Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2013 Issue

Worth Serious Consideration

Worth Serious Consideration

Worth Serious Consideration:  Archives International Auctions, Part XVI of U.S. Worldwide Banknotes, Ephemera, Scripophily, Autographs and Historic Documents to be offered over two days:  Saturday the 19th and Tuesday the 22nd of October in New York City and Fort Lee, New Jersey.   The nature of book, manuscript, map and ephemera collecting has been changed by the significant availability of always desirable but previously difficult to find related materials such as stock certificates, paper money, and non-numismatic historically interesting and important items.  Archives International A...

Does Social Media Sell Books?

Does Social Media Sell Books?

NB – Links to the people, businesses, sites and pages mentioned in this article can be found at the end of this story.   Last month I found myself reporting on a local event and noticed I was the...

Indictments Handed Down in Alleged Textbook Theft Ring

Indictments Handed Down in Alleged Textbook Theft Ring

There is a right way to trade in books and a wrong way. This is a story about the wrong way. Los Angeles area textbook wholesaler Doorkeeper Textz obtained its books in a very wrong way according t...

Seward's Folly? – What Happens When a Small Institution Realizes an Old Gift is Extraordinarily Valuable?

Seward's Folly? – What Happens When a Small Institution Realizes an Old Gift is Extraordinarily Valuable?

Bequests may be thought to last forever, but as we know, nothing lasts forever. Books and other valuables left to libraries, museums, universities, and other institutions, so welcome at the time, m...

American History:  Up for Sale on the 10th

American History: Up for Sale on the 10th

Swann Galleries New York Sale 2324   There are auctions and there are auctions.  Some matter more than others.  Some matter more than most.  If you are an Americana collector Swann’s sale of pr...

Bonhams:  Fine Books & Manuscripts on the 16th

Bonhams: Fine Books & Manuscripts on the 16th

A hallmark of the transitional market that books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera are in today is the steady and substantial flow of quality material - the dispositions of institutions, dealers and ...

Book Club of California:  New Leadership

Book Club of California: New Leadership

Book Club of California:  New Leadership   The Book Club of California announces the appointment of Jennifer Sime as Executive Director, effective October 1, 2013.   In making the announcement,...

$160 Million to be Refunded E-Book Buyers

$160 Million to be Refunded E-Book Buyers

If you purchased electronic books during the past few years, there is a good chance you can participate in a settlement of over $160 million arising from antitrust lawsuits. Your share may not be q...

Hang Them High - Poor man’s dreams and rich man’s collections

Hang Them High - Poor man’s dreams and rich man’s collections

Just the other day, I came across the catalogue of a very impressive sale that took place in Drouot in December 2012. I noticed a peculiar detail about it, that made me laugh—a bittersweet laughter...

To the end Ends of the Earth

To the end Ends of the Earth

Selections from the stellar collection of Jay I. Kislak are on exhibit at the Osher Map Library from September 24th to February 27th.  The Osher Library is part of the University of South Maine in ...

Booksellers Going to the Hong Kong Art Fair

Booksellers Going to the Hong Kong Art Fair

Several Western booksellers will be setting up booths at the Fine Art Asia 2013 fair in Hong Kong this month. Art fairs have become a regular part of the mix for several antiquarian book sellers. S...

Lying Fury – Tales of the Strange Creatures that Inhabit the Americas

Lying Fury – Tales of the Strange Creatures that Inhabit the Americas

A book has recently been released about life as it once was in the Americas, or perhaps never was. The title is La Fureur Mensongère ou les contes fabuleaux du Nouveau Monde (Lying Fury, or tales o...

Auctions in October

This month there are 113 scheduled events.  More will be added as the month continues.  For the month we project that 30,000 lots will be offered.   Tues. Oct. 1st Christies – New York.  Neon Dr...

10 New Catalogues Reviewed

10 New Catalogues Reviewed

For October we have received 10 new catalogues to review. David Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books is back with a new catalogue of Americana. Back of Beyond Books focuses on the American Southwest, but ...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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 Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: (Choiseul-Gouffier, Marie). Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, 2 vols, 1st edition, 1782-1822. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, by Sylvanus Urban, 11 volumes. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Shackleton (Ernest). The Heart of the Antarctic, 2 vols, 1st ed, presentation copy, 1909. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Drayton (Michael). Poly Olbion..., London: 1622. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Scheuchzer (Johann Jacob). Ouresiphoites Helveticus, 4 parts in 1, 2nd ed, 1723. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Roberts (Henry, after). Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ..., [1784]. £500-800
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Maffei (Giovanni), Indiarum orientalium Occidentaliumque Descriptio..., 1589. £1,200-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Ortelius (Abraham), Typus Orbis Terrarum, [1598]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Bible [English]. [The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New..., 1613]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    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

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