Over the past 60 years I’ve been acquiring material related to Ulster County, New York and over the decades have found increasing opportunities to acquire early source documentation. Such discoveries are beyond random and tend to come up as boxes of unsorted records, sometimes as few as 30 items and in other cases tens of boxes and thousands of examples. They represent concentration and tend to be highly specific and illuminate day to day realities that were often more difficult than printed accounts of local history suggest. Life has always been complicated and how individuals and organ...
Dorothy Sloan, whose career in the rare book field closely paralleled the post-World War II expansion, saw it come to a close recently. She was an early advocate of the Americana Exchange and for ...
Dr. Seuss is in the news again, and sadly as it now always seems, for the wrong reason. Generations of children love his books. He was one of the few authors who could actually make children want t...
Publishing decision ignites furor on many fronts.
It was news in February when Hasbro dropped the “Mister” from Mr. Potato Head in a move the company said hoped would make the classic popular t...
On January 29, 1974 Sotheby Parke- Bernet sold the library of Gordon A. Block Jr. The sale consisted of 257 lots, beginning with books by Louisa May Alcott, and ending with the Brinley copy of a ra...
On 28th March we remember the passing of Leigh Stein on that day in 2020 on the very doorsteps of Covid-19. He succumbed to age at 90. He was a bookman of the old school but was in fact a late ad...
Collecting interests have evolved over the years. The “works on paper” field, once almost synonymous with books, now covers a wide range of collectible paper. Maps, manuscripts, prints, photographs...
In the “People-been-through-..it” series, please welcome Pierre Viaud! In 1766, he survived a shipwreck off the coast of Florida only to go through 81 days of pain and hunger, being forced to kill ...
The Grolier Club Library is pleased to announce the receipt of a major gift, the Collection on the Detection of Forged Handwriting, which is the most important and comprehensive collection on the s...
Do you want to buy a home with a library large enough to hold 4,000 books? Too bad. You missed your chance. The “Corner Chateau” in Denver was recently sold. We wrote about this offer in October 20...
Ira Lipman founded and ran for more than five decades Guardsmark, one of the largest private security companies in the United States. Lipman and his wife collected in a wide variety of areas: jewel...
The collection of Elaine and Alexandre P. Rosenberg is among the most important collections of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books to have ever appeared at auction. Moreover, Christie’s...
A hundred years ago fire was the grim reaper for bookstores and libraries. Both common and rare books were always at risk because heat was often provided by stoves and furnaces that employed open ...
One of the disadvantages of writing for a book website is never having an excuse to use nude pictures. Everyone knows that the best way to increase “readership” is to include nude photos. Sure, eve...
Jenni Lecky-Thompson, Head of Library Services at Cambridge University's Trinity Hall, made an unexpected discovery within the pages of a very old book. She found a butterfly. It had been pressed w...
For April, we review nine new bookseller catalogues. From Jonathan A. Hill Bookseller we have art books and the book arts. The William Reese Company is focused on subjects never featured in their p...
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.
