Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2022 Issue

Rare Book Hub Introduces Rare Book Batch Valuation Service

Rare Book Hub Introduces Rare Book Batch Valuation Service

Rare Book Hub is launching the beta version of its Rare Book Batch Valuation service this month and will be officially accepting member submitted lists of material beginning October 15th. Batch Valuation is a new service that enables you to quickly search for auction lot matches to your entire book collection in our database of over 12 million records. Instead of searching titles one at a time, Batch Valuation enables you to submit a list of hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands at once for automated searches.   Next, for each matching lot for each title found, we update past sales ...

William Reese Company to Live on Under New Ownership

William Reese Company to Live on Under New Ownership

The news is official.  The William Reese Co, ABAA, ILAB is to live on Under New Ownership.  Bill Reese slipped away from this mortal coil four years ago and his firm has now been transferred to the...

Defunded Library Raises Budget through GoFundMe Rather than Acquiesce to Book Banning

Defunded Library Raises Budget through GoFundMe Rather than Acquiesce to Book Banning

This is a tough time to be a librarian in America. From all over the country we hear stories of pressure put on them to ban books certain people do not like. Most often, the books have something to...

Building an Ephemera Sale

Building an Ephemera Sale

Ephemera, the random debris of history, has long been considered insufficiently important and too difficult to identify to sell.  Books almost always have a known author, title, place and date prin...

Two Comic Book Thefts Last Month – One Valued at $100,000, the Other Involving Violence

Two Comic Book Thefts Last Month – One Valued at $100,000, the Other Involving Violence

Comic Books have taken on a different level of value from the days when Mickey Mouse was the favorite character and super heroes appealed to a demographic not much beyond teenage and younger boys. ...

Dr. Robert Bennett Remembered

Dr. Robert Bennett Remembered

Every book collector has a personal story.  Two men set me on the path to appreciating history.  Bill Heidgerd and Dr. Robert Bennett got me into this fix.  To both I’m grateful.  Dr. Bennett passe...

Contents Sana in Papier Dominoté Sano

Contents Sana in Papier Dominoté Sano

I do believe there are good or bad reasons to buy an old book. And God forgive, I did buy one for the wrong reason the other day. I confess it: I wasn’t interested in its contents at all—but in its...

Young People the Focus of Book Banning as Culture Wars Heat Up in Schools and Libraries

Young People the Focus of Book Banning as Culture Wars Heat Up in Schools and Libraries

This year was not your standard Banned Book Week; it was Banned Book Week on steroids. Every September the American Library Association (ALA) hosts an annual event when libraries, bookstores and b...

The Library of Edward R. Leahy Comes to Auction at Christie's, 6 October

The Library of Edward R. Leahy Comes to Auction at Christie's, 6 October

Edward R. Leahy has devoted over half a century to the pursuit of rare books—succumbing to a temptation here, seizing an opportunity there—resulting in a remarkable library filled with choice copie...

Shapero Rare Books' Parent Confirms First Profit in Four Years

Shapero Rare Books' Parent Confirms First Profit in Four Years

Shapero Rare Books' parent corporation, Scholium Group, confirmed earlier preliminary results that the company made a profit in their latest fiscal year, ending on March 30, 2022. It was a healthy ...

Librarians Confronting Job Trauma – a New Study Focuses on a New Problem

Librarians Confronting Job Trauma – a New Study Focuses on a New Problem

Libraries have been evolving for the past couple of decades from the traditional role they played for two centuries. They are no longer simply repositories of physical books that you can read sitti...

A Handful of Elon Musk Trinkets brought $165,000 at RR Auction on September 15th

A Handful of Elon Musk Trinkets brought $165,000 at RR Auction on September 15th

Elon went to college at The University of Pennsylvania and left a thin scattering of mementos with a friend who recently decided to convert the car-maven’s fame into a fund to help her family to go...

Northampton Print & Book Fair 2022 on October 1st, 12 to 5PM

Northampton Print & Book Fair 2022 on October 1st, 12 to 5PM

After a two year hiatus, Northampton Print Book Fair is excited to announce that it is making its return to downtown Northampton this Fall! Come by from noon-5pm for a one-day celebration of conte...

Found in a Library Book: An Unusual Exhibit at the Oakland Library

Found in a Library Book: An Unusual Exhibit at the Oakland Library

The Oakland (California) Public Library is featuring an exhibit called Found in a Library Book. This is not about information, knowledge, learning, things you expect to find in a book. No, it's abo...

Five New Catalogues Are Reviewed

Five New Catalogues Are Reviewed

This month we review five new booksellers' catalogues. Maggs Bros. presents a selection of old voyages and travel. Ursus Rare Books has five centuries worth of illustrated books. Jonathan A. Hill B...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 123. Celebrate 250 Years of Independence with Original Stars and Stripes (1790) Est. $1,400 - $1,700
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 20. Keulen's Spectacular Chart of the World Featuring California as an Island (1728) Est. $12,000 - $15,000
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 42. Schedel's Ancient World Map with Fantastic Humanoid Creatures (1493) Est. $14,000 - $17,000
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 591. Matching Set of 3 Stunning Globe Gores of Eastern Asia from Coronelli's 3.5 Foot Globe (1688) Est. $5,500 - $7,000
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 9. Speed's Popular World Map with Allegorical Representations of the Elements (1651) Est. $14,000 - $17,000
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 168. First Separate Map of Kansas & Nebraska Territories (1854) Est. $5,500 - $7,000
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 43. Only Macrobius Map with Britain Attached to Europe (1515) Est. $800 - $950
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 250. Rare Map of Boston and One of the Earliest Maps of the Revolutionary War (1775) Est. $2,000 - $2,300
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 79. Schenk's Uncommon Map Featuring Two Figurative Title Cartouches (1696) Est. $1,200 - $1,500
    Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 681. Hand-Colored Image of the Annunciation to the Shepherds (1502) Est. $800 - $950
  • Sotheby's Book Week
    2 June - 9 July
    Sotheby’s, June 25: Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, on its 250th anniversary. $180,000 to $250,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 17: Fontana, Lucio. Concetto Spaziale. 1967. Leporello en papier doré. Bel exemplaire signé. €4,000 to $€,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 25: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”. $150,000 to $200,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 25: Washington, George (as First President). Washington decries “an ostentatious imitation, or mimickry of Royalty” in his Presidency. $250,000 to $500,000.
    Sotheby’s, June 17: Lope de Vega. Rare manuscrit autographe signé de la préface dédicatoire de "El Cardenal de Belen" (le cardinal de Bethléem), pièce composée en 1610. €40,000 to €60,000.
  • Leland Little, June 12: The First Illustrated Edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
    Leland Little, June 12: John Morton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Signed Pennsylvania Land Survey.
    Leland Little, June 12: The Scarce Jansson Edition of a Remarkable Early View of London.
    Leland Little, June 12: Signed Limited Edition of The Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
    Leland Little, June 12: Faden’s Important and Scarce Map of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution.
    Leland Little, June 12: William J. Tate (NC, 1869-1953), Archive of the "Original host to the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.”
  • Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Galileo Galilei. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico, e copernicano. Firenze, 1632
    Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Saverio Manetti. Storia naturale degli uccelli. Firenze, 1771-76
    Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Fortunato Depero. Depero futurista. Rovereto, 1927
    Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Nicolas Visscher. Atlas minor sive totius orbis terrarum contracta delineat ex conatibus. Amsterdam, circa 1649-95
    Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Andreas Vesalius. Anatomia. Addita nunc. Antiquorum Anatome. Venezia, 1604
    Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Tristan Tzara and Salvador Dalì. Grains et Issues. Parigi, 1935
  • June 25, 2026
    Doyle, June 25: Houdini's biography, boldly signed. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Doyle, June 25: A volume from Abraham Lincoln's library, signed just before heading to Washington for his inauguration. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Doyle, June 25: A very early Confederate recruiting manual belonging to the chief commissary in Lee's Army. $600 to $800.
    Doyle, June 25: Rare hand-colored lithographs of the life of Napoleon. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Doyle, June 25: The "Holster Atlas" of the American Revolution. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Doyle, June 25: Jewish ceremonies in fine hand-colored engravings. $7,000 to $10,000.
    Doyle, June 25: A very rare work on Turkish military costume. $1,000 to $1,500.
    June 25, 2026
    Doyle, June 25: The most important illustrated work on the Mexican-American War. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, June 25: The finest illustrated book on Afghanistan. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, June 25: Henry Justice Ford St. George rescues the Princess from the horrible Dragon. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Doyle, June 25: A rare work of Prussian Army uniforms under Frederick William II, with exquisite hand-colored engravings. $800 to $1,200.
    Doyle, June 25: Lenny Bruce typed letter signed to a Village bohemian during his obscenity trials, with a manuscript note and drawing. $300 to $500.
    Doyle, June 25: Schiff's scarce Shanghai Sketchbook. $300 to $500.
    Doyle, June 25: The first accurate published representation of the American flag. $2,000 to $4,000.

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