Old and rare bookstores have been disappearing into the internet miasma. Their stock has been uploaded to listing sites but the person to person contact they relied on has slowly declined. Meantime book fairs have been evolving into more complex events giving dealers an efficient way to buy and sell. In San Francisco this past month, Rare Books SF provided the field a fresh opportunity to see what’s being offered. For old timers, like me, visiting bookshops were occasions. The serious collector could browse the shelves for mispriced or unappreciated stock. Yes, you could do it and it was...
If you collect paper, plan to be in the Big Apple
As of February 25th, 182 rare book and collectible paper dealers are signed up to participate at the upcoming New York Book Fair. It’s the m...
If its April, it’s time to plan to be In New York for the ABAA Book Fair April 3-6
The ABAA New York Antiquarian Book Fair Celebrates 65 Years of Literary Treasures – April 3-6, 2025
NEW YORK ...
MANHATTAN RARE BOOK FINE PRESS FAIR: April 5, 2025
The Manhattan Rare Book and Fine Press Fair returns to the Upper East Side for one day only, inviting booksellers and bibliophiles from aroun...
When people need to turn their books, particularly more valuable ones, into cash there are a few places they usually go. Generally, they either take them to a bookseller or an auction house, occasi...
The Library of Barry Humphries to be sold on March 26th at Forum
On 26th March, Forum Auctions will offer the library of Barry Humphries. The sale will feature a remarkable array of books, manu...
A book has been showing up in discussions on TikTok and other online social media sites. It is not a new book. It dates back to the 19th century. However, some people believe it foretold the future...
There is no hotter field of collecting today than ephemera. Ephemera are those odds and ends, by definition, things that were only meant to be used for a short time. Posters, letters, greeting card...
One of the longest running shows in the book world is coming to a close. The book, antique and collectible shows of Tina and John Bruno's Flamingo Eventz has held its last events, culminating a 40-...
The Strength of the Collectible Paper Auction Market continues to surprise as the market transforms.
These days we are living through turmoil. Politics, yes, the Collectible Paper market, no.
...
On 26th March, Forum Auctions will offer the library of Barry Humphries. The sale will feature a remarkable array of books, manuscripts, works on paper and objects from the extensive library of the...
Dystopian fiction is having a moment with certain titles pushing new highs. Four dystopian novels getting strong recent auction play including Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell. Also in demand ...
Spencer W Stuart is proud to present The Antiquarian Outlook, a weekly audio/visual review of rare book auction results as well as Industry news.
The Antiquarian Outlook is totally independent,...
Old books can hold you back in the past. Take Catullus, for instance. For years I’ve read his poems in a gorgeous 1653 edition (A Paris, chez De Luyne), wondering why people regard him as a sulphur...
Only ten years ago, Barnes and Noble, the last big American bookstore chain, was thought to be on its last legs, with widespread speculation about its projected demise.
In 2015 Barnes Noble spu...
Book collectors are stuffy old men. Everyone knows that. Well, maybe not everyone. Honey Wax Booksellers has announced the ninth annual Honey Wax Book Collecting Prize. It is awarded to women boo...
Collectors may collect for their own enjoyment, but in so doing, they provide an enormous benefit to all of society. They are also preservationists. We recognize this service when it is comes to li...
Seven new bookseller catalogues are up for review this month. Mark Funke Bookseller offers books from the Dr. Felix Guggenheim collection. Guggenheim was a German publisher who escaped that country...
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 26th March 2026
Forum, Mar. 26: Book of Hours.- Heures a lusaige de Romme, printed on vellum, with 14 full-page illuminated miniatures, Paris, N. Higman for J. de Brie, [c.1521]. £20,000-30,000
Forum, Mar. 26: France.- Book of Hours, perhaps Use of the Abbey of Saint-Gildas de Rhuys, with thirteen miniatures surviving from an original cycle of at least twenty, [c. 1430]. £15,000-20,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Milton (John). Paradise lost. A Poem in Ten Books, first edition, Pforzheimer's sixth state, S. Simmons, 1669. £8,000-12,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Blake (William). Illustrations of the Book of Job, one of 215 first issue "Proof" copies, this one of 65 copies on "French" paper, Published by the Author, March 8, 1825 [but March, 1826]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 26th March 2026
Forum, Mar. 26: Christie (Agatha). The ABC Murders, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £15,000-20,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Halley (Edmund). Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, no. 297, pp.1882-99, March 1705. £10,000-15,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Haytham (Ibn al) [known as Alhazen]. Opticae Thesaurus...Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X..., first edition, Basel, August, 1572. £20,000-30,000
Forum, Mar. 26: Kepler (Johannes). Dioptrice seu demonstratio eorum quae visui & visibilibus propter conspicilla non ita pridem inventa accidunt, first edition, Augsburg, David Frank, 1611. £12,000-18,000
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Andrews (H.C.) Coloured Engravings of Heaths, 4 vol. in 2, first edition, [1710,--94]-1802-1809-[1830]. £10,000 - £15,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- Cramer (Pierre) and Caspar Stoll. De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie Waereld-Deelen…,, 5 vol., Amsterdam & Utrecht, 1779-91. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Voyages.- Darwin (Charles) and others. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, 3 vol. in 4, including Appendix to vol.2, first edition, 1839. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Butterflies.- de Graaf (Willem Diederik Vincent). [Inlandsche Kapellen in beeld], 170 fine original watercolours, [Enkhuizen], [1800-40]. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Dresser (Henry Eeles). A History of the Birds of Europe, 9 vol., including supplement, first edition, by the author, 1871-96. £6,000 - £8,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Zoology.- Felines.- Elliot (Daniel Giraud). A Monograph of the Felidæ or Family of the Cats, first edition, for the Subscribers, by the Author, [1878]-1883. £25,000 - £30,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Frisch (Johann Leonard). Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes, 2 vol., first edition, Berlin, Friedr. Wilhelm Birnsteil, [1736]-1763. £40,000 - £60,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Birds.- Gould (John). The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., first edition, by the author, 1862-1873. £30,000 - £40,000.
Forum Auctions Natural History: The remaining stock of Antiquariaat Junk, 1899-2026 25 March 2026
Forum, Mar. 25: Pomology.- France.- Poiteau (A.) Pomologie Française. Recueil des Plus Beaux Fruits cultivés en France, 4 vol., Paris, 1846. £30,000 - £40,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- [Robin (Jean)]. Histoire des Plantes, nouvellement trouvées en l'Isle Virgine…,, 1620; with Geoffrey Linocier L'Histoire des plantes, second edition, 1619-20. £3,000 - £4,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Japan.- Siebold (P.F. von). Nippon. Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan, 7 parts in 6 vol., first edition, Leyden, [1832]-1852. £35,000 - £45,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Asia.- Valentijn (Francois). Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën..., 5 vol. in 8, first edition, Dordrecht [&] Amsterdam, 1724-26. £8,000 - £12,000.
Forum, Mar. 25: Botany.- Australia.- Redouté (P.J.).- Ventenat (Étienne Pierre). Jardin de la Malmaison, 2 vol.,, Paris, 1803-04[-05]. £30,000 - £40,000.
