Sotheby’s has announced they are capping their buyer’s maximum commission to 20%, down from 26 + 1%.
It has been apparent for some time that while auction outcomes for paintings and other high value collectibles were rising, Sotheby’s original business based on rare books, while best in class worldwide in 2023 among the 300 auction houses we cover, was also relatively quiet by their recent standards. Sotheby’s February announcement to lower their commission rates effective May 20th was probably principally based on improving their performance with paintings, their largest category. Wh...
“We had the largest opening night of any California ABAA fair in recent years,” said Alexander Akin of Bolerium Books, who chaired the Northern California book fair committee of the recent 56th ...
Women have always made a deep contribution to books; they have enriched our lives as writers and teachers, sellers and buyers, designers and printers, librarians and collectors. But it was not unti...
The bouquinistes of Paris have won! Their boxes won’t be removed during the Olympic Games. We talked to Jérôme Callais, the president of the association of the Parisian Booksellers (or bouquinistes...
AbeBooks has released the list of its Top 10 most expensive sales for 2023. As the largest book selling site in the world, “Abe” sells millions of books. Lots of people shop for lower priced copies...
In October 1978, Bruce MacMakin answered an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Wanted – Cataloger, Antiquarian Books.” He was hired for what he thought was a short term job at a local auction firm...
As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, the board of directors of the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) recently decided to sponsor a virtual fair featuring rare and collectibl...
Toronto Book Auctions, affiliated with one of the oldest independent bookstores in Canada, Acadia Art Rare Books Est. 1931, a long-standing member of the Antiquarian Bookseller Association of Cana...
Prognosticator Fact.MR predicts substantial growth in the used book market over the next decade. According to Fact.MR, the current size of the market is $14.65 billion. By 2034, they expect the siz...
James Visbeck, of Cotuit, died at home on January 26, 2024 at 79. Jim is survived by his husband, Harold Holt, brother David Visbeck and his wife Fran, and cousins, Christine Davidson, Gail Mello a...
Many libraries have eliminated late fees over the past few years. Now, the San Francisco Public Library has taken another step. They may not even require you to return some books. That will be the ...
This is technically not a story about a book but one about the subject of dozens, perhaps hundreds of books and articles. It was the cause of more searches and expeditions from the era of voyages a...
This month we review eight new dealer catalogues. David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has issued their 200th printed catalogue. He started publishing them back in 1989. Mark Funke, Bookseller fe...
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
