Call for Booksellers’ Best

Courtesy of Blackwell's Rare Books

Third edition of Quintilianum eloquentiae fontem, sold at £50,000 to a UK library.

As some readers may recall, we published a feature last autumn called “Booksellers’ Best,” an illustrated listing of a dozen rare books and manuscripts that antiquarian booksellers offered up as their most noteworthy sales of the year. This year, we’ll be doing the same thing, with one small twist: two categories, Under $500 and Over $500. In both, we’re looking for entries that present unique stories. Last year we highlighted a Standing Rock artist’s book; a ten-volume, extra illustrated copy of John Muir’s writings; and perhaps my favorite of the bunch, a 547-year-old book, printed by the famous French printer and type designer Nicolas Jenson, with “an almost unbroken, and somewhat distinguished, provenance,” sold by Blackwell’s Rare Books in Oxford (pictured above).

So booksellers: we invite you to submit information on the most unique or interesting book or manuscript you've sold over the last twelve months. Fine Books staff will choose a selection of submissions to be featured in the upcoming fall issue of Fine Books & Collections magazine.

To submit your book for consideration please email me (rebecca dot barry at finebooksmagazine.com) with the title, author, price, details about what makes the item special, and a high-resolution image by June 5.