An educational and informational site about rare, old and antiquarian books.
The popular phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” is often used to convey that a complex idea can be represented and communicated more quickly and efficiently with just a single still image. In the world of rare books the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand …….”(fill in the currency), is sometimes more […]
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After several years of unprecedented growth during the last decade, sales of new books in the religion category have declined significantly. Since 2007, sales as reported by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), have declined by more than 25%. The year by year breakdown of revenues reported is as follows: 2010 2009 2008 2007 $585.4M $614.3M […]
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Ask any rare book dealer – “how’s business” and the response may very well be – “slow but steady.” Regardless of whether selling books on-line or through bricks and mortar outlet stores, the nature of the business is not very volatile with peak and valley type of activity. It is a business that can never […]
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To a rare book lover, the film version of the story will never be as good as the book itself. But a film does offer an artistic expression that is quite different and visually enjoyable, especially when it comes to science fiction with special effects. Literary work allows the reader to use the imagination more liberally […]
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Towards the end of last year, 66-year old British book dealer Michael Tollemache, spent 11.5 million US dollars for a complete set of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America.” A new price record for the sale of a rare book was set as a result. The four-volume, double-elephant sized book was painted by naturalist Audubon […]
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One of the hardest tasks for a seller or owner of an antiquarian book collection, is evaluating or determining a book’s fair value. Whether preparing to sell or appraise your books for any reason, the unique attributes inherent in the world of rare books, deems the task “approximate”. Finding out a book’s current value, in […]
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Between 1957 and 1961, Nelson Doubleday publishers, contributed the most amazing children’s books encapsulating the classical stories of the time with contributions by some of the better known illustrators and artists of our times. This was a very important series as it contained much original material from 7 Newberry Winners and illustrations from 8 Caldecott Winners. It […]
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The definition of a “first edition” and the categorization of a book as a “first edition”, have long been loosely coupled to disassociate a book’s true value from such a classification. Fredson Thayer Bowers, an American bibliographer and scholar of textual editing, gave us the modern definition of a “first edition” in his book Principles […]
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