Rare Book Monthly Articles - January - 2024 Issue

Time for the Annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction for Books and Collectible Paper, for 2023

Time for the Annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction for Books and Collectible Paper, for 2023

Another year has come to its conclusion so once again it is time to look back at the top 500 highest priced items sold in the books and paper collectible field for the past year. Along with books, we count manuscripts, maps, comics, trading cards, certain prints and photographs (which ones described at end of article), and other occasional ephemeral paper or related items.   One thing that jumps out is that high end collectors, like those across the entire spectrum, were pulling back on what they spent. Sometimes the most financially endowed spend regardless of conditions but not this yea...

It was two nights before Christmas

It was two nights before Christmas

When I was a kid, in the 1950’s, Christmas was the way my family compensated for the disaster we were living through.  It was almost worth it but left me memories of how my family when in trouble, ...

Graham Holroyd talks Vintage and Collectible Paperbacks

Graham Holroyd talks Vintage and Collectible Paperbacks

Collectible paperbacks, a category that includes science fiction, mysteries, westerns, adventure, horror, romance, pulp fiction and much more is still alive and well. There are few people as knowle...

British Library Still Attempting to Recover from Massive Cyberattack

British Library Still Attempting to Recover from Massive Cyberattack

The British library is still struggling to find its way out of the massive disruptions created by a cyberattack that occurred on October 7. The attackers grabbed an enormous amount of data from the...

Madame Deshoulières Again!

Madame Deshoulières Again!

The other day, I did something I hate: I bought a book in a very bad condition. Head cap gone with the jaw hanging loose, corners bumped and old water stains all throughout. And the price wasn’t ev...

Swann Auction Galleries:  Happy New Year

Swann Auction Galleries: Happy New Year

Throughout our over 80 years in business, Swann has been able to maintain our traditional approach to auctions while innovating, growing and adapting to each new era. With 2023 slowly winding to it...

Christie’s is offering Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana

Christie’s is offering Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana

Christie’s Books Manuscripts Department is pleased to present two auctions for January 2024: Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana (live, 17 January 2024), and Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts I...

56th California Book Fair in San Francisco:  Feb. 9-11

56th California Book Fair in San Francisco: Feb. 9-11

The California International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to San Francisco in 2024! This three-day event features fine and rare materials from around the globe, including manuscripts, first editio...

Sales Decline for Publicly Traded Rare Book Seller

Sales Decline for Publicly Traded Rare Book Seller

Sales were a bit softer during the six months ending on September 30, 2023, than they were for the same period in 2022 for the parent of Shapero Rare Books and Shapero Modern, which markets modern ...

English Government Places a Ban on Export of Recently Discovered Historic Manuscript

English Government Places a Ban on Export of Recently Discovered Historic Manuscript

The United Kingdom's Department for Culture, Media Sport has placed a bar on the export of a recently discovered 13th century New Testament. Oddly, the illuminated manuscript on parchment is in Fr...

Best wishes for the New Year!

Best wishes for the New Year!

Two hundred and seven auction houses and venues contributed 2,427 sales this year to our Transaction History.  Altogether they offered 625,248 lots and 468,565 changed hands and kept us busy every ...

2023 Rare Book Hub Monthly in Review

2023 Rare Book Hub Monthly in Review

The Rare Book Hub Monthly is the free portion of RareBookHub.com. On the first of each month we publish a selection of articles and briefs. Here are some of our stories from 2023. Some of the lea...

Registration Now Open for Collecting Insights with Spencer Stuart

Registration Now Open for Collecting Insights with Spencer Stuart

COLLECTING INSIGHTS   Starting in 2024, experienced Collections Advisor and author of Contemporary Issues in Rare Book Manuscript Collecting, Spencer W Stuart will facilitate monthly, three-part...

Saved Again - Library Book That Survived Fire Returned 100 Years Overdue

Saved Again - Library Book That Survived Fire Returned 100 Years Overdue

This book has a history of living dangerously. Nevertheless, it is finally back home in the St. Paul Public Library, even if the library had no idea it was missing.   The book is Famous Composers...

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review five new bookseller catalogues. Harald Hultqvist Rare Books offers a very special copy of Robert Owen's A New View of Society. Ursus Rare Books features modern graphic design. ...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: MUNSTER (Sebastian). Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Basilea
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Typus Orbis Terrarum. [Antwerp, 1587]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: BRION DE LA TOUR (Louis). Atlas Monde. Paris, Desnos ou Jaillot, [1783 - An XIII-1799].
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Anvers, Christophe Plantin, 1579.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: VISSCHER (Nicolas Joannes). Theatrum praecipuarum urbium [...]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: AZARA (Félix de). Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: JOUTEL (Henri). Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: LA SALLE (René Robert Cavelier de) ; TONTI (Henri de). Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique Septentrionale
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: NOLIN (Jean-Baptiste) ; CORONELLI (Vincenzo). L'Amérique septentrionale, ou, la partie septentrionale des Indes Occidentales […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: [Caroline du Sud]. A large draft of South Carolina from Cape Roman to Port Royal.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: PÉRON (François) ; FREYCINET (Louis de). Voyage de découverte aux terres australes.
  • Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 746. Speed's Dual Atlas of Britain & the World with 96 Maps (1676). Est. $70,000 - $85,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 9. Visscher's Superb Double-Hemisphere World Map with Representations of the Elements (1658). Est. $4,750 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 58. One of the Most Important 16th Century Maps of the New World (1554). Est. $5,000 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 745. A Complete Example of Ortelius' Atlas of Ancient Geography (1624). Est. $12,000 - $15,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 73. First English Map to Show California as an Island (1625). Est. $16,000 - $19,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 156. Bachmann's Dramatic View of the Mid-Atlantic Region (1861). Est. $1,800 - $2,200
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 741. Early Announcement of Continental Congress' Declaration of Independence (1776). Est. $9,000 - $11,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 695. The First Printed Map Devoted to the Pacific (1589). Est. $8,000 - $9,500
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 733. Superb Image of the Presentation of Jesus in Hand Color (1502). Est. $700 - $850
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 52. Produced by the Psychological Warfare Branch to Encourage Surrender (1945). Est. $200 - $230
  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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