Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2024 Issue

High Bids Win: Letterpress & Bindery Auction end December 5th, and then 3 more auctions

This sale ends 12-5-24

This sale ends 12-5-24

High Bids Win: Letterpress & Bindery Auction ends December 5th, and then 3 more auctions

 

For most, books start with paper and ink.  But for a special few, they prefer to have the old equipment that was used to create them.  Old presses occasionally come up for sale as well with all their accoutrement. We’re privileged today to talk about a firm that is handling a series of old presses, typesetting, and binding equipment auctions, 4 of them over this and next months, followed by others to be announced this next spring.

 

So I’m introducing High Bids Win, the Ephrata, Pennsylvania auction house who handles both books and the equipment that create them. Their December sale ends quickly – on the 5th, just in time to scratch your printer’s itch before the holidays.

 

When I was a kid in the 1950’s, there were two scents that fired my imagination, Evening in Paris that cost twenty-five cents, and the other was the smell of my family’s press rooms where printer’s ink was for a young man, the caviar of scents.  Even to this day, my olfactory system tingles when walking by a printing plant’s open door.

 

There are two categories of people who may or will respond to this article. Those who have long wanted their own press(es) and, younger folks who have yet felt the emotional embrace of the humming, clicking, banging, and swish, swish, swish of their future dreams.

 

Either way, this December sale may be your peek-a-boo into a world has been slowly disappearing. This equipment will be studied, evaluated, and discussed and ultimately bid-on for those who decide “yeh, I’m up to this.”

 

The extraordinary bookman, Bill Barlow, into his 80’s would draw his hand across his printing equipment and sigh, and exhale those were the days.  If your days are ahead, and are open to be a printer, click into High Bids Win:

 

https://www.highbidswin.com/auctions/detail/bw118487

 

Once you get into this sale be aware there will be 3 more over the next two months.  Then, after a breather, there will be more:

 

Letterpress & Bindery Auction

Letterpress & Bindery Auction

 

 Bookbinding & Letterpress Auction

Bookbinding & Letterpress Auction 

 

 

Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines, Machine Manuals, Auction

Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines, Machine Manuals,  Auction 

 

 

Vintage Leather Tool Auction [Binding Tools]

To take a look click here.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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

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