Rare Book Monthly Articles - June - 2020 Issue

Madeline Faith Kripke: 1943-2020: An American Original

Madeline, the noted dictionary collector and eccentric par supreme, slipped away April 25th, caught between aging and Coronavirus.  Nothing less than two disasters would slow her down.  When passed away she was yet in mid-flight, her life and career on a trajectory to create a collection and database of the history of the ever transitioning meaning of words.  For decades she purchased, one by one, dictionaries in many languages with every imaginable focus, the more the obscure and peculiar the better.    As the “other child” of an astonishingly brilliant family, the sun shone most brightl...

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Necessity is the Mother of Invention: ABAA Virtual Book Fairs

The Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America [ABAA] is introducing its first Virtual Book Fair June 4-7 in response to a desire to reconnect within the community.  These new events on the In...

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Another Valuable Ancient Document Obtained Under Shady Circumstances Likely Heading from the U. S. Back to Iraq

On May 18, the U. S. Department of Justice filed suit to return a cuneiform tablet apparently worth well over $1 million to authorities in Iraq, from which it was looted, most likely early in this ...

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Books: Maybe We Aren't Reading Them, But They Still Make Great Props

Books have long held a position of high esteem in our households, likely as far back as Gutenberg. You probably have a bookcase containing every book you have ever owned. Why? Do you keep a collect...

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Welcome Back to the Bookstores

Hello all.  Here we are in sunny California in June where it is, at this writing, already way too hot!  Our co-operative bookstore is opening slowly again after a two-month plus closure.  As with a...

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Christies is announcing its inaugural various-owner Books & Manuscripts Sale Online

Once upon a time auction house savants labored somewhere between secrecy and privacy while making policy and fortunes for buyers and sellers.  Then BINGO, in response and reaction to risk, danger, ...

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Britain's ABA Launches First Virtual Fair

Britain's Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) has launched its first virtual book fair, this year's edition of Firsts London. The virtual or online book fair has become the norm where fairs h...

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Truisms of the Book Business

I have been in the used/rare book business for twenty years. Below are some of the things I have learned.   If someone is trying to sell you books and it appears they are going to be difficult, i...

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Selections from the Library of Lorenzo H. Zambrano: Online Auction at Christie’s, 2-18 June 2020

Lorenzo H. Zambrano (1944-2014) was one of Mexico's leading businessmen, philanthropists, and collectors. As Chief Executive of Cemex from 1985 to 2014, he transformed the Mexican cement company fr...

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The Dangerous Liaisons of Ninon de Lenclos

Lettres de Ninon de Lenclos au Marquis de Sévigné (Amsterdam, 1750) is not a very expensive book—a very nice copy is worth around $200. But it is one of those crucial “in-between” books that bookse...

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Binging on Bibliography

Back in March at the beginning of the global pandemic lockdown it was Katy-Bar-the-Door in Hawaii. Along with thousands of others I went into self-isolation. With my 77th birthday right around the ...

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A Home With A Spectacular Library Is Offered For Sale

If you've always dreamed of a home with a magnificent library, the home of your dreams is now on the market. Is Detroit okay? Actually, it is not in Detroit proper but the toney suburb of Grosse Po...

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Revising Appraisals due to the Coronavirus

A  recent inquiry from a dealer-appraiser raised a pertinent question; with significant changes in the world over the past year, have rare book, manuscript, and map appraisals issued in the mid-201...

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How and When Can Libraries Reopen?

Almost, if not all libraries have closed down because of the pandemic. The decision on one level may have been tough, but the reality is there was no choice. Safety had to come first. The American ...

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New York, New York: As a place and a feeling

An intensely focused collection of unusual and rare engravings and lithographs of New York, the property of the Downtown Club near Wall Street, were sold at Arader Galleries on Sunday April 25th an...

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Rose City Book & Paper Fair Is Going Virtual This Year

The Cascade Booksellers Association will be holding their annual Rose City Book Paper Fair again in June, but this year's edition will be unlike any before. The western states booksellers organiza...

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How about spending $300 to save $10,000

Collectors early on too often follow the well-trod path from enthusiasm to disaster after they learn that market valuation is different than asking prices.  For the new collector this is terribly i...

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Shapero Rare Books Parent Company Projects Loss for the Year

There is a ton of anecdotal information leading one to believe this is not an easy time for booksellers. There are comments from dealers themselves, along with the fact that virtually every busines...

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Two New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

The dearth of new printed catalogues being published in the books and paper field continues. It may not go away until the disruption of normal life created by the coronavirus goes away too. This mo...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 546. Christoph Jacob Trew. Plantae selectae, 1750-1773.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 70. Thomas Murner. Die Narren beschwerung. 1558.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 621. Michael Bernhard Valentini. Museum Museorum, 1714.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 545. Sander Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described, 1888-1894.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1018. Marinetti, Boccioni, Pratella Futurism - Comprehensive collection of 35 Futurist manifestos, some of them exceptionally rare. 1909-1933.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 634. August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. 3 Original Drawings, around 1740.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 671. Jacob / Picasso. Chronique des Temps, 1956.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1260. Mary Webb. Sarn. 1948. Lucie Weill Art Deco Binding.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 508. Felix Bonfils. 108 large-format photographs of Syria and Palestine.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 967. Dante Aligheri and Salvador Dali. Divina Commedia, 1963.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1316. Tolouse-Lautrec. Dessinateur. Duhayon binding, 1948.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1303. Regards sur Paris. Braque, Picasso, Masson, 1962.
  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: McCarthy (Cormac). Cities of the Plain, N.Y., 1998, First Edn., signed on hf. title; together with Uncorrected Proof and Uncorrected Advance Reading Copies, both signed by the Author. €800 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Stanihurst (Richard). De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis, Libri Quattuor, sm. 4to Antwerp (Christi. Plantium) 1584. First Edn. €525 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Fleischer (Nat.) Jack Dempsey The Idol of Fistiana, An Intimate Narrative, N.Y., 1929, First Edn. Signed on f.e.p. by Rocky Marciano. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Smith - Classical Atlas, Lond., 1820. Bound with, Smiths New General Atlas .. Principal Empires, Kingdoms, & States throughout the World, Lond. 1822. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Rare Auction Catalogues – 1856: Bindon Blood, of Ennis, Co. Clare: Sotheby & Wilkinson. €320 to €450.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: [Mavor (Wm.)] A General Collection of Voyages and Travels from the Discovery of America to the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century, 28 vols. (complete) Lond., 1810. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Mc Carthy (Cormac). Outer Dark, N.Y. (Random House)1968, Signed by Mc Carthy. €250 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Three signed works by Ted Huges - Wodwo, 1967; Crow from the Life and Songs of the Crow, 1970; and Tales from Ovid, 1997. €200 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: The Garden. An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture in all its Branches, 7 vols. lg. 4to Lond. 1877-1880. With 127 colored plates. €200 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Procter (Richard A.) Saturn and its System: Containing Discussions of The Motion (Real and Apparent)…, Lond. 1865. First Edn. €160 to €220.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: [Ashe] St. George, Lord Bishop of Clogher, A Sermon Preached to the Protestants of Ireland, now in London,... Oct. 23, 1712, London 1712. Second Edn. €130 to €180.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Piccolomini's De La Sfera del Mondo (The Sphere of the World), 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Vellutello's Commentary on Petrarch, With Map, 1525.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Finely Bound Definitive, Illustrated Edition of I Promessi Sposi, 1840.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Rare First Edition of John Milton's Latin Correspondence, 1674.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Giolito's Edition of Boccaccio's The Decamerone, with Bedford Binding, 1542.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of the First Biography of Marie of the Incarnation, with Rare Portrait, 1677.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Aldine Edition of Volume One of Cicero's Orationes, 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Bonanni's Illustrated Costume Catalogue, with Complete Plates, 1711.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Important Incunable, the First Italian Edition of Josephus's De Bello Judaico, 1480.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Jacques Philippe d'Orville's Illustrated Book of the Ruins of Sicily, 1764.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Incunable from 1487, The Contemplative Life, with Early Manuscript.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Ignatius of Loyola's Exercitia Spiritualia, 1563.

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