Rare Book Monthly Articles - April - 2024 Issue

The 64th New York International Antiquarian Book Fair: Be There!!

The 64th New York International Antiquarian Book Fair:  Be There!!   On April 4th, in New York City, the Park Avenue Armory begins to host the 64th New York International Antiquarian Book Fair that runs through the 7th. One hundred ninety-six exhibitors will be displaying prized materials to seduce the steady crowds that annually make these New York book fairs the premier antiquarian book fair in the world.  To the casual observer it may seem just a book fair but this is a reminder that New York City, once the home of more than 200 bookshops, lost them slowly over the 20th century while o...

The Discovery of America catalogue of works will be offered for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair 2024

The Discovery of America catalogue of works will be offered for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair 2024

R. David Parsons assembled one of the most important collections of early explorations to the Americas and to Asia.  David passed away in 2014, and his collection was recently acquired from the Par...

Bonhams offering an auction about Remarkable Women Closing April 2nd

Bonhams offering an auction about Remarkable Women Closing April 2nd

Bonhams is offering an auction about Remarkable Women.  It’s concentrations of material owned and/or used by women during their lives.  Book collections rarely say much about their collectors.  The...

Criminal Prosecution of Librarians and Withdrawal from the American Library Association is on the Legislative Agenda in Multiple States

Criminal Prosecution of Librarians and Withdrawal from the American Library Association is on the Legislative Agenda in Multiple States

American libraries continue to be a focus of the culture wars and debate over what should or should not be allowed on the shelves and who should select it has become increasingly loud and divisive....

Eric Caren:  A Consignor who is making his case:  Potter and Potter April 18

Eric Caren: A Consignor who is making his case: Potter and Potter April 18

Eric C. Caren is writing about his 9th Single Owner Auction of "How History Unfolds on Paper" at Potter Potter, April 18th.  Highlights include George Washington's Commission to be Commander in Ch...

Believe It Or Not – A Florida School District Removes 1,600 Books from Its Shelves

Believe It Or Not – A Florida School District Removes 1,600 Books from Its Shelves

Schools in Escambia County, Florida, have removed an astonishing 1,600 books from their schools in response to a law passed last year by the Florida legislature and signed by the Governor. It requi...

UPDATE: The British Library and Toronto Public Library are still recovering from ransomware cyber attacks which caused massive disruption of services and highlighted weaknesses in their IT systems

UPDATE: The British Library and Toronto Public Library are still recovering from ransomware cyber attacks which caused massive disruption of services and highlighted weaknesses in their IT systems

Two of the world’s largest libraries, The British Library and the Toronto Public Library, were both victims of massive cyber attacks which disabled their computer systems and held them for ransom i...

Document Taken from Peru a Century Ago Returned by the Rosenbach Library

Document Taken from Peru a Century Ago Returned by the Rosenbach Library

Some time a century or more ago, a document made its way from Peru to the United States. It had once been included in a volume with other documents currently held in the Peruvian archives. Exactly ...

Swann Galleries:  Fine Books Offered on April 11th

Swann Galleries: Fine Books Offered on April 11th

It’s April and the steady pitter patter of the collectible paper audience walking to and from the Armory, will soon recede.  Meanwhile Swann Galleries on 24th Street will soon hammer down 308 lots ...

Pushkin and the Kremlin Mercenaries

Pushkin and the Kremlin Mercenaries

Is the Kremlin sending mercenaries to various libraries over Europe to steal old Russian books?   The Kremlin organizing the theft of old Russian books all over Europe might sound like a hoax—bu...

Your e-Book Reader May Not Be Immune to Hacking

Your e-Book Reader May Not Be Immune to Hacking

Your e-book reader may be an access point for cybercriminals, hackers who want to enter your electronic devices to either steal valuable personal information or plant malicious software such as adw...

Capital Rare Book Fair to be Held in Washington May 3-5

Capital Rare Book Fair to be Held in Washington May 3-5

The Capital Rare Book Fair will take place on Saturday and Sunday May 4-5, plus there will be a special preview on the Friday evening before. Booksellers from Virginia to Maine, and as far west as ...

Four New Catalogues Reviewed

Four New Catalogues Reviewed

This month we are reviewing four new catalogues from booksellers. The 19th Century Rare Book Photograph Shop presents a catalogue of “Magnificent Books, Manuscripts Photographs.” It lives up to i...

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
  • Bonhams, June 14-23: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presentation Gold Pocket Watch. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: Presentation Copy of the First Issue of the Lincoln Douglas Debates Signed by Abraham Lincoln in Pencil to a Sangamon County Illinois Republican. Estimate: $150,000 - 250,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: A Senate Resolution Signed in the Tense Days After the Union's Humiliating Defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run. Estimate: $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: Seven Passages to a Flight, an Artists Book with a Story Quilt by Faith Ringgold, the Publisher's Own Copy. Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: A New Charter for Virginia, A Response to the First Armed Rebellion in the American Colonies. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: Earliest obtainable printing of the Bill of Rights. Estimate: $8,000 - 12,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: Edward Curtis Orotone. Estimate: $7,000 - 9,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: Owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Butter or Dessert Plate from FDR's State Dinner Service. Estimate: $3,000 - 5,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: An Early Large-Format Plan of the City of Washington. Estimate: $1,500 - 2,500
    Bonhams, June 14-23: Containing the First Map to Name the Hudson River. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: America's First Major Novelist, a Complete Chapter in Autograph Manuscript by James Fenimore Cooper. Estimate: $15,000 - 20,000
    Bonhams, June 14-23: The Only Full-Length Book by Jefferson, with the Justly Famous Map. Estimate: $12,000 - 18,000
  • 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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