Parke-Bernet was founded in 1937 by Hiram Parke, who broke his affiliation with the American Art Association-Anderson Galleries to create a separate entity. In time, Parke-Bernet would go on to become the leading American auction house. In 1964 the firm was purchased by Sotheby's.

PB, as Parke-Bernet was known, handled many of the most important items to reach American auction floors in the mid-20th century. They were very important in books but not limited to them. Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer was sold for $2.3 million dollars in 1961, a number that heralded the arrival of new valuation parameters for rare, important and irreplaceable objects.

Many catalogues are without any price, some are incomplete, many are hand written at margin of pages.  Therefore price entry in this group is as good as we could.  Wherever possible we tried our best to verify against American Book Price Current records.