Auction records will be categorized. They won't be going back.
Categories are Improving
Years ago we were asked to differentiate sales of baseball memorabilia from books and manuscripts because, occasionally, baseball cards dominated our weekly Top 25 lists. We stuck with that for years to convey the increasing strength of what was slowly becoming the field of collectable paper. For the past 4 years CP has become a billion-dollar sector that has become a family of categories as the number of auctions and lots have increased. Last year CP brought in $1.37 billion dollars at auction.
We recently added Top 25s for an increasingly long list of auction Categories. Currently we’re providing a dozen categories:
Top 25 by Dollars
Top 25 for Maps
Top 25 for Music
Top 25 for Manuscripts
Top 25 for Poetry
Top 25 for Newspapers
Top 25 for Southern Newspapers
Top 25 for Photography
Top 25 for Art and Arts
Top 25 for Graphics and Illustrations
Top 25 for Science
Top 25 for Vermont and New Hampshire
The lots that land within these categories are chosen because their descriptions included terms that fit there (in our view). Auction houses describe their lots uniquely. While accurately describing their lots, all descriptions aren’t always going to be picked up by our evolving criteria for selection.
To reduce the misses, we’ll study what should have been included. Those misses will give us the tools to tune them.
As well, while we are developing a dozen categories, we have already identified many others that can be added. They will be added over the next few months.
Because of the emergence of Categories, we believe the field will become broader and more self-confident. Often the big news relates to price and it’s interesting. But most collectors and collecting institutions glory in meaningful obscurities that make collecting spiritually, intellectually, and occasionally financially rewarding. Categories are going to attract auction house, consignor and bidder concentration.
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: These are the Times that Try Men's Souls, Thomas Paine. $80,000-$120,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: Manuscrpit from Aboard The Discovery, Signed by George Vancouver. $80,000-$120,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: Exceedingly Rare Holograph Fragment of James Cook's Logbook. $80,000-$120,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: Colonial America: The Collection of William Nesheim: Thomas Lechford: Important First-Hand Account of Life in New England. $40,000-$60,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: The First Expanded Edition of Common Sense, Thomas Paine. $30,000-$50,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: California! The Gold Rush Collection of Bruce Maclin: Album of Exceptional California Lettersheets. $20,000-$30,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: California! The Gold Rush Collection of Bruce Maclin: An Exceptional Group of Gold Rush Letters, c. 1849-1850. $20,000-$30,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: Colonial America: The Collection of William Nesheim: Mather's King Phillips War Tract 1639-1723. $15,000-$25,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: Colonial America: The Collection of William Nesheim: The First Contemporaneous Account of the Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather. $15,000-$25,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: Poor Richard's Almanack 1749, Benjamin Franklin. $15,000-$20,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: California! The Gold Rush Collection of Bruce Maclin: Fruits of Mormonism by Nelson Slater. $15,000-$25,000
Bonhams, Oct. 13-23: California! The Gold Rush Collection of Bruce Maclin, Across the Plains in '49 by Emanuel Goughnour. $12,000-$18,000
Rare Map, Book, and Autograph Fair 17 and 18 Oct
Rare Map, Book, and Autograph Fair 17 and 18 Oct
Rare Map, Book, and Autograph Fair 17 and 18 Oct
Sotheby’s By a Lady 1-15 October 2025
Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15: Queen Elizabeth I. A queen’s defense of the realm, and the birth of the British Empire. $500,000 to $700,000.
Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15: Vanessa Bell — [Virginia Woolf]. An exceptional encapsulation of the Bloomsbury Group. A striking tile created by Vanesa Bell for her sister, Virginia Woolf, ca. Christmas 1926. $25,000 to $35,000.
Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15: Austen, Jane. A long and intimate autograph letter signed ("JA"), to Cassandra Austen. $300,000 to $400,000.
Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15: Austen, Jane. “Lines on Maria Beckford,” autograph manuscript signed ("Jane Austen"). $100,000 to $150,000.
Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15: [Austen, Jane]. Emma, the extraordinary Edgeworth-Butler copy. $250,000 to $350,000.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15:</b> Vanessa Bell — [Virginia Woolf]. An exceptional encapsulation of the Bloomsbury Group. A striking tile created by Vanesa Bell for her sister, Virginia Woolf, ca. Christmas 1926. $25,000 to $35,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/d61e5df0-f7df-4ff3-b120-69c4c4ded5d5.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15:</b> Vanessa Bell — [Virginia Woolf]. An exceptional encapsulation of the Bloomsbury Group. A striking tile created by Vanesa Bell for her sister, Virginia Woolf, ca. Christmas 1926. $25,000 to $35,000.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15:</b> [Austen, Jane]. Emma, the extraordinary Edgeworth-Butler copy. $250,000 to $350,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/3d91ed5b-6dab-40a2-8ec2-3ba57b219840.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 1-15:</b> [Austen, Jane]. Emma, the extraordinary Edgeworth-Butler copy. $250,000 to $350,000.")