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Arsenic In Old Books

We think of “green” as meaning natural, healthy, life-giving like plants. Well, not always. Arsenic is the primary ingredient in something very green, a pigment known as Emerald Green or Paris Green. In its Emerald Green incarnation it is a vivid green pigment, a bright and attractive color used for coloring things such as wallpaper and paint. The latter includes paintings, with artists such as Renoir, Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh having used it. It has also been used in book covers. In its incarnation as Paris Green it has a very different use, and this is the one most often associated with...

Quinn’s Nov. 29 Rare Books, Prints & Autographs auction features collection and library of distinguished ecologist Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – On Tuesday, November 29, Northern Virginia’s Quinn’s Auction Galleries will present a Rare Books, Prints and Autographs auction, loaded with over 450 lots of rare books, antique...

The Boston Antiquarian Book Fair: Presto!

The annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (BIABF) will soon be held November 11-13 after being on hiatus because of Covid. There’s pent up interest to see this storied event staged an...

Boston Rare Book and Ephemera Fair: November 12th

For many years The ABAA’s Boston Fair has attracted shadow fairs that have permitted non-ABAA members to exhibit over the same weekend when the big guys are showing some of the crown jewels of c...

Batch Valuation: The Big Idea

The hallmark of the rare books and paper field has long been obscurity. Publicly, few seem to know, but the reality is that both the highly skilled and highly intelligent often do. That’s why a f...

Nye & Company’s upcoming auction, “Property from a Private Collection: A 20th Century Machinal Delight” will be held on November 16th, 2022.

Nye Company’s upcoming auction, “Property from a Private Collection: A 20th Century Machinal Delight” will be held on November 16th, 2022. This amazing collection – all of it the lifetime vision ...

T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"At 100

We musn't be surprised that the first review of Eliot's poem was damning. The redoubtable F.L. Lucas ridiculed the work as a trite academic pastiche of allusions and pretentious philosophical mumbo...

AbeBooks Lists Its Most Expensive Sales Prices for July-September

AbeBooks has issued their list of the most expensive sales on their website for the third quarter of 2022, July through September. The visual plays an increasing role this time. As AbeBooks explain...

Figaro in Spain, or The Vitriolic Traveller

The author of Le Voyage de Figaro En Espagne (Saint Malo, 1784), they say, never set a foot in Spain. It doesn’t really matter. His narrative is a pretext to draw a vitriolic portrait of a country ...

Democracy is on the Ballot

On election day you will have four choices, voting Democratic, Republican, protest for a third party that cannot win, or not voting at all. That is how the ballot will appear but the choice is far ...

At Sotheby's on Nov. 22: The John Golden Library: Book Illustration in the Age of Scientific Discovery

Sotheby’s has announced a live-auction sale at noon on November 22 of The John Golden Library: Book Illustration in the Age of Scientific Discovery. A full public exhibition of the Library will be ...

A Bizarre Baseball Card Sells for Over $100,000; or Why You Should Never Throw Anything Out

From time to time we write about baseball cards when they achieve new record prices, which these days seems to be about every other month. In September we wrote about the most recent such record, a...

Hindman Auctions: Two on Deck

As we head into November many of the auction houses worldwide present their most interesting material. Hindman of Chicago has two upcoming sales; No. 1095 on November 3rd and 4th, and No. 1097 on ...

Old World Auctions: Maps and More at Auction

RICHMOND, Va. (October 27, 2022) – Henry Briggs’ first English map to show California as an island and the earliest collectible map of Eastern North Carolina and Virginia by John White/Theodor De B...

Contemporary Issues in Rare Book & Manuscript Collecting

Spencer W Stuart, Collections Advisor, to publish a handbook for Collectors and the Trade in 2023 Spencer W Stuart, Collections Advisor, is pleased to announce the publication of Contemporary I...

Diverse Fellowships Offered for CABS-Minnesota 2023. Apply Now.

CABS-Minnesota, the annual book school maintained by the Antiquarian Book School Foundation, is now accepting applications for its annual Diverse Voices Fellow program. Now in its second year, the ...

The 21st Paris Map Fair Will Be held on November 5

The 21st Paris Map, Globe and Scientific Instruments Fair, often called simply the Paris Map Fair, will take place on Saturday, November 5. It is again being held at the Hotel Ambassador in the hea...

Five New Catalogues Reviewed for November

This month we review five new catalogues of books and related paper. Riverrun Books Manuscripts is offering items from the Bart Auerbach Collection. Bart Auerbach was for many years one of America...

Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2022 Issue