Rare Book Monthly Articles - November - 2019 Issue

Acknowledging the increasing importance of Collectors in the Auction Rooms

Books at auction is not a new idea but rather one factor in the complex evolutionary chain that a hundred years ago efficiently recycled material from collectors to dealers who resold it.  And since 1980, what had been a wholesale market for dealers, began to become the retail market it is today.   Along the way many factors changed.  Databases exploded and most people with books of value consult them today.  These databases have also made it possible to identify the scale of non-standard subjects that are becoming the focuses of choice for many new collectors.  How is this done?  By deve...

AbeBooks Announces Top 10 Highest Prices for Third Quarter of 2019

AbeBooks has released their list of the Top 10 highest prices paid on their book selling website during the months of July-September. They fall into three categories: books or authors you know, ver...

The Boston Antiquarian Book Fair Nov. 15-17

A right of passage in New England each fall, the ABAA Book Fair in Boston, returns to the Hynes Center November 15-17.  This is one of the ABAA’s fairs and a stalwart event for east coast dealers a...

Boston Book, Print & Ephemera Fair Saturday 16 November, 2019

Boston, MA—On Saturday, November 16, 2019, the Boston Book, Print Ephemera Fair returns to the Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley at Stuart St., for its eight edition. The show features 60 deale...

A Classic Comic Strip is Making Its Return

There are no superheroes in this comic strip. No one is paying millions of dollars for a copy of her first edition. No one is spending tens of millions of dollars turning her into a super action fi...

Mark Twain's Signed Cave Finally Found

It is not too difficult to find items signed by Mark Twain. There are lots of signed books, letters, photographs, postcards, documents, even checks out there. However, a first for Twain autographs ...

Skinner’s Fine Books & Manuscripts Running from November 11th to the 17th

During the week of the Boston book fairs Skinner’s is running a 530 lot online auction of collectible paper including books, manuscripts, maps, photography, and ephemera.  It’s a very interesting s...

An Atheist History of Jesus Christ, Cursed are the meek...

In 1770, the atheist Philosopher Paul Henri Thiry, baron d’Holbach (1723-1789), revisited the history of Jesus Christ in his book Histoire critique de la vie de Jésus-Christ/A Critical History Of J...

The “Homicide Library” Has Opened in Los Angeles

A new library has opened in Los Angeles, but it is not your typical library. Rather, it is officially known as the “Homicide Library.” It will house what are called “murder books.” This is not a pl...

For the Love of Books by Thatcher Wine & Elizabeth Lane

In the past year I’ve seen cultured approaches to collectors and collecting presented in magazines both by Freeman’s of Philadelphia and Christie's of everywhere else and thought this makes sense b...

The 18th Paris Map Fair Will Be Held on November 9

The 18th Paris Map, Instruments Globes Fair will be held on November 9 in, you guessed it, Paris, France. It will bring dealers in the map field from all over the world to one of the world's favor...

A Lighter Touch, Eight Vintage Fun Reads

Suicide, depression, anxiety, tornadoes, homelessness, hurricanes, tidal waves, impeachment, climate change, corruption and an unending litany of bad news 24/7. Yes my fellow book people, it’s scar...

Sometimes Worlds Converge

Kevin Kelly, an ABAA dealer and resident of New Paltz, New York is someone I’ve known for many years.  I grew up in New Paltz and was first introduced to book collecting there by Bill Heidgerd in t...

Dressy Books (or Bookish Dresses)

Here is a creative use for your old books now that no one reads anymore, except, maybe, on an electronic device. Credit this original idea to French fashion designer Sylvie Facon. According to her ...

Eight New Bookseller Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review eight new bookseller catalogues. Aleph-Bet Books is offering a new selection of children's and illustrated books. Hordern House focuses on Australia and the Southern Hemisphere...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • 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
  • Gonnelli
    Auction 51
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 14st 2024
    Gonnelli: Leonard Bramer, The descent from the cross, 1634. Starting price 3200€
    Gonnelli: Gustav Hjalmar de Morner Karel, Rome’s Carnival, 1820. Starting price 1000€
    Gonnelli: Various Authors, Mater Dolorosa, 1700. Starting price 200€
    Gonnelli: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Carcere Oscura, 1790. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli: Jan Brueghel, Marine fauna view, 1620 ca. Starting price 28000€
    Gonnelli: Ippolito Scarsella, Mary and Christ with Sant Rocco and Arch-Angel Michele,1615. Starting price 8000€
    Gonnelli: Hans Sebald Beham, Adam and Eve, 1543. Starting price 600€
    Gonnelli: Francesco Burani, Baccanale, 1630. Starting Price 280€
    Gonnelli: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, Plance from Ventiquattr’ore, 1675. Starting price 800€
    Gonnelli: Giuseppe Angeli, Livorno’s Plan, 1793. Starting price 240€
    Gonnelli: XIV Century Artist, Capital “N” letter, 1350 ca. Starting price 340€

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