Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2024 Issue

Adam Weinberger, Rare Book Buyer

Adam Weinberger, Rare Book Buyer

Rare Book Hub has long been a go-to resource for collectors and dealers of antiquarian books, manuscripts, maps, and ephemera. When readers dive into Rare Book Monthly or explore Transactions+, they approach it from different angles: collectors often seek price validation, while dealers focus on provenance, comparable sales, and rarity in the marketplace. The distinctions between these two perspectives are crucial, but a large database with numerous records can satisfy the diverse needs of researchers, dealers, and collectors alike.   Between collectors and dealers lies the true market, w...

David Szewczyk:  One foot in the past, one foot in the future

David Szewczyk: One foot in the past, one foot in the future

The field of rare books and manuscripts lost a good friend.  David Szewczyk, who partnered with Cynthia Buffington, slipped away after a hard fight.  David was trained as a library man who focused ...

Another Theory to Explain the Meaning of the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript

Another Theory to Explain the Meaning of the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript

Another attempt was recently made to unravel the long-standing mystery that is the Voynich Manuscript. It has been identified by carbon dating as coming from 1408-1438. However, its existence was u...

One of A Kind Collectibles:  An Auction on this 17th

One of A Kind Collectibles: An Auction on this 17th

One of A Kind Collectibles, a division of Gindy Auctions, are specialists in collectible paper in its many forms.  For the past 17 years the firm has been offering rare and collectible material at ...

The Bancroft Library Considers Changing Its Name.

The Bancroft Library Considers Changing Its Name.

We are living in a time when some buildings, monuments and places are having their names changed. They are structures and places named in another era for the notable persons of their time. They wer...

Four Book Collectors and Sellers Share Their Passion for Collecting

Four Book Collectors and Sellers Share Their Passion for Collecting

The world is filled with readers who love books and who are sort-of collectors in that they place the books they have read on their shelves and keep them there, perhaps forever. Still, they may not...

A New Fine Press, Fablelistik Editions, has been launched by Macmillan Publishers

A New Fine Press, Fablelistik Editions, has been launched by Macmillan Publishers

A new fine press is launching today (October 1) with one of the best-known publishers behind it. Its name is Fablelistik Editions and its a new venture for a publisher that goes back long before th...

Major Collection of American Publishers’ Bindings Gifted to Delaware Art Museum by Sawyer Family

Major Collection of American Publishers’ Bindings Gifted to Delaware Art Museum by Sawyer Family

The Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington is the recipient of an extensive collection of American publishers' bindings assembled by Mary Sawyer, as well as many illustrated books from the Brandywine Sc...

A Rare Early Printing of the United States Constitution to sell October 9th

A Rare Early Printing of the United States Constitution to sell October 9th

Fireworks at Brunk Auctions: The United States Constitution   On October 9th, Brunk Auctions will sell “the only located privately held Official Signed Ratification Copy of the United States Cons...

Three-Fingered Jack, the Terror of Jamaica!

Three-Fingered Jack, the Terror of Jamaica!

Not exactly a book, rather a booklet—28 pages, printed on a cheap paper with small fonts—peddling stuff—a B movie poster trying to lure you in with a lengthy title loaded with superlatives: The Won...

The Internet Archive Loses Legal Appeal. 500,000 books Will No Longer Be Available Free to the Public

The Internet Archive Loses Legal Appeal. 500,000 books Will No Longer Be Available Free to the Public

The Internet Archive has lost its appeal of a successful lawsuit brought against it by a group of book publishers. The subject was the IA's Free Digital Library. The Free Digital Library loans elec...

William L. Parkinson is offering the Mello Collection at auction on October 12th

William L. Parkinson is offering the Mello Collection at auction on October 12th

William L. Parkinson, Books, long time dealer and occasional auctioneer, is offering The Robert A. Mello Collection at auction on October 12th.  Highlights fall into three categories: Americana, Ve...

Old World Auctions Celebrates its 200th Auction with an Auction of Just 5 Rare, Important Lots, October 10

Old World Auctions Celebrates its 200th Auction with an Auction of Just 5 Rare, Important Lots, October 10

RICHMOND, Va. – To celebrate its 200th auction, Old World Auctions is offering five of the most coveted maps of the last 500 years. Auction #200: Cartographic Treasures is an Internet-only auction ...

Doyle:  our goal is your satisfaction

Doyle: our goal is your satisfaction

Doyle is finding the world a welcoming place.   We are excited for the future at DOYLE!   It is easy to focus solely on data, markets, and technology, but it is essential to keep in mind the pe...

Floodwater Rages Through Smithtown, New York, Library

Floodwater Rages Through Smithtown, New York, Library

On the night of August 18-19, torrential rains hit parts of northern Suffolk County on the north side of New York's Long Island. According to the Suffolk County website, “more than 11 inches of rai...

“History and Future of the Book” a hands-on class at Colorado College

“History and Future of the Book” a hands-on class at Colorado College

In an age that’s gone mostly digital and will soon use AI to remove the human touch entirely, it’s reassuring to know that at least one school is still teaching the “History and Future of the Book....

17th Century Book of Feminist Literature Outsells a King’s Autograph at Auction

17th Century Book of Feminist Literature Outsells a King’s Autograph at Auction

A 17th century book regarded as the first piece of English feminist literature and a gory gothic novel owned by one of the UK’s largest female landowners have out-sold a King’s autograph at auction...

Freeman's Hindman Offering Pre-Civil War Photograph of Interracial Couple – Perhaps the First

Freeman's Hindman Offering Pre-Civil War Photograph of Interracial Couple – Perhaps the First

CINCINNATI – On October 26, Freeman’s | Hindman will bring to auction what is believed to be the first American photograph of a romantically posed interracial couple. The anonymous ninth plate dagu...

Four New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Four New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month seems to be devoted to collections of Americana. I don't know why, but all of the new catalogues we received were about that land in the northern and western hemispheres. We have four ne...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana
    27 January 2026
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary pair of books from George Washington’s field library, marking the conjunction of Robert Rogers, George Washington, and Henry Knox. $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary letter marking the conjunction of George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Benjamin Franklin. $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: Virginia House of Delegates. The genesis of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. $350,000 to $500,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana
    27 January 2026
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: (Gettysburg). “Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle”: Autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrated by fourteen maps and plans. $200,000 to $300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: President Lincoln thanks a schoolboy on behalf of "all the children of the nation for his efforts to ensure "that this war shall be successful, and the Union be maintained and perpetuated." $200,000 to $300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Plato. [Apanta ta tou Platonos. Omnia Platonis opera], 2 parts in 2 vol., editio princeps of Plato's works in the original Greek, Venice, House of Aldus, 1513. £8,000-12,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Book of Hours, Use of Rome, In Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, [Southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), c.1460]. £6,000-8,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Correspondence and documents by or addressed to the first four Viscounts Molesworth and members of their families, letters and manuscripts, 1690-1783. £10,000-15,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Shakespeare (William). The Dramatic Works, 9 vol., John and Josiah Boydell, 1802. £5,000-7,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Joyce (James). Ulysses, first edition, one of 750 copies on handmade paper, Paris, Shakespeare and Company, 1922 £8,000-12,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Powell (Anthony). [A Dance to the Music of Time], 12 vol., first editions, each with a signed presentation inscription from the author to Osbert Lancaster, 1951-75. £6,000-8,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Chaucer (Geoffrey). Troilus and Criseyde, one of 225 copies on handmade paper, wood-engravings by Eric Gill, Waltham St.Lawrence, 1927. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Borges (Jorge Luis). Luna de Enfrente, first edition, one of 300 copies, presentation copy signed by the author to Leopoldo Marechal, Buenos Aires, Editorial Proa, 1925. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Nolli (Giovanni Battista). Nuova Pianta di Roma, Rome, 1748. £6,000-8,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Roberts (David). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia, 3 vol., first edition, 1842-49. £15,000-20,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Blacker (William). Catechism of Fly Making, Angling and Dyeing, Published by the author, 1843. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Herschel (Sir John F. W.) Collection of 69 offprints, extracts and separate publications by Herschel, bound for his son, William James Herschel, 3 vol., [1813-50]. £15,000-20,000

Article Search

Archived Articles