Welcome to our new world
Collectible paper, né rare books and manuscripts, has been transforming the markets that have traditionally sold them. Show dealers now can fit a thousand interesting examples in two briefcases to sell at face-to-face events that they-themselves are becoming fewer and more concentrated. An auction house, in one case, made their bones selling farm equipment, now sell manuscripts and paper* interspersed with dog-eared transmission manuals. There’s the sense that, if the market is willing, they’ll sell ‘em. The trick was once to find the customer. Now the hustl...
In the 19th century, the average lifespan was only in the 30s, or if you survived infancy, you could hope for 40-something. There were many reasons for this short lifespan, but was reading books on...
Peter Harrington will be showing a selection of incredible items at the Empire State Rare Book Print Fair taking place September 27-29, 2024 at the historic City College of New York.
Their col...
Our Weekly Auction Updates (WAU) have become a significant publication for us over the past 10 years. Our RBM and WAU audiences are similar but their perspectives are different. Rare Book Monthly...
Seven years after joining Sotheby’s New York Books and Manuscripts Department as an associate cataloguer, Dr. Kalika Sands has been appointed the Head of the department. Richard Austin, the Global ...
Dominic Winter’s 11 September auction has an unusually high number of antiquarian books and manuscripts, many lots pre-1700. There are leaves from Caxton incunables, a fine Book of Hours, embroider...
Auction: September 24 and 25, 2024
Exhibition: September 19, 20, 21, 2024 (10 AM - 1 PM, 2 PM - 6 PM)
Location: Palazzo Crivelli - Via Pontaccio 12, 2021 Milan
The second half of the au...
Scholium Group, owner of Shapero Rare Books, recently announced their 2024 full-year results. If you're wondering how they know their 2024 results already, Scholium doesn't use a calendar year. The...
Elton John made his living in the music business, and it was a very good living at that. He used some of his enormous wealth to collect, his focus being art. Anyone who has ever seen John perform w...
RBH readers may have seen recent August photos and video of a dumpster load of library books being “culled” from the shelves of Florida’s New College in Sarasota. The pictures themselves were dishe...
Utah joined the growing list of states attempting to censor the holdings of public school libraries when a controversial new law passed earlier this year went into effect.
According to an Aug. 2 a...
Let’s face it: in the field of old books, money alone will grant you access to books of exception. But it’s not a problem. The old book world is so vast and so varied that some treasures are almost...
BOSTON, MA – The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (BIABF) celebrates its 46th year at the Hynes Convention Center in Downtown Boston, November 8-10, 2024. This three-day event welcomes th...
Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire. MW Book Fairs, a collaboration between Wiggins Fine Books ABAA, SNEAB and Richard Mori Books, is pleased to announce that 40 outstanding an...
Once again it's time for Boxboro Paper Town. They feature all types of paper ephemera (and a few plastic and metallic items). It's no great secret that ephemera, once the stepchild of the printing ...
The 2024 Northampton Antiquarian Book, Ephemera, and Book Arts Fair, the eighth edition, will be Friday, November 22nd from 5 – 8pm and Saturday, November 23rd from 10am to 4pm in the Northampton C...
The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust is grateful to everyone who joined us at the July 31st Summer Cocktail Party Fundraiser at The Strand’s Rare Book Room and everyone who bid – in-person or online –...
This month we review five new bookseller catalogues. Four dealers have teamed up to sell the exceptional collection of the late R. David Parsons of Atlanta. Peter Harrington, the William Reese Comp...
Sotheby’s Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone 25 June – July 7
Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000.
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000
Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000
Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000
Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
