Rare Book Monthly Articles - September - 2024 Issue

Welcome to our new world

Welcome to our new world

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...

Are Your Old Books Unhealthy (for You)?

Are Your Old Books Unhealthy (for You)?

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...

Our Weekly Auction Updates:  books and the auctions by the numbers

Our Weekly Auction Updates: books and the auctions by the numbers

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...

Dr. Kalika Sands Appointed Head of Sotheby's New York Books and Manuscripts

Dr. Kalika Sands Appointed Head of Sotheby's New York Books and Manuscripts

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 ...

Coming to Dominic Winter on September 11th: The Polydore Vergil bound for Queen Mary I

Coming to Dominic Winter on September 11th: The Polydore Vergil bound for Queen Mary I

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...

Antique Books and Livres d’Artistes at Il Ponte Casa d’Aste September 24-25

Antique Books and Livres d’Artistes at Il Ponte Casa d’Aste September 24-25

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...

Shapero Rare Books' Parent, Scholium Group, Reports Growing Sales and Third Straight Profitable Year

Shapero Rare Books' Parent, Scholium Group, Reports Growing Sales and Third Straight Profitable Year

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 Donates Photography Book Collection to Emory University

Elton John Donates Photography Book Collection to Emory University

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...

Book Dump at Florida’s New College Part of a Bigger Picture

Book Dump at Florida’s New College Part of a Bigger Picture

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...

New Utah Law Bans 13 Books from Public School Libraries, 12 are by Women

New Utah Law Bans 13 Books from Public School Libraries, 12 are by Women

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...

Temporary covers, or the Cheap Miracle.

Temporary covers, or the Cheap Miracle.

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...

The Boston Book Fair Returns November 8-10

The Boston Book Fair Returns November 8-10

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...

The Boston Shadow Fair: November 8th

The Boston Shadow Fair: November 8th

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...

Boxboro Paper Town Set for Saturday, October 12

Boxboro Paper Town Set for Saturday, October 12

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 ...

An Early Heads Up For Collectors and Dealers who would like to display

An Early Heads Up For Collectors and Dealers who would like to display

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 Wishes to Express:  Thank You

The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust Wishes to Express: Thank You

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 –...

Five New Catalogues Reviewed

Five New Catalogues Reviewed

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...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: HAMILTON, Sir William - Campi Phlegraei. Napoli: 1779. € 50,000 - 80,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: KIRCHER, Athanasius - Turris Babel. Amsterdam: 1679. € 3,000 - 5,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: EDWARDS, George.London - Gleanings of Natural History. Londra: 1758-1764. € 7,000 - 10,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: HEVELIUS, Johannes - Cometographia. Danzica: 1668. € 20,000 - 30,000
    Il Ponte, Sep. 24-25: KUPKA, Frantisek - Quatre histoires de blanc et noir. Parigi: 1926. € 10,000 - 15,000
  • Sotheby’s
    10 September 2024
    The Shem Tov Bible
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: Bible, Arabic & Latin. Biblia Sacra Arabica, 3 vol., Rome, Tipografia della Congregazione di Propaganda Fide, 1671. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Shepard (Ernest). "Wind in the Willows" Toad Escapes from Prison, original pencil drawing with watercolour, 1931. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Economics.- Smith (Adam). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 2 vol., second edition, Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1778. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: Burma.- Burmese School (1870s). Folding manuscript, or parabaik, of festivities and processions, probably from the Court Workshop at the Royal Court at Manadaly, Burma, [c. 1870]. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: More (Sir Thomas). La Description de l'Isle d'Utopie ou est comprins le Miroer des republiques du monde, first French edition, Paris, Charles l'Angelier, 1550. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Botany.- Dioscorides (Pedanius). De medicinali materia libri sex, hand-coloured throughout, Frankfurt-am-Main, Chr. Egenolff, 1543. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: World.- Blaeu (Johannes). Nova et Accuratissima Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula Auctore Joanne Blaeu, engraved map, [c.1662]. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Shelley (Mary). Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, 2 vol., [second edition], Printed for G. and W.B. Whittaker, 1823. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: [Evans (Marian)] 'George Eliot'. A complete set of first editions of her works, uniformly bound in red morocco, 1858-1885 (30). £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    26th September 2024
    Forum, 26 Sep: Lewis (C.S.) [The Chronicles of Narnia], 7 vol., first editions, 1950-56. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Albertolli (Ferdinando). Porte di Città e Fortezze...di Michele Sammicheli, Milan, 1815. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, 26 Sep: Gregynog Press.- Euripides. The Plays, one of 25 specially-bound copies, this by George Fisher at the Gregynog Bindery, 1931. £4,000 to £6,000.

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