Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2023 Issue

Ephemera is Emerging

Ephemera is Emerging

The material hasn’t changed much other than getting older.   Books and manuscripts have long been appreciated and most of their secrets have been discovered.  Maps too are understood.  In most cases relating to collectible paper, when their authors, titles and dates are known there’s only three variables to understand:  current condition, value, and how many people will be interested?   For this reason, transaction histories for collectible paper, like ours, have long played an important role in the worldwide field.  Currently we’re providing 13.5 million records but surprisingly, there’s...

Rare Book Hub Publisher Bruce McKinney Talks Auctions, Dealers, Collecting and the State of the Market

Rare Book Hub Publisher Bruce McKinney Talks Auctions, Dealers, Collecting and the State of the Market

San Francisco based Bruce McKinney, 77, is the founder of RareBookHub.com. At RBH, subscribers can access over 13.5 million searchable auction and other transactions updated several times weekly. T...

OldMaps.com has become part of Rare Book Hub

OldMaps.com has become part of Rare Book Hub

Old Maps has provided paid research services for the collectible map community for more than three decades.  Until April 15th, 2024 we have taken down their paywall to allow everyone to join, searc...

How Many Books Do People Own?

How Many Books Do People Own?

How many books do people own? YouGov recently surveyed 29,000 Americans to ask them about the books they owned. They asked about both physical and electronic books, but we will limit ourselves to p...

MatchMaker:  A Useful Tool

MatchMaker: A Useful Tool

For many years we have offered an automated search tool to identify interesting upcoming material at auction in the quickest time.  On our toolbar it’s called MatchMaker.    Auction lots tend to ...

Nostalgia: Dealer’s daughter recalls the cartoonists of her youth

Nostalgia: Dealer’s daughter recalls the cartoonists of her youth

I had the good fortune to grow up with parents who were antiquarian book dealers, so we lived in a house filled with books. My father was an avid collector of cartoon albums, especially from the fi...

The Mutiny on The Bounty, A True Legendary Story

The Mutiny on The Bounty, A True Legendary Story

In 1787, the Royal Navy sent Anthony Hopkins—sorry, Lieutenant William Bligh, to Tahiti, where he was to pick up some breadfruit plants. He was then to take them to Jamaica to feed the slaves. The ...

Book Club Of Detroit Welcomes 65th Year

Book Club Of Detroit Welcomes 65th Year

While this community of bibliophiles has weathered deep challenges over the years, the Book Club of Detroit has shown remarkable resilience. Owing to its long history, leadership, and talented memb...

Half a Million Dollar Library Theft in Warsaw

Half a Million Dollar Library Theft in Warsaw

A major theft from the University of Warsaw Library reveals that large-scale library theft is not limited to America and Western Europe. This one followed an increasingly common method of throwing ...

Maps & Alases, Natural History & Color Plate Books — At Swann December 7

Maps & Alases, Natural History & Color Plate Books — At Swann December 7

New York—The Thursday, December 7 sale of Maps Atlases, Natural History Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries is set to include a wide assortment of maps and graphics chronicling the advancement o...

20,000 Pages of Historic Documents Relating to Indian Schools to be Made Available Next Spring

20,000 Pages of Historic Documents Relating to Indian Schools to be Made Available Next Spring

It was recently announced that some 20,000 records dealing with Indian boarding schools run by the Quakers will be made available through the recently created National Indian Boarding School Digita...

Overdue Library Book Returned 90 Years Late

Overdue Library Book Returned 90 Years Late

We have another story in the run of long overdue library books being returned out of the blue, to the surprise of librarians. This one came back to the Larchmont Public Library in Larchmont, New Yo...

ABAA Hosting Online Book Fair Now Through December 2

ABAA Hosting Online Book Fair Now Through December 2

If you're looking for holiday gifts, whether for family, friends, or yourself, the ABAA is offering a quick and easy solution for the book collectors in your life. It's an online fair, but there wi...

Philadelphia Rare Book Fair Returns December 7-9

Philadelphia Rare Book Fair Returns December 7-9

The Philadelphia Rare Book Fair returns to the Trinity Memorial Church this year from December 7-9. There will be 25+ booksellers from not only the Philadelphia area but throughout the Northeast an...

Six New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Six New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review six new bookseller catalogues. Librairie Clavreuil presents Part II of their collection of French literature, this time covering the 18th-20th centuries. Primary Sources focuse...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Year in Review
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: A Rare Hebrew Bible with Micrographic Masorah. Sold: 1,514,000 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: "The Freedman's Primer.” Sold: 241,300 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Smith, William. "The Map that Changed the World." Sold: 139,700 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Psalter, C13th. Illuminated Psalter. Sold: 330,200 GBP
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Lincoln, Abraham. The abolition of slavery. Sold: 13,697,500 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Vergilius. Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1501. Sold: 1,041,400 USD
  • University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Jefferson's Owned & Signed "Plutarch's Morals" Vol. 4. - 1st Time At Auction In Nearly 200 Years!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Flown NASA Hasselblad 203S Space Camera On Endeavour STS-111, With Components, Data Module & Flown Film Magazine!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: One Of The Finest Lincoln Assassination Letters Extant, April 15, 1865 - Illustrated & Beyond Dramatic! 8pp.
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Isaac Newton Highly Important Religious Manuscript With 85+ Words In His Hand, Ex-Bonhams
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Marilyn Monroe Gorgeous Signed & Inscribed Photograph, PSA Authenticated
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Rare Ernest Hemingway, 1 Of 10 Signed Presentation Copies Of "Farewell To Arms"
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Ayn Rand 11pp Revised AMS "The Cold Civil War" For LA Times Newspaper- 900+ Words In Her Hand!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Mary Todd Lincoln Calls Abe A "great & good man, who loved & served his country so well"
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Abraham Lincoln Gives Rebel Woman Pass To Visit Prisoner Of War Husband, Showing A Very Human Lincoln!
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Babe Ruth PSA Type II Signed Conlon Photo, With Ruth Miniature Louisville Slugger, 16.25"
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin Signed Photo - Prime Crew Apollo 11 - PSA Authenticated
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Huge Abraham Lincoln Hesler Photo, Ca. 1880 - As If He Were In The Room!

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