By Michael Stillman
Few issues in the book trade cause anywhere near the controversy we see when AbeBooks announces a price increase. In a sense, this is a great tribute to Abe, as it shows the importance of the role they play in the old and rare book business today. Nonetheless, Abe receives few plaudits when one of these increases is announced. These are tough times for anyone not in the oil business, and while rate increases may be grudgingly accepted while sales are booming, sellers understandably see these increased commissions as coming straight out of their hides when sales are stag...
By Bruce McKinney
You can be forgiven for thinking that book fairs are unchanging, even immutable and to the casual observer they may look that way. They are in fact a battleground of changing ...
By Michael Stillman
A fabulous Lincoln letter, magnificent both for its content and price, broke all kinds of U.S. auction records at Sotheby's last month. The President wrote the 1864 letter ...
By Bruce McKinney
This is an article written to accompany this month's issue of the Comet - whose focus is Pamphlets, Broadsides and Ephemera.
History is the imprecise masquerading as the cer...
By Renée Magriel Roberts
We live and work on Cape Cod, a beautiful place, with more temperate weather than most of New England during the year. From an economic perspective, however, the Cape ha...
By Michael Stillman
April was a busy month for leading online used bookseller AbeBooks.com. First, on April 9, they announced the purchase of Chrislands, a firm that builds, hosts and maintains ...
By Bruce McKinney
On May 8th, the third and final portion of the Daniel G. Volkmann, Jr. Collection of rare and collectible printed material will pass before the gaze of dealers and collectors and...
By Michael Stillman
Do you have a copy of the first edition of Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species? If so, the Darwin Census is looking for you. The Darwin Census is conducting a worldwi...
By Bruce McKinney
As certain as the arrival of spring birds the Gold Rush Book Fair enters the calendars of those who live in northern California, who visit and who buy, sell, collect and trade t...
By Michael Stillman
A few weeks ago, I discovered that Google had added a wonderful new feature to my Gmail account. It seemed too good to be true. They were offering a service that would backda...
By Bruce McKinney
The subject of the June issue of the Comet will be The Book as Art and Object. Books are valued for many reasons. Some individuals collect a field, others first editions or eve...
This month we review 19 new booksellers' catalogues in Section Two. For those who like very old books, Lex Antiqua has incunabula and other books almost as old. Frits Knuf Antiquarian Books has ref...
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
