Screenshot of Roundtable for Young Collectors panelists
Roundtable for Young Collectors Wrap-Up
Earlier this week, Alexandra Nelson, the chief marketing officer at Swann Galleries, hosted the…

The Fine Books Blog

May 12, 2021
Snowman Illustrator Raymond Briggs Retrospective Opens
The English author/illustrator responsible for two of the most iconic modern images of Christmas enjoys a celebration of his work in a new exhibition…
May 11, 2021
Sir Walter Scott’s Name in Lights
Back in March, Alex Johnson reported on the Sir Walter Scott celebrations getting underway in honor of the author’s 250th anniversary this year. It…
May 10, 2021
Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week
Another jam-packed week of auctions coming up. Here's what I'll be watching:
May 7, 2021
Video Fridays: Conversing with the Starry Messenger
Sharing today a one-hour presentation on Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius (Venice, 1610) in which Nick Wilding, professor of history at Georgia State…
May 6, 2021
'90s Book Cover Phenomenon, Bird Girl, Heads to Auction
Readers of John Berendt’s 1994 bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil will no doubt recognize the rare sculpture headed to auction at…
May 5, 2021
Rediscovered Raymond Chandler Article Published
The latest issue of Strand magazine features a previously unpublished Raymond Chandler article discovered in a shoebox at the Bodleian Library at…
May 4, 2021
Black Literature Matters at the New York Society Library
Last week, the New York Society Library opened its new exhibit, Black Literature Matters, “inspired by our contemporary moment,” and guest curated by…
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From the Pages of Fine Books & Collections
Spring 2021
Spring 2021
Chicanx Prints that Slay
Gilberto Cárdenas was a college student in Los Angeles when El Movimiento, or...
Collecting Leaf by Leaf
Wolf von Lojewski spontaneously bought five leaves from the Nuremberg Chronicle...
Edward Carey’s Novels Embrace Art and Found Objects
There really was never any doubt that Edward Carey, author of the new novel The...
Winter 2021
Maps in the Time of Cholera
In the late summer of 1854, an eerie silence descended over Soho in London’s...
‘Democratized’ Book, Map, and Manuscript Auctions Promise Finds in All Price Ranges
Since its founding in 2008, Catawiki—an international online auction platform...
Arsenic and Old Books
In spring 2019, Dr. Melissa Tedone was working to restore an 1857 second...
Autumn 2020
Election Ephemera
In 2008, when Alicia Yin Cheng stumbled across an article in the New Yorker...
A Hollywood Filmmaker’s Beguiling and Inspiring Collection
It began with Begotten, filmmaker E. Elias Merhige’s 1989 black-and-white...
The Wide World of Collegiate Book Collecting
There’s a pervasive notion that young people, screen in hand, do not enjoy...
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Personal Heavily Annotated Columbia Law School Book, The French Legal System – An Introduction to Civil Law Systems
Heritage Auctions to Offer Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Annotated Law Book
Dallas, TX – A Columbia Law School textbook once owned and full of notes by one of the unquestioned…

In The News

May 10, 2021
Da Vinci’s “Head of a Bear” to be Offered at Christie’s in July
London – Leonardo da Vinci’s "Head of a Bear" will be offered for sale at Christie’s in London as a highlight lot in the Exceptional Sale, taking…
May 10, 2021
World Record for Magazine Cover Art by J.C. Leyendecker
Dallas, TX – Joseph Christian Leyendecker’s Beat-up Boy, Football Hero, which appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on Nov. 21, 1914,…
May 7, 2021
Collection from the Beatles Hamburg Years 100% Sold
London — A collection of unseen letters, drawings, work permits and photos relating to The Beatles time in Hamburg in 1962 and their relationship…
May 6, 2021
Fine Golf Books at PBA Galleries on May 13
Berkeley, CA – PBA Galleries announced an auction of Fine Golf Books & Memorabilia to be held on May 13th, 2021. The catalogue includes over 340…
May 5, 2021
Mars Illustration a Top Lot at $2.3-Million Heritage Auction
Dallas, TX – One of the most iconic and important pinup images ever created, Alberto Vargas Mara Corday, True Girl, February 1952, sold for $100,000…
May 5, 2021
Library of Congress to Publish Anthology of First Peoples Poetry
Washington, DC — Edited by Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, LIVING NATIONS, LIVING WORDS: An Anthology of First…
May 3, 2021
Selections from Letterform Archive at Swann Galleries
New York — In a two-day sale event, Swann Galleries will offer a special offering of deaccessioned duplicates from the rich collection of Letterform…
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