By Megan BentonA talk delivered to the Roxburghe Club, 16 September 2003
Copyright 2003
Near the end of the nineteenth century, American essayist and avid book collector Eugene Field
published a book entitled The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac. In it he tells one tale after another, all with the same theme—that if forced to choose between a woman and a beloved book, a sensible man would be better off with the book. He even wryly speculates that if a woman works hard and behaves well, she just might be lucky enough to come back in another life as a book, “to be petted, fondled, belove...
By Mike Stillman
One of the assumptions of the new collector, or the non-collector who discovers a trove of old books in the attic, is that if a book is old it must be valuable. Certainly anything...
By Mike Stillman
This month we review three catalogues of Americana, from David Lesser, Flo Silver, and Harold Nestler. They cover the United States, South and Central America, and New York Stat...
A review and commentary by Bruce McKinney
Table of Contents
A review of The Dutch Dominie of the Catskills, a work of historical fiction written by the Rev. Doctor David Murdoch and pub...
The following is from Mr. Robinson: -
Elmira, May 5, 1851
Rev. and Dear Sir:
I learned, Saturday evening, from a source considered reliable, that a minority of our Committee had written...
Died
On the morning of Thursday, June 13, at the Parsonage on William-street, Elmira, Rev. David Murdoch, D.D., aged 60 years.
In the death of Dr. Murdoch not only his family and his church ...
Affectionate ones had not been neglectful of those graceful offices, which while being the last tokens of love and respect, we may pay to the dead, are at the same time symbols of the life which is...
Elmira, New York
160th Anniversary
1795-1955
“1831 to 1843 was a season of revival in these parts and we had many accessions. In 1846, all resolutions denouncing slavery having been tabled...
David Murdoch, D. D.
Was born at
Bonhill in Scotland
Oct. 4th, 1800
At the age of 29 he was graduated at
The University of
Glasgow.
He studied theology in that city with
The late
Ralph Wa...
A Review and Perspective by Bruce McKinney
In 1995 Walt Crawford and Michael Gorman wrote this book about the future of libraries. They sought to make the case that the headlong dash into the ...
By Renee Roberts
October 17, 2003. Harwich Port, Cape Cod, MA. The Internet has been touted as opening up the global world of sales to individual retailers, and this is certainly true. What “nor...
The sell side of the market is clearly coming into view and there are going to be a variety of options sufficient to satisfy both immediate and long term sellers. It is important to note that the ...
His mission completed, King returned to the states and tried to regain his old seat in the senate. In a three-way contest, King was unsuccessful, the only loss of his electoral career. However, i...
By Mike Stillman
This month we review four new booksellers’ catalogues. They are an outstanding group. Helen Kahn gives us “Voyages and Travels,” William Reese the USA oriented “National Pride,...
By Bruce McKinney
For many the idea of buying at book auctions is a daunting enterprise. What many dealers regularly do all others will have to learn to handle. You can buy flowers at the ...
By Bruce McKinney
There is life in the book trade after all and it was in evidence over the weekend of October 10 and 11 in a beautifully staged show in Seattle on the grounds of the 1962 World’...
Tuesday afternoon’s second session begins with History Reference followed by Literary Reference. Many fields are covered under History Reference, such as bibles, religion, bibliophiles, the book tr...
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
Dominic Winter, May 14: Taylor (John). All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-Poet..., 1630. £1,000-1,500
Dominic Winter, May 14: Pierpont Morgan Collection. Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, 1904 & 1906. £2,000-3,000
Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
![<b>Gonnelli:</b> Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/dc0b1dc0-f7c8-40b6-a5a6-870689484c07.jpg "<b>Gonnelli:</b> Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€")
![<b>Dominic Winter, May 14:</b> Roberts (Henry, after). <i>Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ...,</i> [1784]. £500-800](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/033cf239-2b91-4588-aca2-50ad0a9c43b3.jpg "<b>Dominic Winter, May 14:</b> Roberts (Henry, after). <i>Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ...,</i> [1784]. £500-800")
![<b>Dominic Winter, May 14:</b> World. Ortelius (Abraham), <i>Typus Orbis Terrarum,</i> [1598]. £2,000-3,000](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/3ecbc3d4-52ef-41c5-8a8d-d4a158a51253.jpg "<b>Dominic Winter, May 14:</b> World. Ortelius (Abraham), <i>Typus Orbis Terrarum,</i> [1598]. £2,000-3,000")
![<b>Dominic Winter, May 14:</b> Bible [English]. [<i>The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New...,</i> 1613]. £2,000-3,000](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/fcfb0b9a-4f59-4dc8-87fd-1dfdf90611dc.jpg "<b>Dominic Winter, May 14:</b> Bible [English]. [<i>The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New...,</i> 1613]. £2,000-3,000")
