned from law to the anti...
Book valuation is never a certain number when you look on a listing site because what determines market value is when a willing buyer makes an offer and the seller agrees. Book listing sites offe...
This year we are celebrating the 100th birthday of one of America's most popular authors. Her first book has sold over 75 million copies, but she has written about 250 in total. We don't have count...
The Bilbiothèque Nationale de France, or French National Library (BNF) ran a series of portraits of “singular women” on their website last March. It featured the extraordinary Maria Sibylla Meri...
There has been a movement over the past few years to eliminate late fees for overdue books in libraries. San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle and Columbus are amo...
Book fairs have been the early and consistent victims of COVID and it’s time to say The Empire Strikes Back! In-person buying and selling in the collectible paper field has long been a vital compo...
Do you believe in Magic?
If you are of a certain age you will remember when book auctions were mostly books but now-a-days we are living in the world of collectable paper and collectibles gener...
There is an old joke about what you can do with old books you don't need, or never were worth reading in the first place. You can put them in the bathroom where the pages can be put to appropriate ...
NYPL has recently opened a new, first-ever permanent exhibit called The Polonsky Exhibition of the New York Public Library's Treasures, featuring some of the most extraordinary items from the 56 mi...
Brant Mittler, a medical doctor, lawyer and collector now 75, has long appreciated the intersection of early American government, Texas history, and the difficulties and struggles discovering and s...
The ABAA invites bibliophiles everywhere to join the hunt for rare books and all manner of fine works on paper at the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America’s Virtual Book Fair: Boston Edi...
The 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, has just issued its Catalogue 190, Magnificent Books and Manuscripts, celebrating its 37th year in business. The business was established in 1984 by ...
The Portland, Oregon, area has faced a tough year. Record heat brought temperatures as high as 116 this summer, their hottest temperature ever recorded. Droughts led to fires, then followed by torr...
A museum dedicated to the American Arts and Crafts movement recently opened in St. Petersburg, Florida. Founded by local philanthropist Rudy Ciccarello, it is an impressive structure, “a work of ar...
This month we are reviewing seven new bookseller catalogues. Whitmore Rare Books features a collection of great and important books. The 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop created a collect...
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 26th March 2026
Forum, Mar. 26: Book of Hours.- Heures a lusaige de Romme, printed on vellum, with 14 full-page illuminated miniatures, Paris, N. Higman for J. de Brie, [c.1521]. £20,000-30,000
Forum, Mar. 26: France.- Book of Hours, perhaps Use of the Abbey of Saint-Gildas de Rhuys, with thirteen miniatures surviving from an original cycle of at least twenty, [c. 1430]. £15,000-20,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Milton (John). Paradise lost. A Poem in Ten Books, first edition, Pforzheimer's sixth state, S. Simmons, 1669. £8,000-12,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Blake (William). Illustrations of the Book of Job, one of 215 first issue "Proof" copies, this one of 65 copies on "French" paper, Published by the Author, March 8, 1825 [but March, 1826]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 26th March 2026
Forum, Mar. 26: Christie (Agatha). The ABC Murders, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £15,000-20,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Halley (Edmund). Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, no. 297, pp.1882-99, March 1705. £10,000-15,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Haytham (Ibn al) [known as Alhazen]. Opticae Thesaurus...Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X..., first edition, Basel, August, 1572. £20,000-30,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Kepler (Johannes). Dioptrice seu demonstratio eorum quae visui & visibilibus propter conspicilla non ita pridem inventa accidunt, first edition, Augsburg, David Frank, 1611. £12,000-18,000
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Andrews (H.C.) Coloured Engravings of Heaths, 4 vol. in 2, first edition, [1710,--94]-1802-1809-[1830]. £10,000 - £15,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- Cramer (Pierre) and Caspar Stoll. De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie Waereld-Deelen…,, 5 vol., Amsterdam & Utrecht, 1779-91. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Voyages.- Darwin (Charles) and others. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, 3 vol. in 4, including Appendix to vol.2, first edition, 1839. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- de Graaf (Willem Diederik Vincent). [Inlandsche Kapellen in beeld], 170 fine original watercolours, [Enkhuizen], [1800-40]. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Dresser (Henry Eeles). A History of the Birds of Europe, 9 vol., including supplement, first edition, by the author, 1871-96. £6,000 - £8,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Zoology.- Felines.- Elliot (Daniel Giraud). A Monograph of the Felidæ or Family of the Cats, first edition, for the Subscribers, by the Author, [1878]-1883. £25,000 - £30,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Frisch (Johann Leonard). Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes, 2 vol., first edition, Berlin, Friedr. Wilhelm Birnsteil, [1736]-1763. £40,000 - £60,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Gould (John). The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., first edition, by the author, 1862-1873. £30,000 - £40,000.
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Pomology.- France.- Poiteau (A.) Pomologie Française. Recueil des Plus Beaux Fruits cultivés en France, 4 vol., Paris, 1846. £30,000 - £40,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- [Robin (Jean)]. Histoire des Plantes, nouvellement trouvées en l'Isle Virgine…,, 1620; with Geoffrey Linocier L'Histoire des plantes, second edition, 1619-20. £3,000 - £4,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Japan.- Siebold (P.F. von). Nippon. Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan, 7 parts in 6 vol., first edition, Leyden, [1832]-1852. £35,000 - £45,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Valentijn (Francois). Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën..., 5 vol. in 8, first edition, Dordrecht [&] Amsterdam, 1724-26. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Australia.- Redouté (P.J.).- Ventenat (Étienne Pierre). Jardin de la Malmaison, 2 vol.,, Paris, 1803-04[-05]. £30,000 - £40,000.
