December 2016 | Nate Pedersen

At Auction: Edwin V. Glaser Stock at PBA Galleries

207569_0.jpgThe stock of longtime antiquarian bookseller Edwin V. Glaser is being offered at PBA Galleries in a January 12 sale. Glaser specialized in rare medicine, science, and technology books. Online bidding has opened.


Glaser began selling books in New York City in the 1960s, before relocating to Sausalito, and then Napa, California, in turn. He served as president of the ABAA (1986-1988) and as an original faculty member of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminars (1979-2010). Glaser decided to sell his stock at PBA Galleries as he approached his late 80s and withdrew from "active participation" in the antiquarian book trade.  


In a statement, he commented, "I have met and had the opportunity to know many remarkable people: my fellow dealers, my customers, librarians, academics, and just plain (actually not so plain) book-lovers and assorted eccentrics. I acquired and had the opportunity to handle and sell some of the great written monuments of the world's history and culture. I was my own boss and came and went as I pleased. I even managed to support my family and occasionally have a few dollars left over (although there was always another book or collection to buy)."


Auction highlights include a rare sixteenth-century Paracelsus text (pictured) and a letter from Italian mathematician and astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi.


Image Courtesy of PBA Galleries