Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2023 Issue

The World's Oldest Near Complete Bible to Be Sold at Auction

The World's Oldest Near Complete Bible to Be Sold at Auction

There are books and there are books. Some are larger, some in color, some are rarer. When a book is considered the fundamental source for a field or a category they call it their bible. They use that term as the highest accolade.    They use that term because, based on Guinness and common sense, the Bible is the most widely published book in world history. Five billion copies have been printed. It is based on the books of the Torah. Today the most valuable book is thought to be a Gutenberg Bible and now there is fresh reconsideration as to whether an earlier manuscript volume, known as th...

A Collector Left a 70,000 Book Collection with No Instructions on How to Proceed

A Collector Left a 70,000 Book Collection with No Instructions on How to Proceed

It is not the largest book collection ever amassed by a private owner. It does not equal the 100,000 book and manuscript collection of 19th century obsessive Thomas Phillipps. Nor, obviously, does ...

Bill Wolfe Carries on the Tradition of Louis Collins Books in Seattle

Bill Wolfe Carries on the Tradition of Louis Collins Books in Seattle

Louis Collins owned one of Seattle’s best known and longest running antiquarian bookshops. He was also highly regarded as the presenter of the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair, one of the larger regio...

The ABAA Pasadena Book Fair: the field is recovering

The ABAA Pasadena Book Fair: the field is recovering

It's been three years since the California International Antiquarian Book Fair returned last month to Pasadena to some trepidation considering how long it has been. The result was a very good event...

The Great Deaccession Has Begun

The Great Deaccession Has Begun

In an article in the Washington Post last December 19, Karen Heller announced, “the Great Deaccession commenced.” It is a fact that people with shelves full of books they will never read, or never ...

Auction History - Recreating Important Sales

Auction History - Recreating Important Sales

When you consider buying or bidding on examples of printed history often your first sense is to get into its commercial history. Why?  Because printing creates identical examples and over time some...

Roberto Clemente Has Been “Cancelled” in Florida School

Roberto Clemente Has Been “Cancelled” in Florida School

The wave of book censorship sweeping through America these days reached a point of absurdity recently as schools in Duval County, Florida (Jacksonville area) followed a state mandate to “err on the...

Leslie, Sloane and The French Booksellers... The Dots on the “i” of Jamaica.

Leslie, Sloane and The French Booksellers... The Dots on the “i” of Jamaica.

My passion for old books about Jamaica goes back to the time I wrote the book History of Jamaica from 1494 To 1838 (DREAD Editions). That’s when I realized that most French booksellers think that H...

Contemporary Issues in Rare/Antiquarian Bookseller Management

Contemporary Issues in Rare/Antiquarian Bookseller Management

In anticipation of Scholium Group’s annual report at the end of March and as a continuation of his research into the structural changes underway in the Collecting Ecosystem explored in Contemporary...

$55,000 in Rare Books Stolen and Recovered in One Day

$55,000 in Rare Books Stolen and Recovered in One Day

Rare Book theft stories rarely end quickly but this one was in and out in one day. Some smart police work and a not too smart thief brought it to a quick conclusion. The books, which the bookstore ...

To understand Collectible Paper Auctions Click here

To understand Collectible Paper Auctions Click here

One of the interesting ways to follow the auctions is to select Upcoming Auctions and voila and the first option on the down bar:  Auction Home,  There are the most recently posted auction results ...

An Ancient Papyrus Scroll, Recently Discovered, Has Been Translated

An Ancient Papyrus Scroll, Recently Discovered, Has Been Translated

A 2,000+-year-old manuscript has recently been deciphered and translated. It was found in a necropolis or burial site for the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. The historic capital city is no more,...

Eight New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Eight New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review eight new bookseller catalogues. For those who like it cold, Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller offers a catalogue of the Arctic, Iceland, and Canadiana. Heading to a land not so far no...

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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