  • <b>19th Century Shop.</b> DARWIN, CHARLES. Iconic signed Darwin photograph "I like this photograph much better than any other which ..."
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> DARWIN, CHARLES. <i>Autograph Letter Signed</i>. Early Unpublished Darwin letter on the races of man.
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> WRIGHT, WILBUR. Experiments and Observations in Soaring Flight. Journal of the Western Society of Engineers 8, no. 4 (August, 1903).
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> EINSTEIN, ALBERT. <i>The Meaning of Relativity.</i> FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Signed and dated Oxford 1931.
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> GARDNER, ALEXANDER. Antietam Bridge, Maryland. "One of the memorable spots in the history of the war."
  • <b>Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts, 8 June 2016, New York</b>
    <b>Bonhams June 8:</b> Lot 1. ARISTOTLE. 384-322 B.C.E. De animalibus [De historia animalium. De partibus animalium. De generatione animalium.] US$ 300,000-500,000.
    <b>Bonhams June 8:</b> Lot 44. ARIOSTO, LUDOVICO. 1474-1533. Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, by John Haringto[n]. [London: Richard Field, 1591.] US$ 70,000-90,000.
    <b>Bonhams June 8:</b> Lot 183. HARRISON, William Henry. Document Signed AS PRESIDENT ("W.H. Harrison"). US$ 40,000-60,000.
    <b>Bonhams June 8:</b> Lot 116. <br>ALI, MUHAMMAD. B.1942. U.S. Passport Signed ("Muhammad Ali") Twice, [Dublin, July 19, 1972].<br>US$ 25,000-35,000.
    <b>Bonhams June 8:</b> Lot 52. Bible In English. [Mearne, Samuel, binder.] The Holy Bible containing the bookes of the Old & New Testament. US$ 25,000-35,000.
    <b>Bonhams June 8:</b> Lot 130. EARHART, Amelia. 1897-1937. Archive of material on the purchase and outfitting of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10e. US$ 15,000-20,000.
    <b>Bonhams June 8:</b> Lot 85. BURTON, Virginia Lee. 1909-1968. The Little House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1942. US$ 15,000-20,000.
    <b>Bonhams London June 15.</b> Lot 68. CAMERON (Julia Margaret) Kate Keown [No. 5 Of Series of Twelve Lifesized Heads], [1866]. <br>£30,000-50,000.
    <b>Bonhams London June 15.</b> Lot 98. Karl Marx. Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Oekonomie... Erster Band, FIRST EDITION, 1867.<br>£80,000-120,000.
    <b>Bonhams London June 15.</b> Lot 111. Isaac Newton Autograph manuscript, in English, headed "The Question stated about abstaining from blood". £50,000-70,000.
    <b>Bonhams London June 15.</b> Lot 112. Nobel Prize for discovering isotopes in stable elements, awarded to F.W. Aston in 1922. £200,000-400,000.
    <b>Bonhams London June 15.</b> Lot 140. Kay Nielsen (Prince Bismarck discovering the soldier), 1913. £15,000-20,000.
  • <b>American History: Live Salesroom Auction, June 10, 10:00 AM ET</b>
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 5. The Confederate Blockade Runner <i>CSS Colonel Lamb at Sea</i>, 1864, by Samuel Walters. Est $60000-$80000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 140. Brevet Brigadier General James H. Kidd, 6th Michigan Cavalry, Exceptional Collection. Est Est $80000-$100000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 141. Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon Custer, ALS and Souvenir Relics from the Surrender at Appomattox Court House.<br>Est $20000-$30000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 116. Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth Presentation Sword and Archive. Lot of 52 items related to Elmer Ellsworth.<br>Est $100000-$200000.
    <b>American History: Live Salesroom Auction, June 10, 10:00 AM ET</b>
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 1. Paul Revere, War of 1812, Mechanics of the Town of Boston Signed Pledge. <br>Est $10000-$15000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 64. Rare Whole Plate Tintype of the Ill-Fated Civil War Steamer Sultana. <br>Est $5000-$7000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 346. James B. "Wild Bill" Hickok Tintype and Autograph Poem Signed.<br>Est $20000-$30000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 330. Remarkable California US Mail Steamship Co. Broadside, 1859. <br>Est $10000-$15000.
    <b>American History: Live Salesroom Auction, June 10, 10:00 AM ET</b>
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 161. Previously Unknown Daguerreotype of Future First Lady Julia Dent Grant and Sons Made for Captain Ulysses S. Grant. Est $10000-$15000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 229. <i>Titanic Disaster</i>, Ogden Family Travel Album Containing 30 Photographs Taken from the RMS Carpathia. <br>Est $5000-$7000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 230. RMS <i>Titanic</i>, Cork from Life Belt Salvaged by Passengers of the RMS <i>Carpathia</i>. Est $7000-$9000.
    <b>Cowans June 10:</b> Lot 231. Bronze RMS Carpathia Medals Presented to Mr. & Mrs. Ogden, Plus ALS from Captain Arthur Rostron.<br>Est $4000-$6000.
  • http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/searchresults.asp?sale_no=2419&st=D&viewby=lot_asc&ps=25&pg=1
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> Lewis Carroll, <i>Alice's Adventures</i>, illustrated & signed by Salvador Dalí, New York, 1969. <br>$12,000 to $18,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> David Roberts, <i>The Holy Land</i>, 6 volumes, London, 1842-49. <br>$35,000 to $50,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> Arthur Szyk, <i>The Szyk Haggadah</i>, edited by Cecil Roth, first edition, signed, London, 1939. <br>$15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> William Shakespeare, <i>The Dramatic Works</i>, 9 illustrated volumes, London, 1802. $5,000 to $7,500.
    http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/searchresults.asp?sale_no=2419&st=D&viewby=lot_asc&ps=25&pg=1
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> Grimm Brothers, <i>Little Brother & Little Sister</i>, illustrated & signed by Arthur Rackham, London, 1917. $2,000 to $3,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, illustrated by John Martin, London, 1846. $1,500 to $2,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> Edward Young, <i>The Complaint, and The Consolation</i>, first edition, illustrated by William Blake, London, 1797. $8,000 to $10,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries June 14:</b> <i>Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains</i>, first edition, New York, 1904-11. $3,000 to $4,000.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - September - 2013 Issue

A Day at the Races

5897616f-32a1-4223-9834-647625e9a56c

Books are part of our background

A day at the races

 

I took a week off to think about the future of book collecting and was reminded that a week is not a very long time.  Oh well, it was what was possible.  This isn’t going to be a Ph.D. thesis, just a think-through about both the status of and future of the collectability of the printed word.

 

Printing is an old idea and from its beginnings a small portion of the production good, interesting or unusual enough to merit some collector’s or institution’s interest.

 

Much of what is thought to be worth keeping is ultimately not.  Evidence of this is found on the shelves, in the attics and basements of people who believed random books would someday pay out big.  They haven’t and we face a deluge of these I thought they were valuables over the next twenty years that will tax eBay, dealers, second hand shops and library fairs to dispose.  Fixed price approaches probably won’t work as well as auctions but the fixed price guys will adjust as we descend into what may become, for a year or two, the ultimate buyers market.  After all, there are only so many auctions you can run before you burn out the audience.  In truth, nothing in this field changes without the discernable scent of desperation.  What will trigger sufficient desperation is unclear.  I have thought that living longer might force some to dispose.  After all, an extra year of life has a cost and there has to be sufficient money to pay the bills.

 

I’ve also thought the prospect of declining value might encourage some to sell, to get x rather than ½ x five years later.  But I had an interesting conversation with an octogenarian dealer and his younger wife and they are prepared to wait out the decline.  They have something well north of 10,000 items, probably 40,000, have been in the business for two long generations, been through the depression and three wars and always seen better days materialize.  I did say I thought the downturn would last another five years and see common and unimportant material falling 80%.  Their response:  we’ll wait it out.  They have had a great eye and I think expect their discernment will be appreciated by future generations.  They are right but it will be, to quote the Beatles, “a long and winding road.”  In their resolute commitment to carry on they are very much in the minority.  Most people are already trying to sell significant quantity and with only limited success.

 

A walk through Greenwich Village reminded me that, while old books may be a hard sell, collecting of almost everything else you can think of continues to prosper.  On almost every corner were collectibles stacked up or framed.  Art seemed to be everywhere.  Sculpture as well.  The signage in stores was smart and looked like it too should be on walls.  Altogether, the material put out to sell seemed a celebration of the present, the era we are living in with images and symbols drawn from world and current events, social trends, television shows and movies – thousands of objects that portray the buyer as hip, aware of the world we share.

 

Books were there but not so much and some of what I saw was books in the images as symbols of something slipping by.  Greenwich is very much about the moment and books not a significant part of it.

 

Comics are more so.  If your taste runs to comic graphics you’ll find choices here – they seeming more to celebrate the movies than the comic strips.  And so what, it shows the problem isn’t with paper but rather what’s on it.

 

While here I could see that newspapers continue to be important although all the media seems to be starving.  The news is still around to be reported but the advertisers seem to be spending their money elsewhere and everywhere you turn people are staring intently into what used to be phones but are now computers in their pockets.  The New York Times, long the epoxy that binds New York’s five boroughs as well as liberals from coast to coast, still sells but more and more printed media is fading. 

 

History has its place but people aren’t having any of it.  Make the trains run on time while a revolution in expectations and at least here – acceptance of every shape, color and age unfolds.  Gay and straight, hip and hippo, erudite and barely civilized and between them a celebration of the moment in which they live.

 

For the printed word to be relevant in this world it needs to be in the picture, not just in the paintings, and it seems, to quote Broadway lingo, exiting left.

 

The battle isn’t over but we have been through Pickett’s charge and we are the intruders, the guests that won’t go home.  You can hear it in the voices, you’ve had your chance and yes we know what you are – buggy whips in the age of the automobile, road maps in the era of Google maps.  Hey old timer we don’t do that anymore.

 

Yeh, I’ve noticed and I just want to figure out how to put the printed word back into the conversation and make what has long been appreciated interesting and relevant to this and future generations.  Experience matters and books ultimately introduce a broad range of characters and experience.  Today, in their place are twitter feeds, text messaging, videos, and 500 channels of cable, all to tell you what’s happening.  As to why, well you’ll probably need to read a book and not so many are inclined to do that, buy an old book or visit a library anymore.

 

So we have our work cut out for us.  And it seems like a substantial undertaking.

 

So some will wait it out, many will give up, and some will fight it through.  I’ve got no quit in me and I know many in the rare paper field that feel the same.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Leaves from<br>George Washington's Own Draft <br>of His first Inaugural Address. An Extraordinary Rarity!
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Declaration of Independence: Benjamin Tyler 1818 - First Print with Facsimile Signatures.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Thomas Jefferson Signed Act of Contress Authorizing Alexander Hamilton to Complete Famous Portland Maine Lighthouse.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Emanuel Leutze. Silk Flag Banner designed by Leutze, created by Tiffany & Co., and presented to Gen. John A. Dix, 1864.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> The "greatest of early American maps … a masterpiece" (Corcoran). Thomas Holme.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Lincoln Summons His Cabinet for a Historic Meeting to Discuss Compensated Emancipation.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Albert Einstein. Autograph Letter Signed. Einstein Counsels His Son ... Meaning of Life.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Normal Rockwell. Painting/Drawing Signed. Rockwell's "Barbeshop Quartet", 1936.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Frederick Douglass. Autograph Letter Signed to unknown correspondent. Washington, D.C.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Harry Truman. Autograph Manuscript Notebook for Kansas City Law School Night Class.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> Robert E. Lee. Autograph Letter Signed, June 11, 1782. Hours after the Battle of Culpeper Court House, Lee Escapes Again.
    <b>Seth Kaller:</b> George Washington. Letter Signed, as Commander-in-Chief, Continental Army, to Elias Dayton, Headquarters, [Newburgh, N.Y.], June 11, 1782.
  • <b>Arader June 11:</b> Audubon Aquatint by Havell, Purple Heron Purple Heron or Reddish Egret, Plate 256. London: Havell, 1827-1838.<br>Est. $45,000-$60,000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Audubon Aquatint by Havell, Wild Turkey, Male Wild Turkey, Male, Plate 1. London: Havell, 1827-38. Est. $80,000-$100,000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Audubon Lithographs, Imperial Folio, Common Deer Common Deer, Plate 136. Philadelphia: J. T. Bowen, 1839-44. Est. $12,000-$15,000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Charles H. Smith, Indian Elephant Watercolor Indian Elephant. Charles H. Smith (1760 - 1859). Est. $6,000-$8,000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Spectacularly Rare Copper Engraving Solanum Pomiferum. Basil Besler (1561-1629). Est. $5,000-$8,000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> John Contable Drawing of River Stour Barges on the River Stour at Flatford, Suffolk John Constable (1776-1837).<br>Est. $45000-$65000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Pine's The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords. Est. $18000-$22000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Exceptionally Fine and Attractive Copy of Bertram's Travels Travels. William Bartram (1729-1823). Est. $22000-$25000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Mortier & Covens French edition of Mitchell A Map of the British and French Dominions in N America... Est. $15000-$25000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Jefferson and Fry Map of Virgina, 1776 A Map of the Most Inhabited part of Virginia... <br>Est. $12000-$18000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Floriano, Untitled World Map on a Double Hemisphere Polar Projection World Map. Antonio Floriano. Est. $75000-$100000.
    <b>Arader June 11:</b> Bierstadt Chromolithograph of Yosemite Domes of Yosemite. Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902). Est. $18000-$25000.

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