When last month began, with much of the world under lock down, we didn't know what to expect. With storefronts closed, and people shut in their homes all day, would booksellers issue more catalogues to reach customers where they were and with time on their hands? Would they, instead, cut back on the expense of printing catalogues as their own income declined, and many people lost their jobs? We now have our answer. They cut back, drastically. This month we have but two new catalogues. In reality, only one is new. The one from Shapero was actually published a couple of months ago, but was received with some other of their catalogues reviewed earlier. The printed catalogue has seemingly disappeared. Will it come back as the pandemic drags on? Will it come back once the crisis is over? We don't know. Time will tell. Meanwhile, electronic catalogues are still alive and well.
The one newly published catalogue comes from The Veatchs Arts of the Book. Its title is New Acquisitions, Books Printed in Greek, Leaf Books, Typographic Treasures, Etc. The Veatchs' catalogues are filled with material pertaining to the book arts. The other newly reviewed catalogue comes from Shapero Rare Books. It has a much shorter title – Ottomania. It pertains to lands of the old Ottoman Empire, or as the subtitle explains, Travels through the Levant and the Middle East.
You will find both of these reviews if you click here now.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
