Rare Book Hub for 21 years been pursuing two goals, one of them to become the first click world-wide when the interested, enthralled, committed or required want to understand the importance, value and rarity of rare paper. With 14,128,422 records we have captured the essence of the auction flow from the past 175 years, simply by following price changes.
Of course price at auction has always reflected the complex interaction of the copy, its quality, its rarity and its audience. The fact that those auction transactions would be recorded and remembered was never expected, beyond the many small and truncated efforts to provide ballpark perspectives. Because many institutions, individuals and dealers in the field had records incremental to this project, they gave or sold them to us. The outcome is clarity, if you have the eyes to see it.
Sabin’s Bibliotheca Americana set the modern stage in the late 1860’s to provide a systematic approach to bibliographical information for the burgeoning field of Americana. For that category of practitioners, it saved time and saved money by avoiding errors.
Along the way there were both large and small projects to provide deeper, updated information. If your interest was poetry or fiction you’ve had the opportunity to buy updated volumes.
As to determining value, auctions have long been the best single source to confirm cash prices.
For us twenty-one years ago, our goal became to capture both the present and past records. Today our fourteen million records represent a giant step up from Sabin’s first step.
That done, we’ve taken another significant step, to make the 31,388 auction events that comprise Transactions+, to be easily accessible as ad hoc databases on demand. Welcome to the New World!
Why would you want to know? Collectible paper has a life of its own. Every auction has a context. If you are up to knowing, as of today, you can.
Auction Reports are a small link to the left of our Keyword Search. It’s a small link, but it’s a giant step.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare. The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
Sotheby’s: William Golding. Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
Sotheby’s: John Milton. Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD
