Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2022 Issue

Rare Book Hub Introduces Rare Book Batch Valuation Service

Rare Book Hub is launching the beta version of its Rare Book Batch Valuation service this month and will be officially accepting member submitted lists of material beginning October 15th. Batch Valuation is a new service that enables you to quickly search for auction lot matches to your entire book collection in our database of over 12 million records. Instead of searching titles one at a time, Batch Valuation enables you to submit a list of hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands at once for automated searches.   Next, for each matching lot for each title found, we update past sales ...

William Reese Company to Live on Under New Ownership

The news is official.  The William Reese Co, ABAA, ILAB is to live on Under New Ownership.  Bill Reese slipped away from this mortal coil four years ago and his firm has now been transferred to the...

Defunded Library Raises Budget through GoFundMe Rather than Acquiesce to Book Banning

This is a tough time to be a librarian in America. From all over the country we hear stories of pressure put on them to ban books certain people do not like. Most often, the books have something to...

Building an Ephemera Sale

Ephemera, the random debris of history, has long been considered insufficiently important and too difficult to identify to sell.  Books almost always have a known author, title, place and date prin...

Two Comic Book Thefts Last Month – One Valued at $100,000, the Other Involving Violence

Comic Books have taken on a different level of value from the days when Mickey Mouse was the favorite character and super heroes appealed to a demographic not much beyond teenage and younger boys. ...

Dr. Robert Bennett Remembered

Every book collector has a personal story.  Two men set me on the path to appreciating history.  Bill Heidgerd and Dr. Robert Bennett got me into this fix.  To both I’m grateful.  Dr. Bennett passe...

Contents Sana in Papier Dominoté Sano

I do believe there are good or bad reasons to buy an old book. And God forgive, I did buy one for the wrong reason the other day. I confess it: I wasn’t interested in its contents at all—but in its...

Young People the Focus of Book Banning as Culture Wars Heat Up in Schools and Libraries

This year was not your standard Banned Book Week; it was Banned Book Week on steroids. Every September the American Library Association (ALA) hosts an annual event when libraries, bookstores and b...

The Library of Edward R. Leahy Comes to Auction at Christie's, 6 October

Edward R. Leahy has devoted over half a century to the pursuit of rare books—succumbing to a temptation here, seizing an opportunity there—resulting in a remarkable library filled with choice copie...

Shapero Rare Books' Parent Confirms First Profit in Four Years

Shapero Rare Books' parent corporation, Scholium Group, confirmed earlier preliminary results that the company made a profit in their latest fiscal year, ending on March 30, 2022. It was a healthy ...

Librarians Confronting Job Trauma – a New Study Focuses on a New Problem

Libraries have been evolving for the past couple of decades from the traditional role they played for two centuries. They are no longer simply repositories of physical books that you can read sitti...

A Handful of Elon Musk Trinkets brought $165,000 at RR Auction on September 15th

Elon went to college at The University of Pennsylvania and left a thin scattering of mementos with a friend who recently decided to convert the car-maven’s fame into a fund to help her family to go...

Northampton Print & Book Fair 2022 on October 1st, 12 to 5PM

After a two year hiatus, Northampton Print Book Fair is excited to announce that it is making its return to downtown Northampton this Fall! Come by from noon-5pm for a one-day celebration of conte...

Found in a Library Book: An Unusual Exhibit at the Oakland Library

The Oakland (California) Public Library is featuring an exhibit called Found in a Library Book. This is not about information, knowledge, learning, things you expect to find in a book. No, it's abo...

Five New Catalogues Are Reviewed

This month we review five new booksellers' catalogues. Maggs Bros. presents a selection of old voyages and travel. Ursus Rare Books has five centuries worth of illustrated books. Jonathan A. Hill B...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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€
  • 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

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