From the beginning of the printed word, records about them have been kept. Their form soon coalesced into a common understanding that title, author, date and place published identifies most printings. Since then, not much has changed, until now.
Until now, search logic was used to penetrate catalogues and databases with three or more of these:
By author name
By title
By subject
And by date
And these identifiers still work fine. However, we’re in the earliest moments when collectible paper will dominate the field. Searchi...
Another year has come to a close, which means it's time to look back at the year just past with the annual Rare Book Hub Top 500 highest prices paid at auction for books and related collectibles. I...
The reports of books' death have been greatly exaggerated. This is no doubt a difficult time for many booksellers, particularly smaller ones and those in the business of selling high-priced classic...
The Oxford University Press has named its Word of the Year. For not the first time, The Word of the Year is not a word, its a short phrase, a combination of two words. Those words are “brain rot.” ...
Our Rates for 2025-26
Rare Book Hub’s subscription prices go up on January 1st every two years. This is it.
Here is what we are providing:
Access to our Rare Book Transaction History ...
The team planning for Pi(e) Day 2025, invites book people everywhere to combine books and baking by joining Petite Pi(e) Day on March 14, 2025.
For the seventh year running The Great Library Pie ...
According to Captain Cook, midshipman James Magra was “good for nothing”, but Magra did at least one good thing: he published an apocryphal relation of Cook’s first voyage. Translated into French i...
January 1 is an important holiday. No, I'm not talking about New Year's Day. There is another holiday that happens on the same day – Public Domain Day. This the day on which works whose copyrights ...
For the first time ever, a manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence written in the hand of a key participant in the nation’s founding is set to appear at auction. This extraordinary docum...
There's a battle going on in France between booksellers and Amazon. An independent party, the government, may again be called on to render a verdict, though they are not nonpartisan. You know who t...
Case Auctions of Knoxville, Tennessee has prepared a fascinating auction catalogue in conjunction with their 2025 Winter Art Antiques Sale that occurs January 25-26. For those who have a yen to br...
Artist-in-Residence and Research Fellowship at University of Miami’s Kislak Collection (Deadline Jan. 24, 2025)
The University of Miami's Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Early Americas, Exploratio...
Hi-BidsWin.com is offering Print History Tools of the Trade
As January arrives, so too two auctions at HighBidsWin.com will soon be gaveled down.
They are:
Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazi...
Scholium Group, the parent of Shapero Rare Books (and little other business besides Shapero Modern Prints), will be delisting its stock from the London Stock Exchange on January 6. Ten years ago, S...
Whew, what a year! While you were sweating inflation, the cost of living and the tight election we were posting monthly articles from the world of rare books including auctions, dealers, social med...
This month we review six new catalogues from six booksellers. Rulon-Miller Books features titles from various collector and bookseller collections they recently obtained. Kelmscott Bookshop focuses...
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
