Rare Book Monthly Articles - June - 2025 Issue

Rare Book Hub: Log in from your phone!

Rare Book Hub: Log in from your phone!

Rare Book Hub is now providing a mobile optimized version that makes it easier to use us from your phone. In some respects it’s easier to understand our complex services on the main site. Here’s what it looks like.   Here is how it works.   Wherever you are in the world, use your phone’s browser and simply type in: Rare Book Hub or rarebookhub. Whether you are a day tripper, or logging in as a paid member, you have plenty to see and do.   Our software will detect your operating system, your version, and screen size. You’ll then see our home page. Near to the top you’ll see Menu. Click...

Man Borrows 100 Books from Library and Burns Them

Man Borrows 100 Books from Library and Burns Them

This may not be the most peaceful and united of times in America, no twenty-first century version of the Era of Good Feelings. Still, a recent occurrence is symbolically more chilling than most. Bo...

Conflicting Currents in the World of Collecting

Recently there have been a bevy of handwringing articles relating to softness in the 20th century arts auctions. Sculptures and paintings have appeared to exhausted their welcome near term. Later P...

Where is the Next Generation of Book Collectors? Dolly Knows. It Starts with Readers.

Where is the Next Generation of Book Collectors? Dolly Knows. It Starts with Readers.

It is the age old question of the book collecting field – where is the new collector? It is at times a rhetorical question, more a statement of fear for the field, that books will be overwhelmed by...

FH: Lincoln's Legacy Delivers

On May 21st, Freeman | Hindman’s converted Lincoln aspirations into a memorable auction that will rank among the top ten in the collectible paper category worldwide by dollar value for 2025.  The s...

Firing of Librarian of Congress Is More Complex Than it Might Appear

Firing of Librarian of Congress Is More Complex Than it Might Appear

On May 8th the Trump administration fired Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, with a terse two line email. It first appeared that this action was just one of a barrage of attacks aimed at ...

The Rose City Book Fair Returns June 14-15

The Rose City Book Fair Returns June 14-15

Come June, it will once again be time for the annual Rose City Book Paper Fair held in the “Rose City,” Portland, Oregon. The annual book fair will once again be held at the DoubleTree at Lloyd Ce...

Basil Hall in America, the Art of Perspective

Basil Hall in America, the Art of Perspective

Basil Hall’s narrative of travels in North America (Edinburgh, 1829) is everything you’d expect from an officer of the British navy (from Scotland, though): a boring display of self-laudatory refle...

Funny Money

Funny Money

Recently I bought an appealing item on eBay that included something unexpected.   What I bought was an executed mortgage gold bond offered to those who were hoping that New Paltz, New York’s elec...

Ohio, Indiana and Michigan Offer Multiple Auction Options

Ohio, Indiana and Michigan Offer Multiple Auction Options

Far from the big name houses of NYC, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan host a lively auction trade. While these Midwestern firms seldom grab the headlines, they do offer reputable representation and a div...

Follow Up – The Library in the Middle of a National Border

Follow Up – The Library in the Middle of a National Border

In April, we wrote about the Haskell Library, a unique symbol of Canadian-American friendship for over a century. It was built right on top of the border, the main entrance being in America but the...

Arrests Made in Theft of Dead Man's Books

Arrests Made in Theft of Dead Man's Books

James Strand was something of a recluse. An elderly man without children, he lived alone in a small house in the Lents neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. He had a niece and they spoke on occasion, b...

A Census of Almost 1,000 Copies of the First Nine Editions of Hugo Grotius' De Iure Belli ac Pacis has been Published

A Census of Almost 1,000 Copies of the First Nine Editions of Hugo Grotius' De Iure Belli ac Pacis has been Published

As long as there have been societies, there has been some sort of law governing behavior within that society, written or not. Communities, then nations, and also religions, have had their own laws....

Four New Catalogues Have Been Reviewed

Four New Catalogues Have Been Reviewed

This month we review four new bookseller catalogues. Philip Salmon Company has issued their first catalogue, The Interaction of Paper. It offers books where the paper has uncommon features, such a...

Rare Book Monthly

  • SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ROALD AMUNDSEN: «Sydpolen» [ The South Pole] 1912. First edition in jackets and publisher's slip case.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: AMUNDSEN & NANSEN: «Fram over Polhavet» [Farthest North] 1897. AMUNDSEN's COPY!
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON [ed.]: «Aurora Australis» 1908. First edition. The NORWAY COPY.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON: «The heart of the Antarctic» + SUPPLEMENT «The Antarctic Book», 1909.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: SHACKLETON, BERNACCHI, CHERRY-GARRARD [ed.]: «The South Polar Times» I-III, 1902-1911.
    SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: [WILLEM BARENTSZ & HENRY HUDSON] - SAEGHMAN: «Verhael van de vier eerste schip-vaerden […]», 1663.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION | LIEUTENANT HENRY ROBERTSON BOWERS: «At the South Pole.», Gelatin Silver Print. [10¾ x 15in. (27.2 x 38.1cm.) ].
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ELEAZAR ALBIN: «A natural History of Birds.» + «A Supplement», 1738-40. Wonderful coloured plates.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: PAUL GAIMARD: «Voyage de la Commision scientific du Nord, en Scandinavie, […]», c. 1842-46. ONLY HAND COLOURED COPY KNOWN WITH TWO ORIGINAL PAINTINGS BY BIARD.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: JAMES JOYCE: «Ulysses», 1922. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.

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