Another year has come to a close, meaning it is time to look back at the Rare Book Hub Top 500 prices paid at auction in the books and paper field for 2021. This was a spectacular year, unlike any we have seen before. Prices were skyrocketing across the board, while ephemeral types of paper continued to see an astonishing growth in prices. At the very top, the most expensive item sold for over $43 million, the highest ever for something in the collectible paper field. More amazing was the increase at #500, as this is more indicative of the high end of the field than one single item at the t...
There are many kinds of collectors, their interests and focuses as myriad as the stars in the night sky. One exceptional practitioner of the craft is sharing his story. Such opportunities are rar...
Collins Dictionary has named its Word of the Year, and it's one that collectors of all stripes will need to know in the years ahead. The “word,” though it isn't really a word, is “NFT.” It's an abb...
AbeBooks has released their list of the top 14 most expensive items purchased on their website in 2021. “Abe” is the largest seller of old books with millions of titles listed. While most may fit i...
While I’m managing Partner of Rare Book Hub, the other hat I wear is as a private money manager, building and diversifying our family assets. I’ve had a good record, year over year my number has r...
January 1 is more that just New Year's Day. It is also Public Domain Day. This holiday may not be as well known, but it is more important in the book world. It is the day when a new batch of books ...
For Rare Book Hub, 2021 was a complex year by every measure. The volume of auctions and number of lots posted substantially increased. As well, the percentage of lots sold rose as the median doll...
Britain's Honresfield Library has been saved. It took $20 million in donations to preserve the historic collection, but it will now belong to the British people, rather than being dispersed to priv...
Today, we’re embarking on a French slave ship that set sail for Africa in 1702! A dreadful voyage for the slaves, but a boring one for the narrator—and the readers.
“Here we are! I’m on boar...
I was going to call this article, “Journal of the Plague Years Part II,” but despite operating in pandemic mode since March of 2020 most of us seem to have muddled through somehow and are still try...
Rebecca was off the farm for 110 years, but she has returned. Welcome home, Becky.
Another overdue library book has been returned a bit later than usual. In this case, the book was 110 years ov...
The Grolier Club of New York is providing a busy month of bibliophilic activities this January, using both traditional and non-traditional approaches to ensure the Club’s commitment to book scholar...
If there was any doubt that books are now participating in the incredible price growth experienced by other collectibles, that doubt was put to rest at Heritage Auctions last month. We have seen un...
Have you ever dreamed of finding something cheap at a yard sale, only to learn later that it is fabulously valuable? Everyone has. That dream came true for an unidentified man in his 60s. He found ...
This month we review nine new catalogues from booksellers. Some have a specific focus while others provide more of a variety of types of material. Shapero Rare Books focuses on Baedeker and other t...
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
