Rare Book Monthly Articles - December - 2023 Issue

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

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

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? 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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