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

  • 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.
  • 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.

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