By chance I encountered an unfamiliar book two years ago on the website of De Wolf Wood Rare Books (Alfred, Maine); it was a privately printed Catalogue of the Private Library of Mr. George S. Davis, issued and dated, Detroit, August 1st, 1890.
For years I’ve been acquiring material for Rare Book Hub’s Transactions+, and I thought this volume an interesting speculation. Sometimes these purchases work out and others not. On that occasion it has. Whether Mr. Davis’s catalogue was prepared as a prequel to auction or simply intended as a tribute to a collector’s achievement, RBH provid...
The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust is pleased to announce its second annual silent auction, open now and running until 8:30 p.m. (ET) July 31, in conjunction with our 2024 Cocktail Party Fundraiser ...
A case is taking place in Cincinnati right now that could have significant ramifications for the collecting and preservation of old books and related ephemeral material. We have entered a period th...
Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers: Summer Opportunities
Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers, Kilkenny, Ireland is again offering an appealing sale of mid-summer opportunities. I mention this because, by tradition...
Collectible paper at auction has been on a tear post-Covid and now we’re entering a period of political uncertainty. To understand how the auctions and their consignors are responding, our auction...
Tattered Cover, the legendary Denver group of independent bookstores will be rescued from bankruptcy by Barnes Noble.
BN, headed by James Daunt, confirmed reports that the giant book retailer wi...
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.— Case’s Summer Auction, happening July 6-7 at the company’s gallery in Knoxville, Tennessee, features 1,086 lots of books, documents and historical items, along with American and E...
What’s it worth? How old is it? Is it a first or a reprint? How often does it show up?
Here’s a short guide on how to start to answer those questions.
Unless I have a written provenance from a re...
The Library of Dr. Rodney P. Swantko was sold at Sotheby’s on June 26th in New York as 47 lots were offered and 36 sold. Among them was the original cover art for “Harry Potter and the Philosophe...
The obscenity police are on the prowl again. This time, it's school librarians and teachers they have in their sights. A bill has been introduced to the Ohio legislature to turn pornography promoti...
The news recently has been filled with stories about book bans. Some local residents don't want others to read what they don't like, and opportunist politicians jump on the bandwagon. Censorship is...
This story completes our trilogy of stories this month about book banning (see the others elsewhere in this issue). From Ohio we have seen a bill that has been offered that would turn librarians an...
During the 16th century, Protestants questioned the use of images in religion, as they associated it with paganism. One Jesuit priest named Louis Richeome made it clear that representing was, on th...
As with people, there are a number of afflictions that wear down our books as they age. Torn and yellowing pages, loose bindings, worn covers, are among them. Then, there are bookworms. Not the peo...
This month we have just one new catalogue to review. It's vacation time. But, it's a good catalogue, Zephyr Used Rare Books celebrating their 30th Anniversary with a collection of various sorts of...
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
