Rare Book Monthly Articles - June - 2021 Issue

Peeking into the World of Rare Books

Rare Book Hub is heavy on old books and paper so it’s reasonable to spend an hour and a half watching a movie on the subject:  The Booksellers directed by D. W. Young.  It was released in September 2019, just a nano second ago in the world of old books.  Nope, I hadn’t been aware but thoroughly enjoyed  it recently.   It’s 98 minutes of absorbing dialogue making the case that dealers are the gatekeepers to the great books.  So it has been for 3 centuries.   Dealers and librarians have long deserved praise for their efforts to organize and structure the rare book field.  Joseph Sabin was...

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Scholars Turned Sleuths Find Source of Auctioned Cortes Letters – Stolen from the Mexican National Archives

Theft of books and manuscripts has long been an intractable problem for library and other institutional collections. The presence now of a stolen book database makes it harder for thieves to sell t...

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Leaving The Co-Op

About eight years ago we joined one of the few bookstore cooperatives in the United States. It was a great choice and we have liked it very much for all the time we were there. But now, after thirt...

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The Donald Heald Company joins the ranks of the Auction Houses

Donald Heald Auctions has announced auctions have been added to the Donald A. Heald Rare Book’s marketing fix.  The inaugural event has been posted to Live Auctioneers as a timed auction ending Sat...

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The Unexpected Beneficiary of Stolen Books

Half a century ago, Abbie Hoffman wrote a book entitled Steal This Book. That may have been tongue-in-cheek, but Hoffman wouldn't have minded. He was a political activist, a founder of the Yippies,...

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Every Story has a Story

Gabriel Constantine, an Ulster County, New York native, had an interest in antiques and old paper and took a job with JMW Auctions in Kingston when he was 18, working as jack-of-all-trades, lumping...

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The Tribulations of Mr. N***, or Travel Through the Slave Trade

“On April 1st, 1702, I sailed from Chef de Bois, two miles away from La Rochelle, for Guinea on board a vessel of the King loaded with 50 guns.” That’s the perfect travel book incipit—straight to t...

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Another Astonishing Record Price for a Sports Card – This Time Hockey

In 2016, a baseball card sold for the astonishing record price of $3.12 million. This wasn't any sports card. It was the Holy Grail of all cards, the circa 1909 Sweet Caporal Cigarettes Honus Wagne...

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Rare Book & Manuscript Info Plentiful at Exlibris

Though we’ve mentioned Exlibris before in this space, it can’t hurt to reiterate that it is one of the most informative and challenging of the many listservs in the world of better books. The membe...

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June 2-9: The European Exploration of the Western Hemisphere Mapped in a Single-Owner Sale

There is a side effect of collecting in the age of the Internet that has been well-documented by my father: with so much material accessible, collectors are often compelled to drill down into very ...

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Here’s another database for those who love Art and Books too much!

It’s Interpol’s Stolen Works of Art Database.  Yes, there is Abe and Biblio for books and art, many of which are absolute steals but now there is a database exclusively of steals.  And how many cou...

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Curious George and the Cancel Culture

Unwittingly of late, books have found themselves thrown into the controversy of so-called “cancel culture.” This is where things once generally accepted have been suppressed because they no longer ...

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A Book Safe Designed to Protect Your... Donuts?

Books have been used for the safekeeping of things other than knowledge for centuries. Specifically, we are talking about the book safe. A book safe is a safe that is made to look like a book. Insi...

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Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review five new booksellers' catalogues. David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has a new selection of rare Americana. Zephyr Used Rare Books focuses on architecture shaping our worl...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • Doyle, May 1: Thomas Jefferson expresses fears of "a war of extermination" in Saint-Dominigue. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An exceptional presentation copy of Fitzgerald's last book, in the first issue dust jacket. $25,000 to $35,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The rare first signed edition of Dorian Gray. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The Prayer Book of Jehan Bernachier. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Van Dyck's Icones Principum Virorum Doctorum. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The magnificent Cranach Hamlet in the deluxe binding by Dõrfner. $7,000 to $10,000.
    Doyle, May 1: A remarkable unpublished manuscript of a voyage to South America in 1759-1764. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Doyle, May 1: Bouchette's monumental and rare wall map of Lower Canada. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An rare original 1837 abolitionist woodblock. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An important manuscript breviary in Middle Dutch. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An extraordinary Old Testament manuscript, circa 1250. $20,000 to $30,000.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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

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