As one door opens another closes. Chris Bready the cataloguer-book auctioneer of Towson, Maryland, one of the last of the old-style book auctioneers, conducted his final sale of Baltimore Book Auctions on January 17th. He professes no regrets. “I’ve had a very good time.”
He began his career in 1980 writing descriptions for Harris and in 1989 organized Baltimore Book Company to sell books at auction. From the outset he was and always remained a maverick. “I’ve been and remain a one man operation. I would find material and make my pitch. Those who consigned quickly understood they w...
All else being equal...
This month we look back at 2012 at auction for our annual state of the book trade review. This is not because most books are bought and sold at auction. They are not. Most ...
The pendulum of the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America is swinging in its northern arc, reaching its invisible apex directly above the Concourse Convention Center in San Francisco over...
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are looking for help in locating the owners of over 1,000 stolen artifacts, ranging from books, documents, manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and paintings, to mo...
TomFolio.com may not be the best known name in the world of bookselling databases, but it is one of the most innovative and unusual. Founded back in 2000, the heady early days of on-line booksellin...
On January 1st Sharon Gee acquired PBA Galleries in San Francisco. PBA has a long history of service to the book, manuscript, map and ephemera trade, as well as to collectors and institutions. It...
Fong Sam of Los Angeles has organized Blacksparrow Auctions to sell collectibles within the categories of pop culture, posters, entertainment memorabilia, 20th century, contemporary and historical ...
AbeBooks recently released their list of the top prices paid on their site in 2012. AbeBooks is the largest of the old and used book listing sites, their total sales not revealed, but clearly in th...
The other day, passing in front of a bookshop in Paris, I noticed a lovely little book in the window. Beside a lot of gorgeous full morocco bindings, it never looked that attractive, being a small ...
A contest to promote the preservation of historic works on paper and other artifacts has begun in the state of Pennsylvania. This story may be of particular interest to residents of the Keystone St...
In late December Bonhams announced that Matthew Haley, who for the past four years has worked as a specialist in New York, has been appointed effective mid-February to the important post of Head of...
Tasha Tudor is one of a select group of twentieth century children's authors and illustrators, like Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak, to achieve widespread familiarity with generations of young people....
There is good news and bad news for those who believe that traditional print is the best form for reading books. A recent report from Pew Research revealed that print is still the most popular form...
This month we review seven new bookseller catalogues. The William Reese Company offers a selection of Western Americana. Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books presents material related to the Dutch Eas...
This past year saw a remarkable shift to electronic catalogues as the field of collectible books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera continued to migrate from the printed catalogue that had been the wo...
