Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2009 Issue

Perspective on Books and the Net

Perspective on Books and the Net

By Bruce McKinney These days the world of collectible books is a warren of categories - on line listings, shops on Main Street, catalogues on line and through the mail, presentations at trade shows, and auctions, both traditional and eBay. These categories function independently. They sell to different customers - dividing the world of rare and collectible books into a mosaic of hundreds if not thousands of pieces. The scale of the venues for old and collectible books is exponentially increasing, the number of dealers, number of books, the number of auction houses and sales all incr...

W. Graham Arader: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

W. Graham Arader: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

By Bruce McKinney On June 19th the most recent and certainly not final chapter of the Graham Arader story was written in the auction rooms at Sotheby's, as they conducted a 202 lot sale of selec...

<i>In The News:</i>  Crime and Lawsuits

<i>In The News:</i> Crime and Lawsuits

By Michael Stillman A couple of the more notable cases involving books and bookselling have been delayed or deleted. The case of Raymond Scott, of Durham, England, was postponed until August whe...

Google Books:  A Tool for Book Collectors

Google Books: A Tool for Book Collectors

By Bruce McKinney I'm using Google Books to identify additional early [or old if you prefer] material for the Rondout Kingston Wiki Bibliography that I'm building on AE. The subject and purpos...

Browsers as Servers:  Is Change Coming to Bookselling?

Browsers as Servers: Is Change Coming to Bookselling?

By Michael Stillman Opera, the somewhat obscure Norwegian internet browser and software designer, recently announced the development of a browser that also lets your computer function as a serve...

$5-$10 Million Cache of Books and Other Antiquities, Found in Small Chicago Home, Returned to Italy

$5-$10 Million Cache of Books and Other Antiquities, Found in Small Chicago Home, Returned to Italy

By Michael Stillman What the FBI has described as a "literal treasure trove of artifacts," 1,600 relics including over 1,000 books and manuscripts, has been returned to Italy. The collection was...

Bibliopolis and Bookhound - Birds of a Feather

Bibliopolis and Bookhound - Birds of a Feather

By Karen Wright I had been trying to download my antiquated Access book inventory to Bookhound 7c through Biblio.com off and on for months. Bibliopolis, creators of Bookhound, allows the bookse...

Auction Updates:  By email every Sunday night

Auction Updates: By email every Sunday night

By Bruce McKinney Every 18 hours, more or less, a documented traditional auction completes somewhere in the world. The sale may be in North America, Europe, Central America or Australia; in New...

Long Missing Lincoln Letter Returns Home

Long Missing Lincoln Letter Returns Home

By Michael Stillman An interesting Lincoln letter, missing from the National Archives for many decades, perhaps longer, made its way home recently, a gift from a collector who purchased it from ...

Great Gatsby! There is a Light for Collectible Books

Great Gatsby! There is a Light for Collectible Books

By Michael Stillman This has been a tough year for the book trade. Our own figures, gathered from auction results around the world, indicate a drop of 30%-plus in prices since the peak a little ...

Exploiting Marketable Skills - The Bookseller as Knowledge Manager

Exploiting Marketable Skills - The Bookseller as Knowledge Manager

By Renée Magriel Roberts I can't seem to make the same dinner twice. Can't do it. I know that homemaker skills may have traditionally had the pot roast night or the fish night, with well-honed r...

An Update on Summer Possibilities

An Update on Summer Possibilities

By Bruce McKinney We now live in the internet age. This is the same age that just ten years ago was called the television age, which wrested the title from the "age of print" in the 1960s. The...

Now Available:  The Book All Collectors of L. Frank Baum and Oz Must Have

Now Available: The Book All Collectors of L. Frank Baum and Oz Must Have

By Michael Stillman A book has been published that is an absolute must for anyone who collects L. Frank Baum, the Oz books, or anything closely related. The title is The Book Collector's Guide t...

19 New Catalogues Up for Review

19 New Catalogues Up for Review

This month, we review 19 new bookseller catalogues. Literature is the focus of the William Reese Company, while James Pepper Rare Books features literature and film, James Cummins Bookseller litera...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Bibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
    5-19 June
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Bissière, Roger. Cantique à notre frère soleil de saint François. 1954. 1,000 - 1,500 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. La vie & l’œuvre de Philippe Ignace Semmelweis. 1924. Rare édition originale, avec envoi. Joint : La Quinine en thérapeutique, 1925. 4,000 - 6,000 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. Mort à crédit. 1936. Édition originale. Bel exemplaire sur Hollande. 2,500 - 3,500 EUR
    Sotheby's
    Bibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
    5-19 June
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Chillida, Eduardo ─ Emil Cioran. Face aux instants. 1985. Un des 100 exemplaires sur Arches. Eau-forte signée. 600 - 800 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Dubuffet, Jean. Ler dla canpane. L’Art Brut, 1948. Édition originale. 3,000 - 5,000 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Dubuffet, Jean. L'Herne Jean Dubuffet. 1973. Un des 100 exemplaires du tirage de luxe avec une sérigraphie originale en couleurs. 1,000 - 1,500 EUR
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th May 2025
    Forum, May 29: Darwin (Charles). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, first edition, John Murray, 1859. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Forum, May 29: Astronomy.- Apianus (Petrus). Cosmographicus Liber a Petro Apiano Mathematico Studiose Collectus., first edition, Landshut, 1524. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum, May 29: Bound for Jean Grolier.- Negri Stefano. Stephani Nigri Elegantissime è Graeco authorum subditorum translationes, uidelicet., first edition, first issue, Milan, 1521. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, May 29: Gill (Eric). Eve, number 1 of 50, hand-coloured wood-engraving, signed at foot in pencil, [1926]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th May 2025
    Forum, May 29: America.- Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, Dickinson & Co., 1848. £25,000 to £35,000.
    Forum, May 29: Wodehouse (P.G.) Psmith USA, autograph manuscript of his novel "Psmith Journalist", signed and dated at end and dated "11 November 1909, Hotel Earle, 103 Waverley Place". £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, May 29: Women.- Wollstonecraft (Mary). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, first edition, uncut in original boards, 1792. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, May 29: Mathematics.- Whitehead (Alfred North) and Bertrand Russell. Principia Mathematica, 3 vol., first editions, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1910-13. £20,000 to £30,000.
  • Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE / LANDINO, CRISTOFORO. Comento di Christophoro Landino Fiorentino sopra la Comedia di Danthe Alighieri poeta fiorentino, 1481. €40,000 to €50,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus]. Aggiunta: Marsilius Ficinus, Ad Dantem gratulatio [in latino e Italiano], 1487. €40,000 to €60,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. Il Convivio, 1490. €20,000 to €25,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: BANDELLO, MATTEO. La prima [-quarta] parte de le nouelle del Bandello, 1554. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LEGATURA – PLUTARCO. Le vies des hommes illustres, grecs et romaines translates, 1567. €10,000 to €12,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: TOLOMEO, CLAUDIO. Ptolemeo La Geografia di Claudio Ptolemeo Alessandrino, Con alcuni comenti…, 1548. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: FESTE - COPPOLA, GIOVANNI CARLO. Le nozze degli Dei, favola [...] rappresentata in musica in Firenze…, 1637. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: SPINOZA, BARUCH. Opera posthuma, 1677. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER. Borus Godunov, 1831. €30,000 to €50,000.
    Finarte
    Books, Autographs & Prints
    June 24 & 25, 2025
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - LECUIRE, PIERRE. Ballets-minute, 1954. €35,000 to €40,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MAJAKOVSKIJ, VLADIMIR / LISSITZKY, LAZAR MARKOVICH. Dlia Golosa, 1923. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MATISSE, HENRI / MONTHERLANT, HENRY DE. Pasiphaé. Chant de Minos., 1944. €22,000 to €24,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Rose City Book & Paper Fair
    June 14-15, 2025
    1000 NE Multnomah, Portland
    ROSECITYBOOKFAIR.COM

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