Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2016 Issue

There will forever be an England, but UK, It's not so certain

There will forever be an England, but UK, It's not so certain

Economic theories have been developed to explain future economic behavior by developing concepts that explain past behavior.  Over the past three centuries, as economies moved beyond subsistence farming a steady flow of mechanical, scientific, health and travel improvements made it possible to rely less on human resources and more on science and engineering to grow ever larger crops with ever fewer people that, increasingly unneeded on farms, gravitated to cities to find work.  Initially this was almost exclusively an English phenomenon.   This population, over time released from subsiste...

AbeBooks – 20 Years Down, the Next 20 Ready to Go

AbeBooks – 20 Years Down, the Next 20 Ready to Go

AbeBooks recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in business. That was the opening salvo in the new means of book selling that changed the trade as it had been known for over five centuries. Start...

My Once-a-Year Fix

My Once-a-Year Fix

Once a year I get a heads up from Peter Luke that he has assembled a stack of ephemera for me.  He’s an antique, book and paper dealer in the upper Hudson Valley of New York State who, about once a...

Ending July 2: $5 starts at Gibson Auction's Americana Sale a real bargain

Ending July 2: $5 starts at Gibson Auction's Americana Sale a real bargain

Gibson Auction Service is a family owned and run business operating out of central Virginia. Serving mainly the local and drivable population, they offer all sorts of items for auction: personal pr...

Case Antiques Auctions Features Outstanding Collections from Tennessee Estates, Including Slavery, Presidential, and other Antebellum Material

Case Antiques Auctions Features Outstanding Collections from Tennessee Estates, Including Slavery, Presidential, and other Antebellum Material

There will be an amazing collection of Americana sold by Case Antiques Auction Appraisals of Knoxville on July 30. Books, autographs, early photographs, maps, and other paper, including a slave ar...

An Art Find in Moscow, But Millions of Stolen Books Are Still "Lost"

An Art Find in Moscow, But Millions of Stolen Books Are Still "Lost"

A recent find in the storage area of a Moscow art museum throws renewed light on the greatest pillage of books in recorded history. The tracking down of a stolen book, such as the recent return of ...

Rare Book Hub begins coverage of Winner's Auctions in Israel with their July 19 sale

Rare Book Hub begins coverage of Winner's Auctions in Israel with their July 19 sale

Winner’s Auctions and Exhibits is a branch of Judaica Jerusalem, the first auction house in Israel to host Judaica auctions on an international level. Based in Jerusalem, Winner’s brings over thirt...

The 32nd Annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair - August 5 and 6

The 32nd Annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair - August 5 and 6

   The 32nd Annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair - Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6, 2016 in the Expo Building at the Denver Mart   A chance to see much of the regional field under one r...

Book Theft Is An International Problem

Book Theft Is An International Problem

Book theft is not a problem limited to the U.S. or even the West. RAPSI, the Russian Legal Information Agency, reports that three "members of an organized gang" have been sentenced to terms of 3.5 ...

The Scarron Pamphlet, a Deadly Book

The Scarron Pamphlet, a Deadly Book

“Would you believe that an unhappy book, nowadays insignificant and pale when compared to what we can say or write against our kings; that such a small book caused the death of several people?” ask...

July 6: Ancient Papyri and Other Very Early Manuscripts and Miniatures at Bloomsbury

July 6: Ancient Papyri and Other Very Early Manuscripts and Miniatures at Bloomsbury

It doesn’t happen often that I’m tasked with previewing an auction in which I struggle to find a single lot dating from later than the 16th century. Yet this is the case for Bloomsbury Auctions’ sa...

Dirt from a Dirt Bag

Dirt from a Dirt Bag

One more for the collectors of famous cases.   Whitey Bulger is still committing crimes but buyers of his memorabilia will have the last laugh.  Whitey Bulger, the Boston criminal, now spends his...

In a Change of Plans, Gordon College Will Not Be Selling Part of its Rare Book Collection

In a Change of Plans, Gordon College Will Not Be Selling Part of its Rare Book Collection

A major controversy from last year over a library's plan to sell some of its rare books appears to have been quietly resolved in a way that will please those who support retention of the full colle...

July 13-14: Forum Auctions' First Sale, spanning six centuries of material

July 13-14: Forum Auctions' First Sale, spanning six centuries of material

Last month, my Dad Bruce wrote about a new London-based auction house called Forum Auctions, a venture by Stephan Ludwig, the founder of Bloomsbury Auctions. Forum describes themselves as London's ...

Sales Taxes on Out of State Sales – Coming to Your Bookseller Soon?

Sales Taxes on Out of State Sales – Coming to Your Bookseller Soon?

If you are an American bookseller selling your wares to out of state customers, be it online, through catalogues or the phone, one of these days you will probably have to collect all of those state...

Seven Catalogues Reviewed for July

Seven Catalogues Reviewed for July

This month we review seven new catalogues. Samuel Gedge Ltd., Forest Books, and Erasmushaus offer catalogues with a variety of mostly antiquarian works from what are, for the time being anyway, Eur...

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

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions