Rare Book Monthly Articles - February - 2011 Issue

Auction Trends Updated:  Reality

A week ago we updated the auction trend charts.  They tell an interesting story: Auction Trends Charts December is almost always a positive month for book auctions.  The best material often comes out in the fourth quarter and it’s bound to achieve high prices even if the outcomes are less than some consignors hope. The median price increased $20 from the October low of $342 but was still well below the $378 median a year earlier.  As the 12 Month Moving Average of Median Auction Prices chart shows auction realizations are still caught in the downward trend that dates from February 2008. ...

MatchMaker:  Now for Everyone

AE's MatchMaker service, a really neat tool for locating newly listed books for sale, is now available to everyone, including those who are not paid members of this website. A free membership will ...

A Personal View of 2010

With this article I am just finishing my first year of writing about the antiquarian trade for AE Monthly. It’s been a wonderful opportunity and I’ve enjoyed it immensely, especially working with o...

A Man for All Seasons

A man now in winter looking forward to his seventy-eighth spring, many times retired and never retiring, David Yount now of Mashpee in Massachusetts is engaged in the career of bookselling and find...

Lincoln Forgery Revealed

A forgery on a Lincoln document came to light last month twelve years after the document's "discovery" in 1998. The forgery does not alter history in any major way, nor will it change our view of a...

Library and Institution Acquisitions - Some tips for booksellers

A few months ago, I got a query from an East Coast library wanting a particularly expensive art book that I had in my inventory.  I replied that I had it, they bought it without quibbling at the pr...

Shakespearean Thief Plans Appeal of Lengthy Sentence

Shakespearean book thief Raymond Scott is preparing an appeal of both his conviction and lengthy sentence. Scott is the very entertaining character who showed up at the Folger Library a few years b...

The ABAA Book Fair Returns to San Francisco

The 44th Annual California Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco over the weekend of Friday the 11th through Sunday the 13th.  Two hundred and twenty-nin...

Selling at Auction Comes of Age

The next generation of collectors emerges using new tools to find material.  The challenge is to encourage acquirers to buy at auction.  They buy on eBay because it's perceived cheap, online becaus...

Bloomsbury Makes it Official

What began with high hopes in 2007 has ended in disappointment.  Bloomsbury has curtailed its New York operations.  It issued the following statement: January 5 2011 We are currently in the proc...

Another Act of Hatred in Tucson… At the Library

It was a story about some minor vandalism at a library that came out two months ago. It was a local inside-page story for a day, of no consequence to the world beyond the city limits, and not much ...

Twelve New Catalogues are Reviewed This Month

This month we review 12 new catalogues in the second section of AE Monthly. The William Reese Company offers a collection of Americana which appeared in Printing and the Mind of Man. Helen R. Kahn ...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Isaac Newton on chemistry and matter, and alchemy, Autograph Manuscript, "A Key to Snyders," 3 pp, after 1674. $100,000 - $150,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Exceptionally rare first printing of Plato's Timaeus. Florence, 1484. $50,000 - $80,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: On the Philosophy of Self-Interest: Adam Smith's copy of Helvetius's De l'homme, Paris, 1773. $40,000 - $60,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: "Magical Calendar of Tycho Brahe" - very rare hermetic broadside. Engraved by Merian for De Bry. c.1618. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Author's presentation issue of Einstein's proof of Relativity, "Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkur aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie." 1915. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: First Latin edition of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. Paris, 1520. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: De Broglie manuscript on the nature of matter in quantum physics, 3 pp, 1954. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Tesla autograph letter signed on electricty and electromagnetic theory. 1894. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Heinrich Hertz scientific manuscript on his mentor Hermann Von Helmholtz, 1891. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: The greatest illustrated work in Alchemy: Micheal Maier's Atalanta Fugiens. Oppenheim, 1618. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Illustrated Alchemical manuscript, a Mysterium Magnum of the Rosicurcians, 18th-century. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 28 – May 7: Rare Largest Paper Presentation Copy of Newton's Principia, London, 1726. The third and most influential edition. $60,000 - $90,000
  • 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.
  • 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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