An educational and informational site about rare, old and antiquarian books.
Every enthusiastic print collector tries to make a determination on what can be considered an “original print” by examining the technique used to create a print coupled with the artist’s preferred media. An original print is a work conceived and originated by the artist as a print and excludes reproductions of the work conducted in […]
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When an Apple I computer was put up for sale at the Sotheby’s Fine Books and Manuscripts auction last month, we could not help but wonder how close we are to the times when such events will carry the additional “…and Electronic Devices” somewhere in the name. Let’s hope that we are nowhere near such […]
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It is not uncommon for people with book collections to harbor concern towards the new generation’s lack of interest in picking up a hobby such as rare book collecting. The old assumption that a collection would remain in the family and that the family’s “library” would accumulate with each generation is sadly a thing of […]
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Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech (1904-1989), better known as Salvador Dali, is one of the most famous and popular artists of the twentieth century. His artistic nature is captured in paintings, sculptures, plays, films, photographs, costumes and, of course, rare books. The mustachioed master of Surrealism was criticized and abandoned by the art establishment […]
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A century before Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus perplexed readers worldwide, another very unusual moveable, hand-colored rare book by Dean’s of London had a similar effect in intriguing readers. Dean’s New Book of Dissolving Scenes, London: Dean & Son, (1861), featuring five, bright working transformations which have their scenes “dissolve” into another when tabs are pulled, […]
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Collectors are increasingly pouring large sums of cash into ancient religious texts. The Rare Book Sale Monitor recorded “Religion & Theology”, our third most popular gender, to be slightly trailing “Modern First Editions” in overall price increase during the last 15 months. For a synopsis of the religious rare book market please read our earlier […]
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No other copy of the Voynich manuscript, “the world’s most mysterious manuscript,” exists in any other collection in the world, besides the one at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The book was donated to the university library in 1969 through a gift of the legendary rare book dealer, Hans P. Kraus, who […]
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One Hundred years ago, a young American author by the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs, wrote his second story, “Tarzan of the Apes” for the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine. The publication paid $700 for the work, which was enough to send Burroughs the message that he could quite possibly make a living as a writer. […]
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A modern first edition’s value is very much dependant on its dust jacket (dust wrapper or dust cover.) A very desirable copy should not only come in its original dust jacket, but the condition of its wrapper should be in relatively mint condition. The dust cover consists of the detachable outer covers usually decorated with […]
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The incredibly rare and desirable dust jacket to the first edition, first printing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, has definitely seen some better times in the past. Specifically, a copy that sold at a Bonham’s auction in New York on June 10, 2009, for $182,000. Last October 20th, 2011 however, the celebrated art […]
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