Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2022 Issue

Collecting into the Future:  Learning from the Past

Collecting into the Future: Learning from the Past

The Internet has transformed many things, collecting among them.  From the beginning of the Internet old books and collectible paper could be found.  Yes, you could see opportunities and quickly, observers began to discourage using the Internet as a primary source, pointing out that condition is subjective and descriptions potentially misleading.  To understand that issue I found auction records useful and in time, started Americana Exchange to build an authoritative database to reduce my financial risk when acquiring material.  Rare Book Hub and later Transactions+ in time became the [my] ...

New York Bookseller Among Three Indicted on Charges Related to Theft of Valuable Manuscripts from Don Henley of the Band The Eagles

New York Bookseller Among Three Indicted on Charges Related to Theft of Valuable Manuscripts from Don Henley of the Band The Eagles

Three men, including a New York bookseller, have been charged in a conspiracy to sell an archive of materials stolen from The Eagles' singer and songwriter Don Henley many years ago. Glen Horowitz,...

Is Violence Coming to Libraries?

Is Violence Coming to Libraries?

These are trying times in America. There is anger, hate, violence, and threats on a level I've never witnessed before in my long life. Still, I was not prepared for this statement recently publishe...

AbeBooks Top 20 Highest Prices for April-June 2022

AbeBooks Top 20 Highest Prices for April-June 2022

AbeBooks has released their list of the twenty highest prices paid from the millions of books offered on their website. This list covers the second quarter of 2022, April-June. Here is their list. ...

Hey Book Dealers, you’ll have one more list to check

Hey Book Dealers, you’ll have one more list to check

The State of Pennsylvania is second and probably will eventually be No. 1 in what are book bannings at the school district level unless Iowa, Florida and Idaho’s irate parents beat them to it.  It ...

Consolidation and the Mid-Range Auction Market

Consolidation and the Mid-Range Auction Market

At the end of June, Bonhams continued its ‘roll up’ strategy with the acquisition of the Paris-based auction house Cornette de Saint Cyr as forecast in “What Are They Building in There?: Bonhams in...

Memoirs of Honoré Riouffe:  Romantic Nightmare during the Révolution

Memoirs of Honoré Riouffe: Romantic Nightmare during the Révolution

The French national narrative has it that the Révolution of 1789 is but a blessing. The people standing up against tyranny and triumphing against all odds—vive la France! But the enthusiasm of 1789...

Hawaiian Mission Houses Take Historical Reenactment to a New Level

Hawaiian Mission Houses Take Historical Reenactment to a New Level

Theatrical performances at cemeteries make figures from the past come alive   The Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives (HMH) is one of Hawaii’s more interesting museums and special ...

Terrace Horticultural Books has joined the ABAA

Terrace Horticultural Books has joined the ABAA

The Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America recently confirmed that Terrace Horticultural Books of 503 St. Clair Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota has joined the membership.  The firm is a one-ma...

1780 Letter from Hamilton to Lafayette, Stolen Decades Ago, Returned to Massachusetts

1780 Letter from Hamilton to Lafayette, Stolen Decades Ago, Returned to Massachusetts

This story goes back to the early days of America, before there even was a United States. It concerns a letter written in 1780 during the Revolutionary War. It was sent by one of America's founders...

Who Gets John Adams' Library – the City of Quincy (Massachusetts) or the Boston Public Library?

Who Gets John Adams' Library – the City of Quincy (Massachusetts) or the Boston Public Library?

A conflict may be brewing over possession of what the Boston Public Library calls “one of the largest colonial American libraries still intact.” It is the library of the second President of the Uni...

Four New Catalogues Reviewed for August

Four New Catalogues Reviewed for August

This month we review four new bookseller catalogues. Forest Books offers a catalogue of rare and curious books, pamphlets, and printed ephemera on a wide variety of subjects. Garrett Scott Booksell...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
  • SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ROALD AMUNDSEN: «Sydpolen» [ The South Pole] 1912. First edition in jackets and publisher's slip case.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: AMUNDSEN & NANSEN: «Fram over Polhavet» [Farthest North] 1897. AMUNDSEN's COPY!
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON [ed.]: «Aurora Australis» 1908. First edition. The NORWAY COPY.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON: «The heart of the Antarctic» + SUPPLEMENT «The Antarctic Book», 1909.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: SHACKLETON, BERNACCHI, CHERRY-GARRARD [ed.]: «The South Polar Times» I-III, 1902-1911.
    SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: [WILLEM BARENTSZ & HENRY HUDSON] - SAEGHMAN: «Verhael van de vier eerste schip-vaerden […]», 1663.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION | LIEUTENANT HENRY ROBERTSON BOWERS: «At the South Pole.», Gelatin Silver Print. [10¾ x 15in. (27.2 x 38.1cm.) ].
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ELEAZAR ALBIN: «A natural History of Birds.» + «A Supplement», 1738-40. Wonderful coloured plates.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: PAUL GAIMARD: «Voyage de la Commision scientific du Nord, en Scandinavie, […]», c. 1842-46. ONLY HAND COLOURED COPY KNOWN WITH TWO ORIGINAL PAINTINGS BY BIARD.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: JAMES JOYCE: «Ulysses», 1922. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.

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