As Covid plays cat and mouse, the rare and collectible paper field adjusts to the day to day reality of health and regulation. The field has long relied on in-person fairs but alas, not right now. The ABAA, mindful of concerns about health, quickly cancelled the in-person ABAA Fair that was to take place September 9-12 at the New York Armory. That fair was expected to see 6,000 to 8,000 visitors and many will be disappointed. Literally days after cancelling the in-person fair, the association announced their next electronic book fair to provide a safe opportunity for collectors and inst...
A valuable book disappeared from the collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Was it stolen, maybe lost? A rabbi set about to unravel this mystery. The answer turned out not to be what he exp...
In years past ephemera was often seen as a stepchild to book collecting. Today interest in this field continues to increase, especially ephemera with strong graphic and design elements. Book collec...
Ken Karmiole, after 45 years in the trade and 18 years in his current office in Santa Monica, he’s now 75, and moving, making room for the next generation of Hollywood stars. To relocate, he’s dow...
Elsewhere we’re learning that Ken Karmiole is slowing down and downsizing. Here you’re finding confirmation that old books have many lives and Ken’s inventory has now moved 400 miles joining Mark ...
There was an article in Forbes recently that addresses the issue of changes in patterns of long-term collecting. This is not one of those will people be more interested in fiction or non-fiction, o...
One Source Auctions of Canandaigua, New York is in the news because they are going to sell a rare photograph of Susan B. Anthony, the early and important American suffragette. Stories about it hav...
The first time I caught a glimpse at the frontispiece of Thomas Anburey’s Travels through the Interior Parts of America… (London, 1789), it was love at first sight. Entitled “An Indian Warrior Ente...
It took a while...
A package showed up in the mail at the Sheffield Cathedral in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, recently. Inside was a book. It was being returned to the cathedral library, which s...
These days houses in the Bay area are bought and sold rapidly. If your house hasn’t been rebuilt within 5 years it’s called tired. It’s almost inevitable that recently purchased homes will be reb...
NEW YORK CITY (August 2021): The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF)—officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) and International League of An...
Over 800 items representing more than five centuries of history will be offered at Old World Auctions’ September 15 sale. Although the core focus of the sale is cartography, historical documents, p...
Christie's New York is pleased to announce The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum, which will take place in two parts, live and online, this September. Part One will commence as ...
Are we in the midst of a bubble but don't realize it? The only way we can positively know that rapidly rising prices are a bubble is if they fall back down to Earth. Sometimes they do, sometimes th...
This month we review nine new bookseller catalogues. Shapero Rare Books features illustrated natural history. Librairie Clavreuil offers medicine, voyages, science, and literature. The Veatches Art...
Sotheby’s, July 14: Henry De La Beche. "Awful Changes," 1830. $6,000 to $9,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 11]. Flight Plan, Complete Original Printing Signed by Buzz Aldrin. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Thomas Alva Edison. Documents Establishing and Ending the Edison Electric Railway Company. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Richard P. Feynman. Feynman's Lectures on Gravitation 1-16, Including the Original Transcriptions of Lectures 12-16 by Morinigo and Wagner, With Richard Feynman's Manuscript Notations, 1971. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 9]. A Group of Manuals and Mission Documents used by Stuart Roosa as a member of the Astronaut Support Crew. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [BYTE: The Small Systems Journal]. A collection of early foundational issues of Byte: The Small Systems Journal, with rare hardcover editions. $5,000 to $8,000.
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
