Rare Book Monthly Articles - February - 2023 Issue

Auction Sales for 2022 – Steady As She Goes

If you were pleased with the results of sales in the books and paper field at auction in 2021, you should be happy with those for 2022 as well. It was almost a carbon copy. When we reported these results last year, there had been a large increase in the median price and the number of lots offered. Prices had gained by 8.8%, lots offered by 22%. This time, the price increase was under 1% while the number lots offered declined slightly, by 1.6%. Since the previous year had smashed all records for prices and lots offered, 2022 was another very good year from a historical perspective.   The s...

As I have stated earlier

Over the past two years we have had the great fortune to have Clarence Wolf’s reminiscences as a bookseller.  He has a keen eye and wry style. This past year he self-published his widely appreciate...

A Pioneer Of Indie Book Stores & Readers' Rights

It is always sad to say good-bye to someone like Joyce Meskis of Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver. For over four decades, she developed a small independent book store into a vibrant cultural hub f...

Buying and Selling on Consignment is Not Always Easy, but Sometimes Profitable

Like many people in the book business I’ve had good and bad experiences with consignment. Over the years I pretty much avoided this method, but as I got older and my own stock dwindled, I noticed t...

A Rare Volume Brings Tears to Many Eyes

  A few days ago I heard over the transom that Forum Auctions was the bearer of good news both to their consignors and one of their bidders.   On Thursday 26 January they sold a copy in their Fi...

A New Theory Concerning the History of the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript

Are you ready for another theory concerning the mysterious Voynich Manuscript? This is the early 15th century manuscript written in a language no one has been able to decipher, not even the greates...

Spencer W. Stuart, his recent book endorsed

Mr. Stuart, author of Contemporary Issues in Rare Book Manuscript Collecting:  A Handbook for Collectors and the Trade has been widely endorsed.   Book collectors are known to read books and a f...

Martial In Rome, the Power And The Glory

I went to Rome, Italy, and I took a picture of a 1671 edition of Martial’s epigrams inside the dreadful Colosseum. This place was once the showcase of the most powerful city on Earth; as you enter ...

Drug Contamination and Prison. These Aren't Easy Times to Be a Librarian

Library worker has not ordinarily been thought of as a dangerous occupation, but these aren't ordinary times. The days when libraries were quiet places for readers are long gone. Library workers no...

Google is Using Old Books and New Technology to Combat Disease

A recent story on the Google Research blog quickly caught my eye: Using new technology and old books to combat disease. We tend to think of old books as a source of information about the past, whic...

Rare Books San Francisco: The Fair February 3-5

While the collectible paper field has been preparing for the upcoming widely heralded California Antiquarian Book Fair in Pasadena February 10-12, there is another important book fair a week earlie...

Exciting News from Honey & Wax

Happy new year from Brooklyn! We are delighted to announce that Christine von der Linn will be joining Honey Wax this February. Many of you already know Christine from her work at Swann Galleries...

Books Looted 80 Years Ago Returned

It is always good news when books, stolen long ago, are finally returned to their rightful owners. A few weeks back, four such books were returned 80 years after they were looted. However, it highl...

“Nature of the Book” - Smithsonian Exhibition Looks at Hand Produced Books from an Earlier Time

There is an ongoing exhibition at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives entitled Nature of the Book. It looks at the ingredients in and processes of creating books, specifically, the older books t...

Pasadena: The California Antiquarian Book Fair Returns

The California International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to Pasadena February 10-12 and many are grateful that the collectible paper field is returning to form.  Collectors and institutions and, ...

Three New Catalogues Reviewed

This month we review three new bookseller catalogues. Zinos Books offers their collection for winter 2023. Old West Books presents stories from the Old West. Shapero Rare Books publishes its fifth ...

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€

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions