Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2019 Issue

LiveAuctioneers Sees Enormous Growth in 2018

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Audubon whooping crane plate from Arader Galleries sold for over $200,000.

LiveAuctioneers reports that 2018 was another bang-up year in terms of growth for its auction platform. LiveAuctioneers is something of an auction listing aggregator. They bring together listings from many different houses. Some sales are made directly on LiveAuctioneers platform, others pass through to the houses. What the customer receives is tens if not hundreds of thousands of listings in one place, making the placing of bids convenient and easy to understand. Its popularity among bidders can be seen by the enormous growth since introduced in 2002.

 

LiveAuctioneers specializes in auctions of fine art, antiques, and collectibles. The latter category in particular covers the items that bring collectors to the Rare Book Hub - books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera. While art may be their largest category, the popularity of items in the books and paper field can be seen by the list of houses with the highest number of followers on Live Auctioneers. It includes Heritage Auctions, Leland Little Auctions, Clars Auction Galleries, Brunk Auctions, and the recently merged Leslie Hindman Auctioneers and Cowan's Auctions. All regularly hold sales in the books and paper field.

 

There are a couple of others who aggregate auctions, and we cannot vouch for numbers as none are public corporations, but LiveAuctioneers tells us they are the largest. They report 630,000 sales last year won directly on their platform (not including others placed through their site). LiveAuctioneers says this is 135,000 more than their closest competitor.

 

Here is a number that is even more staggering. The dollar volume of bids placed through the LiveAuctioneers website, including underbids, was $196.9 billion. Yes, billion. Naturally, many of those weren't winning bids, but people are certainly willing to spend a lot on arts and collectibles these days.

 

Other figures released included an increase of 161% in new bidders. They had over 433 million page views, 77 million bids. They had an increase of 46% in bids coming through mobile devices. People are bidding wherever they are. They are also now bidding with cryptocurrency, one item being purchased for $140,000 in that ethereal cash substitute. LiveAuctioneers reported they broadcast 120,000 hours of live auctions, with downtime of less than one one-hundredth of one percent.

 

Among the items sold in the books and paper field was a first edition of Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone by Forum Auctions for $31,144. A later six-volume set of Audubon's Birds of America was sold by Brunk Auctions for $26,000. The Arader Galleries sold a plate of the whooping crane from Audubon's first edition of the Bird's of America for $205,000. A letter from George Washington to John Marshall offered by Case Antiques brought in $15,000.

 

As pleased as they were with 2018's results, LiveAuctioneers CEO Phil Michaelson promised, "The best is yet to come, and it’s going to benefit auction houses worldwide in ways they couldn’t even imagine."

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>June 14/15<br>Printed Books, Maps, Playing Cards & Games, English Literature, Private Press & Illustrated Books</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Chinese School. Album of Chinese rice paper paintings of St Helena and Napoleon, circa 1830s/1840s. £700 to £1,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Speed (John).<i> The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine...,</i> 1676. £3,000 to £5,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Laroon (Marcellus). <i>The Cryes of the City of London drawne after the Life,</i> 1st edition, 1688. £1,000 to £1,500.
    <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>June 14/15<br>Printed Books, Maps, Playing Cards & Games, English Literature, Private Press & Illustrated Books</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Thomas Sedgley binding. <i>The Holy Bible,</i> London, 1701, large folio. £2,000 to £3,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Kipling (Rudyard). The Sussex Edition of the <i>Complete Works in Prose and Verse,</i> 1937-1939. £5,000 to £8,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Dodgson (Charles). <i>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,</i> 1886, presentation copy. £500 to £800.
    <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>June 14/15<br>Printed Books, Maps, Playing Cards & Games, English Literature, Private Press & Illustrated Books</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> German tarot cards. Napoleon tarock, Leipzig: Johann Gottfried Herbert, circa 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Milne (A.A.). <i>The House at Pooh Corner,</i> 1928, inscribed limited deluxe edition of 20. £15,000 to £20,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Peter Pan. A unique 13.5m (44ft) long needlework nursery frieze, by Helen Stebbing M.R.S.T., 1936. £7,000 to £10,000.
    <b><center>Dominic Winter Auctioneers<br>June 14/15<br>Printed Books, Maps, Playing Cards & Games, English Literature, Private Press & Illustrated Books</b>
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Peak (Bob, 1928-1992). <i>U.S.A,</i> a mural produced for Trans World Airlines (TWA), 1971. £200 to £400.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Austen (Jane). <i>Pride and Prejudice: a novel,</i> 3 volumes, 2nd edition, London: T. Egerton, 1813. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Dominic Winter, June 14/15:</b> Hughes (Ted). Crow, 1st edition, London: Faber and Faber, 1970, signed presentation copy. £400 to £600.
  • <b><center>Swann Auction Galleries<br>Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books:<br>At Auction June 22, 2023</b>
    <b>Swann June 22:</b> George Mivart, <i>A Monograph of the Lories, or Brush-Tongued Parrots, Composing the Family Loriidae,</i> London, 1896. $5,000 to $7,000.
    <b>Swann June 22:</b> Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, <i>Atlas Coelestis in Quo Mundus Spectabilis et in Eodem Stellarum Omnium Phoenomena Notabilia, Homann Heirs,</i> 1742. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Swann June 22:</b> John Fisk Allen; & William Sharp, <i>Victoria Regia; or the Great Water Lily of America,</i> Boston, 1854. $15,000 to $20,000.
    <b>Swann June 22:</b> Schenk & Valk, <i>America Septentrionalis,</i> Amsterdam, circa 1694. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b>Swann June 22:</b> Robert Burton, <i>The English Empire in America…Illustrated with Maps & Pictures,</i> London, 1685. $2,000 to $3,000.
  • <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>A fourth selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library<br>15th June 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Hobbes (Thomas). <i>Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme & Power of a Common-Wealth,</i> first edition, first issue, 1651. £10,000 to £15,000.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> [Burton (Robert)] "Democritus Junior". <i>The Anatomy of Melancholy,</i> first edition, Oxford, Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, 1621. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Fletcher (Giles). <i>Of the Russe Common Wealth,</i> first edition, Printed by T[homas] D[awson] for Thomas Charde, 1591. £7,000 to £10,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>A fourth selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library<br>15th June 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Shakespeare source book.- Fraunce (Abraham). <i>The Lawiers Logike, exemplifying the praecepts of Logike by the practise of the common Lawe,</i> first edition, 1588. £4,000 to £6,000.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Fireworks.- Babington (John.) <i>Pyrotechnia or, A discourse of artificiall fire-works…,</i> 2 parts in 1 vol., first edition, Thomas Harper for Ralph Mab, 1635. £4,000 to £6,000.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Gardening.- [Bonnefons (Nicolas de)]. <i>The French Gardiner instructing how to cultivate all sorts of Fruit-Trees and Herbs for the Garden, translated by John Evelyn,</i> third edition, 1675. £3,500 to £4,500.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>A fourth selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library<br>15th June 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Witchcraft.- F. (H.) <i>A true and exact Relation Of the severall Informations, Examinations, and Confessions of the late Witches…,</i> first edition, 1645. £3,000 to £4,000.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Science.- Boyle (Robert). <i>The Origine of Formes and Qualities (According to the Corpuscular Philosophy),</i> first edition, Oxford, H. Hall for Ric: Davis, 1666. £3,000 to £4,000.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Massinger (Philip). <i>The Unnaturall Combat. A Tragedie,</i> first edition, Printed by E.G. for John Waterson, 1639. £2,000 to £3,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>A fourth selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library<br>15th June 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Plastic Surgery.- Read (Alexander). <i>Chirurgorum Comes: or the Whole Practice of Chirurgery,</i> first edition, Printed by Edw. Jones, for Christopher Wilkinson, 1687. £2,000 to £3,000.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Hall (Edward). <i>The Union of the two noble and illustre famelies of Lancaster & Yorke…,</i> [by Richard Grafton], 1550. £2,200 to £2,500.
    <b>Forum, June 15:</b> Cosmetics.- Jeamson (Thomas). <i>Artificiall Embellishments. Or Arts Best Directions How to Preserve Beauty or Procure it,</i> first edition, Oxford, Printed by William Hall, 1665. £1,000 to £1,500.
  • <b><center>Sotheby's<br>The Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman Collection<br>26 May - 12 June</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> "Cool Hand Luke" | Paul Newman Academy Award® Nomination Plaque. USD$2500 - $3500
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> "Hud" | Bound presentation script incorporating photographic stills. USD$1000 - $1500
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> "The Long, Hot Summer" | Movie Poster. USD$1000 - $1500
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> Joseph Heller | "Catch-22," inscribed to Woodward & Newman by author. USD$500 - $800
    <b><center>Sotheby's<br>The Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman Collection<br>26 May - 12 June</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> George H. W. Bush | Typed Letter Signed, Issuing a "Pardon" to Paul Newman. USD$1500 - $2000
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> William Jefferson Clinton | Inscribed Color Photograph. USD$1000 - $1500
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> Ken Kesey | Typed letter to “Paulnewman,” asking for further compensation for "Sometimes a Great Notion". USD$1000 - $1500
    <b>Sotheby’s, May 26 – Jun. 12:</b> "They Might Be Giants" | Costume sketches by Edith Head. USD$1000 - $2000

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