Paying serious money when collecting invariably involves passion, confidence and madness. It sometimes affects single collectors and once in a great while a category of bidders. Codex Sassoon is the perfect candidate for a bidding storm. Categories and subjects of books and collectible paper have been periodically subject to intense desire. It turns out Hebraica is having its moment in the sun.
Paramount among obtainable Judaica, the exceptionally important Codex Sassoon, an ancient bound, handwritten Hebrew Bible, will be sold at Sotheby’s New York on 16 May against estimates betwe...
It's been around 440 years since anyone understood these letters. No wonder. They were written from 1578-1584 in cipher. For some number of years they have been sitting in the National Library of F...
The premier Book Fair in the world is soon to be staged in New York April 27-30 at the Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Avenue between 66/67 Streets.
180 dealers from 17 countries will take over ...
We have written recently about library censorship, school libraries in particular, where angry people, or worse yet, the government has stepped in to censor books. The major topics that have led to...
Richard Davies who worked at Abebooks for 18 years, recently retired to pursue new adventures. Most recently our interactions with him were Abe’s reports of their most expensive books sold but he w...
The New York Times made it clear in a recent article: “For Rare Book Librarians, It’s Gloves Off. Seriously.” This old debate whether librarians should handle old books with white gloves is coming ...
In the United States Christian inflected movements are playing an increasingly important role in the world of books, whether it be what can be circulated in libraries, defining curriculum such as w...
“The Downtown Central Library will be closing temporarily at 3 p.m. weekdays until further notice.” That was the brief message on the Buffalo Erie County Public Library website. Their Facebook pag...
For years the Flamingo Eventz has been a mainstay for the collectible paper field. One of their events is annually scheduled to coincide with the ABAA’s New York International Antiquarian Book Fai...
Book fairs have long been a part of a book dealer’s selling options. Covid changed the world in 2020 and stimulated fresh thinking about how shows could be experienced from afar. Three years late...
The Rose City Book Paper Fair is coming back to the “Rose City” (Portland, Oregon) on June 16-17 this year. Once again, it will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton, 1000 Northeast Multnomah St. in...
In a strange case, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled against a sale of the old library by the community of West Orange. After fending off the challenge in two lower courts, their approval was over...
This month we review four new bookseller catalogues. Zephyr Used Rare Books celebrates the open road with a collection of automobile dealer catalogues. Shapero Rare Books has published a catalogue...
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
