2023 ABAA New York International Book Fair Press Coverage

NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR 2023

PRESS REPORT

The following is a full public relations report covering all work accomplished and press obtained from January 2023 through May 2023 for the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) by Andrey & Melissa, LLC.

PRESS MATERIALS

Created, updated and refined NYIABF press materials for the 63rd edition of the fair:

• Created NYIABF Exhibitor Announcement

• Refined NYIABF Boilerplate

• Crafted NYIABF Programming and ABAA Connect Announcement

• Wrote NYIABF Post-Event Press Release

ASSET MANAGEMENT

Obtained, organized and strategically shared all NYIABF 2023 Assets:

• Reached out to and conducted regular follow-up with all exhibitors to obtain images, captions and key information

• Organized and tracked all assets on the shared Dropbox, coordinating with the NYIABF team

• Set up individual meetings and calls with exhibitors speak about the work they were bringing to the fair, identifying all newsworthy angles

• Updated the press on all assets as they were received

PRESS OUTREACH

Crafted key media angles surrounding the NYIABF 63rd edition, exhibitor offerings, key trends, NYIABF principals and special items to share with top-tier editors, writers and freelancers internationally:

• Placed 12 print pieces

• Placed 112 online pieces, increasing from 107 in 2022

• Placed 4 broadcast pieces

• Final outreach resulted in a total of 125 stories, with a total circulation of 1,751,652,951 and a total ad value of USD $16,202,790

MEDIA RELATIONS

Liaised with press on all aspects of the fair:

• Shared all press materials with the press in a timely manner

• Organized in-person, Zoom and phone interviews between press, exhibitors, and fair principals

• Ensured all press deadlines were met

• Facilitated on ground introductions during the press preview and throughout the weekend

EVENT & LIST MANAGEMENT

• NYIABF Press Preview

o Curated list for the press preview, adding in new, important editors, writers and freelancers

o Crafted script for digital evite

o Deployed invitations, sent follow-ups and response needed emails

o Shared regular RSVP updates with the team

o Confirmed team to handle press check-in

• NYIABF VIP Preview

o Curated civilian list for the VIP preview, adding in new influencers, socialites, collectors and decision makers

o Crafted script for digital evite

o Deployed invitations, sent follow-ups and response needed emails

o Shared regular RSVP updates with the team

SOCIAL MEDIA

Coordinated with NYIABF team to brainstorm new ideas for the social media platforms, helping to increase followers & engagement:

• Offered ideas for Instagram posts and content

• Coordinated between press social media contacts and Salon social media team to facilitate coverage

THE NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR 2023 PULL QUOTES

“Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences.” – Staff Writer, Fine Books & Collections, February 3, 2023

“The NYIABF is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy Spring season.”

Staff Writer, Art Daily, February 6, 2023

“Bibliophiles, rejoice!” – Staff Writer, ArtDaily, February 6, 2023

“It's considered the world's finest antiquarian book fair.” – Rossilynne Skena Culgan, Time Out NY, March 21, 2023

“A marvel of engineering in its time.” – Staff Writer on the Park Ave. Armory, Fine Books & Collections, March 24, 2023

“The biggest on the rare books calendar of events.” – Dan Schlossberg, Forbes, April 4, 2023

“Wear comfortable shoes and plan to spend hours. The show is a masterclass of taste and discernment.” – Bruce E. McKinney, Rare Book Hub, April 14, 2023

“These dealers are individuals, unique in their capabilities and specialties, and united in their interest in deep and complex subjects.” – Bruce E. McKinney, Rare Book Hub, April 14, 2023

“Often deemed the finest convention of rare books in the world.” – L.H., Air Mail, April 15, 2023

"With prices beginning at $50 (and heading into seven figures), there’s a page-turner for every bibliophile.” –L.H., Air Mail, April 15, 2023

“While the idea of an antiquarian book fair might strike some as stuffy and boring, this selection is anything but.” – Nicole Saraniero, Untapped New York, April 19, 2023

“At the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, you can expect to see many of your favorite literary characters.” – Nicole Saraniero, Untapped New York, April 19, 2023

“The annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair is always an exciting time for collectors of historical tomes, maps, manuscripts, illustrations, and other printed ephemera.” – Geoffrey Montes, Galerie Magazine, April 24, 2023

“The NYIABF has a rich history, and rare books collectors, literary enthusiasts, and those interested in history and culture will find much to appreciate at this year’s fair. If you’re looking for rare treasures or hoping to connect with like-minded collectors, the NYIABF is the place to be.”

Staff Writer, Invaluable, April 24, 2023

“’The fair is an incredible opportunity for people to come see things that are normally in museums.’” – Gabe Boyers, written by Joe Lynch, Billboard, April 26, 2023

“One of New York’s best window-shopping weekends is back, as the four-day New York International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.” – Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times, April 27, 2023

“Far from an old-fashioned aristocratic cabinet of curiosities, “the fair,” as regulars call it, can feel like an overwhelming explosion of history, beauty, charm and surprise.” – Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times, April 27, 2023

"Plenty of acknowledged treasures and quirky surprises." – Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times, April 27, 2023

“It would be safe to say that the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair boasts some of the finest bookish treasures one can find.” – Britt Stigler, All Arts, April 28, 2023

“Bibliophiles will find booths upon booths … filled with treasures any library would dream of having.” – Britt Stigler, All Arts, April 28, 2023

“You could get lost for hours staring at brilliant illuminated transcripts, or be charmed by a first edition of your favorite novel, or blown over by intricate bindings in materials such as mother of pearl and, of course, fine leather.” – Britt Stigler, All Arts, April 28, 2023

“In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points.” – Deborah L. Martin, Aspire Design & Home, April 28, 2023

“The annual event is widely considered the world’s finest book fair.” – Lee Carter, ArtNet News, April 28, 2023

“While a dealer at a contemporary art fair might have a ready-made sales pitch for their booth’s one or two artists, the booksellers at Park Avenue Armory hold a seemingly bottomless trove of knowledge, both artistically and historically, about every single item in their collection.” – Elaine Velie, Hyperallergic, April 28, 2023

“Over 1,500 visitors flowed into the Park Avenue Armory throughout the evening to enjoy unparalleled offerings from nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair.” – Staff Writer, City Life Org, April 29, 2023

“The most successful iteration of the fair in at least the past decade.” – Staff Writer, City Life Org, April 29, 2023

“Congratulations to the ABAA for a beautiful weekend of history and books!” – Sara Elliott Holliday, The New York Society Library Org, April 30, 2023

“Once again, the NYIABF lived up to its reputation as a highly-regarded international antique fair.” – Britt Trachtenberg, The Knockturnal, May 1, 2023

“The popularity of this annual fair serves as a testament to the vitality of the book. If you missed this year’s, save up some spending money, mark down the end of April in 2024, and come to New York to witness what is one of the greatest gatherings of books in the world.” – John Wisdom, The New Criterion, May 3, 2023

“A springtime celebration of all things on paper.” – John Wisdom, The New Criterion, May 3, 2023

“I was at the New York Antiquarian book fair at the Park Avenue Armory, the most beloved of its kind in the world.” – Lilah Raptopoulos, Financial Times, May 12, 2023

“In the Park Avenue Armory, a buzzing hall of superfans are keeping the building blocks of our culture alive.” – Lilah Raptopoulos, Financial Times, May 12, 2023

“And I left loving books even more, for holding the stories, facts and thoughts we’ve acquired over centuries.” – Lilah Raptopoulos, Financial Times, May 12, 2023

“In contrast with traditional antiques and art shows, the 63rd New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) carries with it an air of fantasy, especially for book lovers.”

Z.G. Burnett, Antiques & The Arts Weekly, May 17, 2023

January 3 , 2023

The full list of major art fairs in 2023, from Marrakec h to Miami

We've compiled this year's leading commercial art events into one handy source

ArtRotterdamwilltakeplace9-12February

Photo:CourtesyArtRotterdam

Read our round-up of the most interesting fairs in the coming year here.

SEA Focus, Singapore, 6-15 January

Este Arte, Punta del Este, Uruguay, 7-10 January

Art SG, Singapore, 12-15 January

London Art Fair, UK, 18-22 January

Fog Design + Art, San Francisco, US, 19-22 January

Original Miami Beach Antique Show, Miami Beach, US, 19-23 January

The Winter Show, New York, US, 20-29 January

Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair (winter), London, UK, 24-29 January

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/03/the-full-list-of-art-fairs-in-2023-from-marrakech-tomiami

Art Boca Raton, Boca Raton, US, 25-30 January

Art Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, 26-29 January

Brafa, Brussels, Belgium, 29 January-5 February

Artefiera, Bologna, Italy, 3-5 February

Affordable Art Fair, Brussels, Belgium, 8-12 February

Zona Maco, Mexico City, Mexico, 8-12 February

India Art Fair, New Delhi, India, 9-12 February

Material, Mexico City, Mexico, 9-12 February

1-54 Marrakech, Morocco, 9-12 February

Art Rotterdam, Netherlands, 9-12 February

Rotterdam Photo, Netherlands, 9-12 February

Intersect Palm Springs, Palm Springs, US, 9-12 February

LA Art Show, Los Angeles, US, 15-19 February

Art Wynwood, Miami, US, 16-19 February

Palm Beach Show, US, 16-21 February

Superfine, Miami Beach, US, 16-19 February

Frieze Los Angeles, US, 16-19 February

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa, 17-19 February

Palm Springs Modernism, US, 17-20 February

Art Madrid, Spain, 22-26 February

ARCO Madrid, Spain, 22-26 February

Just Mad, Madrid, Spain, 23-26 February

Nomad St Moritz, St Moritz, Switzerland, 23-26 February

Art Sampa, São Paulo, Brazil, 1-5 March

Aotearoa Art Fair, Auckland, New Zealand, 2-5 March

Art Dubai, UAE, 1-5 March

Outsider Art Fair, New York, US, 2-5 March

Collect Art Fair, London, UK, 3-5 March

Mercanteinfiera Spring, Parma, Italy, 4-12 March

Collectible, Brussels, Belgium, 9-12 March

Antikmässan, Stockholm, Sweden, 9-12 March

Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London, UK, 9-12 March

Contemporary Art Ruhr, Essen, Germany, 10-12 March

Art Fair Tokyo, Japan, 10-12 March

TEFAF Maastricht, Netherlands, 11-19 March

Antik Passion Almoneda, Madrid, Spain, 18-26 March

Salon du Dessin, Paris, France, 22-27 March

Affordable Art Fair, New York, US, 22-26 March

Art Central Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 22-25 March

Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 23-25 March

Drawing Now, Paris, France, 23-26 March

MIA Fair, Milan, Italy, 23-26 March

Superfine, San Francisco, US, 23-26 March

Palm Beach Contemporary & Modern, US, 23-26 March

SP-Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 29 March-2 April

PAD Paris, France, 29 March-2 April

Art Paris, France, 30 March-2 April

Art Expo New York, US, 30 March-2 April

The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, New York, US, 31 March-2 April

Art Dusseldorf, Germany, 31 March-2 April

Urban Art Fair, Paris, France, 13-16 April

Superfine, Washington DC, US, 13-16 April

Expo Chicago, US, 13-16 April

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/03/the-full-list-of-art-fairs-in-2023-from-marrakech-tomiami

miart, Milan, Italy, 14-16 April

Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan, Italy, 18-23 April

The Open Art Fair, London, UK, 19-23 April

PArC (Peru Arte Contemporaneo), Lima, Peru, 19-23 April

Art Brussels, Belgium, 20-23 April

Photofairs Shanghai, China, 20-23 April

Art Market San Francisco, US, 20-23 April

Dallas Art Fair, US, 20-23 April

Discovery Art Fair, Cologne, Germany, 21-23 April

New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, US, 27-30 April

Affordable Art Fair, Hampstead, London, UK, 10-14 May

Kunst RAI, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 3-7 May

Art Vancouver, Canada, 4-7 May

Art Karlsruhe, Germany, 4-7 May

Arte Genova, Italy, 5-7 May

ART (Art Revolution Taipei), Taiwan, 5-8 May

Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair (spring), London, UK, 9-14 May

Future Fair, New York, US, 10-13 May

Supermarket (Stockholm Independent Art Fair), Sweden, 11-14 May

Photo London, London, UK, 10-14 May

Independent, New York, US, 11-14 May

Superfine, Seattle, US, 11-14 May

Market Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden, 12-14 May

Taipei Dangdai, Taiwan, 12-14 May

TEFAF New York, US, 12-16 May

Eye of the Collector, London, UK, 17-20 May

Frieze New York, US, 17-21 May

Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong, China, 18-21 May

Nada New York (New Art Dealers Alliance), US, 18-21 May

Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair, UK, 19-21 May

ARCO Lisbon, Portugal, 25-28 May

Arch Moscow, Russia, 7-10 June

Volta Basel, Switzerland, 12-18 June

Liste Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland, 12-18 June

Photo Basel, Switzerland, 13-18 June

Design Miami, Basel, Switzerland, 13-18 June

Affordable Art Fair Sydney, Australia, 15-18 June

Rhy Art Salon Basel, Switzerland, 15-18 June

Art Basel, Switzerland, 15-18 June

Tokyo International Art Fair, Japan, 23-24 June

Masterpiece London, UK, cancelled

Tokyo Gendai, Japan, 7-9 July

Art Santa Fe, US, 14-16 July

Seattle Art Fair, US, 27-30 July

Art Market Hamptons, Bridgehampton, US, 10-13 August

Art-o-rama, Marseilles, France, 31 August-3 September

Affordable Art Fair Melbourne, Australia, 31 August-3 September

Art Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 6-10 September

Frieze Seoul, South Korea, 6-9 September

Art Beijing, China, 9-12 September

Vienna Contemporary, Austria, 7-10 September

Art on Paper, New York, US, 7-10 September

The Armory Show, New York, US, 8-10 September

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/03/the-full-list-of-art-fairs-in-2023-from-marrakech-tomiami

Photofairs New York, US, 8-10 September

Superfine, New York, US, 14-17 September

Design London, UK, 20-23 September

Affordable Art Fair NYC (fall), New York, US, 20-24 September

Goldsmiths’ Fair, London, UK, 26 September-8 October

Lausanne Art Fair, Switzerland, 28 September-1 October

Pinta Photo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 28 September-1 October

Texas Contemporary, Houston, US, October

The Chicago Show: Antiques & Art & Modern, Chicago, US, October

Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair (autumn), London, UK, 3-8 October

Affordable Art Fair Stockholm, Sweden, 5-8 October

PAD London, UK, 10-15 October

Frieze London / Frieze Masters, London, UK, 11-15 October

1-54 London, UK, 13-16 October

Art International Zurich, Switzerland, 13-15 October

Paris+ par Art Basel, Paris, France, 19-22 October

Kunst Zurich, Switzerland, 27-30 October

Contemporary Art Ruhr: Innovative Art Fair, Essen, Germany, 27-29 October

Art Cologne, Germany, November

Artissima, Turin, Italy, November

Abu Dhabi Art, UAE, November

Art x Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, 2-5 November

Art San Diego, US, 3-5 November

Salon Art + Design, New York, US, 9-13 November

Paris Photo, France, 9-12 November

West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai, China, 9-12 November

PAN Amsterdam, Netherlands, 19-26 November

Scope Miami Beach, US, December

Spectrum Miami, US, December

AADLA Fine Art & Antiques Show, New York, US, December

Untitled, Miami Beach, US, 5-9 December

Art Miami, US, 5-10 December

Pinta Miami, US, 6-10 December

Art Basel Miami Beach, US, 7-9 December

Design Miami, Miami Beach, US, 7-9 December

INK Miami, Miami Beach, US, 7-9 December

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/03/the-full-list-of-art-fairs-in-2023-from-marrakech-tomiami

Ask Emma Rice to explain the extraordinary shelf life of the Brontë sisters—Anne, Charlotte, and Emily, those 19th-century Brits who wrote some of literature’s most celebrated works—and her answer is simple. “These were not Victorian damsels,” Rice says. “They were hard as nails.”

Rice is the adapter and director behind the Wise Children theater company’s production of Emily’s Wuthering Heights, which the Guardian called “bold and ingenious” during a UK run and is now touring the U.S. And while Rice knows why revisiting Brontë’s story appealed to her (“the Brontës’ world is about emotional chaos,” she says, “and we’re also fighting for hope at the moment”), she isn’t alone in finding the sisters fascinating.

In late 2021 a British charity raised close to $20 million to purchase a trove of work by the Brontës, including letters and diary entries, and last April a miniature book of poetry made by the 13-year-old Charlotte sold for

BRONTË, You Stay

What’s behind the latest revival of literature’s most celebrated sisters?

$1.25 million at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. This month filmmaker Frances O’Connor will release Emily, a beautiful big screen ode to the author that earned raves when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“There’s this crossover between who she was and what’s happening at this moment for young women, when there’s a pressure to present perfection,” O’Connor says of her subject. “I wanted to say something about that.”

Perhaps that’s the appeal: The Brontës are a heritage brand that’s seemingly ripe for a refresh—whether or not you’ve studied every word. As Rice says, “With great novels, you’ve either never read them and pretend you have, or you read them a long time ago and can’t remember them.”

Here’s Our Up - to - the - Minute Guide to All the Art Fairs Taking Place Around the World in 2023

Mark your calendars.

WorkbyMarthaRosler,presentedbyMitchellInnesandNashandGalerieNagelDraxleratArtBasel,2022.CourtesyArtBasel.

As January dawned, and before most people had even taken down their holiday decorations, art-world denizens had already begun to jet-set around the world to get ahead on a calendar year chock-a-block with events.

Although some fairs, like Masterpiece London, have cancelled their 2023 editions, the fate of others, like FIAC, remains in the balance. We’ve rounded up all of the fairs we could confirm for the upcoming 12 months, from Morocco to Mexico, and everywhere in between. There are a handful of fairs that have yet to announce their dates for this year; but we’ll keep an eye out and continue to update this list as more information becomes available.

APRIL

https://news.artnet.com/market/art - fairs - 20232241330?utm_content=from_&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1%2F3 0%20U

Here’s Our Up - to - the - Minute Guide to All the Art Fairs Taking Place Around the World in 2023

Mark your calendars.

(MENAFN- USA Art News)

As January dawned, and before most people had even taken down their holiday decorations, art-world denizens had already begun to jet-set around the world to get ahead on a calendar year chock-a-block with events.

Although some fairs, like Masterpiece London, have cancelled their 2023 editions, the fate of others, like FIAC, remains in the balance. We’ve rounded up all of the fairs we could confirm for the upcoming 12 months, from Morocco to Mexico, and everywhere in between. There are a handful of fairs that have yet to announce their dates for this year; but we’ll keep an eye out and continue to update this list as more information becomes available.

S%20AM&utm_term=US%20Daily%20Newsletter%20%5BMORNING%5D

FEBRUARY 01 , 202 3

Book Festivals

Book festivals are a wonderful way to hear about a wide range of books and meet a large number of authors. These events take place across the country throughout the year. Our goal here is to present as comprehensive a list as possible about these events.

Any festivals you don’t see on this list? Let us know! Email Tom@bookreporter.com with the name of the festival, its dates and location, and a link to its official website.

April 2023

North Kingstown, RI: We Are All Readers Children’s B ook Festival

Date: April 1

Website: http://www.weareallreaders.com

Hattiesburg, MS: Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival

Dates: April 12-14

Website: https://www.usm.edu/childrens-book-festival

West Palm Beach, FL: BAM Festival

Date: April 15

Website: https://www.bamwpb.org

San Antonio, TX: San Antonio Book Festival

Date: April 15

Website: https://sabookfestival.org

Spokane, WA: Get Lit! Festival

Dates: April 20-23

Website: https://inside.ewu.edu/getlit

Columbia, MO: Unbound Book Festival

Dates: April 20-23

Website: https://www.unboundbookfestival.com

Chelsea, MI: Midwest Literary Walk

Date: April 22

Website: https://midwestliterarywalk.org

Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles TimesFestival of Books

Dates: April 22-23

Website: http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks

https://www.bookreporter.com/book-festivals

Kensington, MD: Kensington Day of the Book Festival

Date: April 23

Website: https://dayofthebook.com

New York, NY: New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

Dates: April 27-30

Website: https://www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com

Newburyport, MA: Newburyport Literary Festival

Dates: April 28-30

Website: https://newburyportliteraryfestival.org

Columbus, OH: Ohioana Book Festival

Dates: April 28-30

Website: http://www.ohioana.org/programs/ohioana-book-festival

Annapolis, MD: Annapolis Book Festival

Date: April 29

Website: https://www.keyschool.org/community/annapolis-book-festival

https://www.bookreporter.com/book-festivals

FEBRUARY 3 , 202 3

What's on at New York International Antiquarian Book Fair 2023

ADOBE

The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City April 27-30, 2023, for its 63rd Edition.

The NYIABF - officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) and (ILAB) and produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith + Associates - is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a muchanticipated highlight of the busy Spring season. Universally referred to as the world’s finest antiquarian book fair, NYIABF is excited to reveal nearly 200 exhibitors this year from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair.

The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design and book enthusiasts and collectors both seasoned and entry level. In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/whats-new-york-international-antiquarian-bookfair-2023

attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to millions.

A NYIABF tradition, Discovery Day on April 30, 1-3pm, offers ticketed visitors the opportunity to bring their own rare books, manuscripts, maps, etc. (up to 5 items) Exhibitors will be on hand to offer expert advice and free appraisals.

This year, the fair welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. An impressive number of US exhibitors also highlight the incredible wealth of material available stateside. Exhibitors will present a vast treasure trove of items: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, prints and print ephemera.

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual - to the bedrock of secular culture, finance, politics - the fair boasts offerings in every conceivable genre and subject. Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. However, the fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming 11 new exhibitors this year including: Capitol Hill Books; Editio Altera; Kate Mitas, Bookseller; Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber; Langdon Manor Books, LLC; Librairie Paul Jammes; Librairie Pierre-Adrien YVINEC; Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera; Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller; Thorn Books and W.C. Baker Rare Books and Ephemera.

In its 63rd Edition, NYIABF continues to endorse the finest tradition of material culled from American and international antiquarian booksellers. In addition to 106 U.S. booksellers, NYIABF enjoys strong international participation with booksellers hailing from the United Kingdom (30), France (17), Italy (4), Germany (4), Netherlands (5), Austria (5), Denmark (2), Spain (2), Switzerland (2), Argentina (1), Canada (1), Sweden (1), Belgium (1), Hungary (1), Japan (1) and Czech Republic (1). The vast list of exhibitors includes booksellers from 3 countries that will participate in the fair for the first time.

A full list of exhibitors may be found here.

Preview: $65 (Includes one daily re-admission)

Daily Admission: $32

Students: $10 (with valid ID - at the door only)

Run of Show: $62

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/whats-new-york-international-antiquarian-bookfair-2023

FEBRUARY 6 , 202 3

All Events

April

New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

April 27 - April 30, 2023

New York

Bibliophiles, rejoice! The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, with its 200-plus exhibitors of rare books, maps, manuscripts, illustrations, and more, returns to the Park Avenue Armory this April for its 63rd edition.

FEBRUARY 6 , 202 3

New York International Antiquarian Book Fair will be held April 27 - 30

TitiLucretiiCari[=Lucretius].DeRerumNatura[=OntheNatureofThings]LibriSex.Parisiis[=Paris]:InGulielmiRouillijetPhilippi G.RouillijNep.,1563.LucretiuswasalsoacatalystfortheRenaissanceandEnlightenmenteras.$4,000.

NEW YORK, NY.- The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair - officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers and produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith + Associates - returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 27th-30th, 2023 for its 63rd Edition.

The NYIABF is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy Spring season. Universally referred to as the world’s finest antiquarian book fair, NYIABF is excited to reveal nearly 200 exhibitors this year from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair. The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design and book enthusiasts and collectors both seasoned and entry level. In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to millions.

https://artdaily.com/news/154174/New-York-International-Antiquarian-Book-Fair-will-be-held-April-2730#.Y-FKQezMJmo

This year, the fair welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries including Argentina, Austria, Bel- gium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. An impressive number of US exhibitors also high- light the incredible wealth of material available stateside. Exhibitors will present a vast treasure trove of items: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical docu- ments, prints and print ephemera.

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual - to the bedrock of secular culture, finance, politics - the fair boasts offerings in every conceiv- able genre and subject.

Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. However, the fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming 11 new exhibitors this year including: Capitol Hill Books; Editio Altera; Kate Mitas, Bookseller; Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber; Langdon Manor Books, LLC; Librairie Paul Jammes; Librairie Pierre-Adrien YVINEC; Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera; Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller; Thorn Books and W.C. Baker Rare Books and Ephemera.

Exhibitors

In its 63rd Edition, NYIABF continues to endorse the finest tradition of material culled from American and international antiquarian booksellers. In addition to 106 U.S. booksellers, NYIABF enjoys strong interna- tional participation with booksellers hailing from the United Kingdom (30), France (17), Italy (4), Germany (4), Netherlands (5), Austria (5), Denmark (2), Spain (2), Switzerland (2), Argentina (1), Canada (1), Swe- den (1), Belgium (1), Hungary (1), Japan (1) and Czech Republic (1). The vast list of exhibitors includes booksellers from 3 countries that will participate in the fair for the first time.

A full list of exhibitors may be found here.

https://artdaily.com/news/154174/New-York-International-Antiquarian-Book-Fair-will-be-held-April-2730#.Y-FKQezMJmo

FEBRUARY 1 8 , 202 3

THE ABAA NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR RETURNS TO NEW YORK FOR ITS 63RD EDITION

The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) – officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) and produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith + Associates – returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 27th-30th, 2023 for its 63rd Edition.

The NYIABF is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy Spring season. Universally referred to as the world’s finest antiquarian b ook fair , NYIABF is excited to reveal nearly 200 exhibitors this year from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair. The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design and book enthusiasts and collectors both seasoned and entry level. In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to millions.

This year, the fair welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries including Argentina, Austria, Bel - gium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. An impressive number of US exhibitors also high- light the incredible wealth of material available stateside. Exhibitors will present a vast treasure trove of items: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical docu- ments, prints and print ephemera.

https://thecitylife.org/2023/02/18/the-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-returns-tonew-york-for-its-63rd-edition/

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual – to the bedrock of secular culture, finance, politics – the fair boasts offerings in every conceiv- able genre and subject.

Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. However, the fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming 11 new exhibitors this year including: Capitol Hill Books; Editio Altera; Kate Mitas, Bookseller; Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber; Langdon Manor Books, LLC; Librairie Paul Jammes; Librairie Pierre - Adrien YVINEC; Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera; Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller; Thorn Books and W.C. Baker Rare Books and Ephemera.

Exhibitors

In its 63rd Edition, NYIABF continues to endorse the finest tradition of material culled from American and international antiquarian booksellers. In addition to 106 U.S. booksellers, NYIABF enjoys strong interna- tional participation with booksellers hailing from the United Kingdom (30), France (17), Italy (4), Germany (4), Netherlands (5), Austria (5), Denmark (2), Spain (2), Switzerland (2), Argentina (1), Canada (1), Swe- den (1), Belgium (1), Hungary (1), Japan (1) and Czech Republic (1). The vast list of exhibitors includes booksellers from 3 countries that will participate in the fair for the first time.

A full list of exhibitors may be found here: https://www.nyantiquarianbookfa ir.com/dealers

Location

Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065 www.armoryonpark.org

Discovery Day | Sunday, April 30 | 1 - 3pm

Preview: $65 (Includes one daily re-admission) Daily Admis sion: $32

Students: $10 (with valid ID – at the door only) Run of Show: $62

A NYIABF tradition, Discovery Day offers ticketed visitors the opportunity to bring their own rare books, manuscripts, maps, etc. (up to 5 items) Exhibitors will be on hand to offer expert advice and free appraisals.

ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com

Facebook @nybookfair | Instagram @nybookfair | Twitter @nybookfair

Tag us on social media: #NYIABF23 #NYIABF

Produced by Sanford L. Smith + Associates | www.sanfordsmith.com | (212) 777-5218

About Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA)

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America was founded in 1949 to promote interest in rare and antiquarian books and book collecting, and to foster collegial relations. We strive to maintain the highest standards in the trade. All members agree to abide by the ABAA’s Code of Ethics. While our members sell, buy, and appraise books and printed matter, our staff can assist you with finding a bookseller and with other trade-related matters.

About International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB)

Established in 1949, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) is a global network of 22 national antiquarian booksellers’ associations, representing over 1600 affiliated rare booksellers based in 37 countries

https://thecitylife.org/2023/02/18/the-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-returns-tonew-york-for-its-63rd-edition/

worldwide. ILAB affiliated businesses share a worldwide reputation for high quality, knowledge, expertise, and experience and adhere to ILAB’s Code of Usages and Customs. All exhibitors at an ILAB-sanctioned fair are affiliated to the League. ILAB strives to uphold and improve professional standards in the trade, to promote honorable conduct in business, and to contribute in various ways to a broader appreciation of the history and art of the book. ILAB, whose official languages are English and French, is a registered Company Limited by Guarantee in the United Kingdom.

About Sanford L. Smith + Associates

For more than 40 years, Sanford L. Smith + Associates has been known for managing internationally re- nowned art fairs. Sanford L. Smith + Associates was founded by Sanford Smith who is known for initiating innovative niche art and design fairs that have generated international collecting categories. His most recent venture, Salon Art + Design, which was an outgrowth of the original Modernism show, was hailed by The New York Timesas “a museum in the making at the Park Avenue Armory.” In addition to the shows that Sanford L. Smith + Associates has created and owned, Smith has long managed prestigious association fairs. Over the years he has managed many shows including the Outsider Art Fair, which he founded 25 years ago. Today, he still manages The Art Dealers of America’s Art Fair and The New York Antiquarian Book Fair; relationships that have been fostered for more than 25 years.

https://thecitylife.org/2023/02/18/the-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-returns-tonew-york-for-its-63rd-edition/

FEBRUARY 21 , 202 3

THE NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR: 200 EXHIBITORS ANNOUNCED FOR APRIL 2023 - A TRULY INTERNATIONAL FLAGSHIP EVENT

The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) – officially sanctioned by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 27th-30th, 2023 for its 63rd Edition.

https://ilab.org/article/new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-a-truly-international-flagship-eventfor-the-rare-book-trade

The NYIABF is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy Spring season. The NYIABF has proudly revealed nearly 200 exhibitors this year from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair. The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design and book enthusiasts and collectors both seasoned and entry level. In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to millions.

This year, the fair welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark , France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. An impressive number of US exhibitors also highlight the incredible wealth of material available. Exhibitors will present a vast treasure trove of items: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, prints and print ephemera.

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual – to the bedrock of secular culture, finance, politics – the fair boasts offerings in every conceivable genre and subject.

Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. However, the fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming 11 new exhibitors this year including: Capitol Hill Books; Editio Altera; Kate Mitas, Bookseller; Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber; Langdon Manor Books, LLC; Librairie Paul Jammes; Librairie Pierre - Adrien YVINEC; Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera; Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller; Thorn Books and W.C. Baker Rare Books and Ephemera.

Exhibitors

In its 63rd Edition, NYIABF continues to endorse the finest tradition of material culled from American and international antiquarian booksellers. In addition to 106 U.S. booksellers, NYIABF enjoys strong international participation with booksellers hailing from the United Kingdom (30), France (17), Italy (4), Germany (4), Netherlands (5), Austria (5), Denmark (2), Spain (2), Switzerland (2), Argentina (1), Canada (1), Sweden (1), Belgium (1), Hungary (1), Japan (1) and Czech Republic (1). The vast list of exhibitors includes booksellers from 3 countries that will participate in the fair for the first time.

A full list of exhibitors may be found here: https://www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com/dealers

Location

Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065 www.armoryonpark.org

Discovery Day | Sunday, April 30 | 1 - 3pm

Preview: $65 (Includes one daily re-admission) Daily Admission: $32

Students: $10 (with valid ID – at the door only) Run of Show: $62

A NYIABF tradition, Discovery Day offers ticketed visitors the opportunity to bring their own rare books, manuscripts, maps, etc. (up to 5 items). Exhibitors will be on hand to offer expert advice and free appraisals.

ILAB will run more updates in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

https://ilab.org/article/new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-a-truly-international-flagship-eventfor-the-rare-book-trade

FEBRUARY 2 3 , 202 3

ATTENDING YOUR FIRST BOOK FAIR

Are you planning to attend a rare book fair? For the first time? Members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America provide a few pointers for beginning collectors who might be considering attending an antiquarian book fair for the first time. Booksellers Lorne Bair, Michael Hackenberg, and John Windle have put together some advice gleaned from decades of book fair attendance.

This article was first published on the website of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and is reposted here with permission of the association.

Ask Questions/Develop Relationships with the Dealers

Veteran bookseller John Windle notes that "a good, close, trusting connection to a dealer will yield the best possible results," so book fairs present a valuable opportunity to get to know many dealers, and let them get to know you and your interests as a collector.

https://ilab.org/article/attending-your-first-book-fair

Lorne Bair agrees, adding that his "number one piece of advice to beginning collectors attending their first book fair is to ask questions! Antiquarian booksellers as a rule get very few opportunities to talk about their books with people who are genuinely interested. Book fairs are the one environment where they can open up, share their experience and expertise, and communicate with members of the public who share an enthusiasm for what they do."

However, don't mistake the museum-quality artefacts with a museum's explicit invitation to stand around and admire all day. The object of book fairs is to sell books how else will the dealers be able to buy more books? Many dealers have traveled a long way to offer their particular treasures at the fair. On the other hand, booksellers are eager to establish relationships with collectors and would-be collectors, and are generally happy to talk books and share their knowledge. Just use common sense if you see a line forming for entrance to the booth in question.

https://ilab.org/article/attending-your-first-book-fair

Bair underlines the value of a good relationshop between collectors and dealers: "a good bookseller is more than a merchant: she is a source of advice, encouragement, and accumulated wisdom. Great collections have always involved a collaboration between great collectors and great dealers, so don’t try to go it alone."

Know Your Interest Areas

Rather than browse the aisles seeing what catches your eye, it's often best to go in with a plan: What areas are you interested in? Which items are you hunting?

Michael Hackenberg of Hackenberg Booksellers advises collectors “definitely have the subject areas of interest in mind, and some of the books in those areas of specific interest." But, even if you're not sure where you ultimately want your collection to go, a few fixed reference points can be great conversation starters when meeting dealers, who will be only to happy to share their knowledge and advise on refining your focus.

John Windle feels either approach is valid: "the 'I'll know it when I see it' is a great way to buy, but having a focus and at least the basis of a list of wants is a great start."

https://ilab.org/article/attending-your-first-book-fair

Then, Buy the Best Copies You Can Afford

Lorne Bair advises new collectors to "avoid the temptation to buy defective and/or restored books. The best collections are not always the largest." Additionally, while there are dozens of new catalogs published every week by ABAA members, (and even more the week before a big book fair like Boston, California, or New York) don't feel that you have to read every single catalog before visiting a fair! Reading a wide range of dealer catalogs is useful to get an idea of what's currently available and guage relative scarcity, but it's not essential before attending your first book fair. John Windle notes that it's good to know the going rate for items of interest, and also to gain some understanding of "what each dealer means by fine" and other notes on condition.

ABC for Book Collectors, by John Carter, is a very useful introduction to the technical terms and phrases used in the rare-book trade.

But, Don't Buy for Investment

"Once you’ve found a dealer with whom you enjoy doing business, who sells the kind of books you’re looking for, and who shows a genuine grasp of your collecting interests develop a relationship!" notes Lorne Bair. But, don't "buy for investment. Books are not securities. Buy what you love and let your own taste be your guide. Many of the

https://ilab.org/article/attending-your-first-book-fair

most-interesting collections are comprised of material that nobody considered valuable until some collector thought to assemble them."

A good collection is more than the merits of each individual piece, it lies in what the collection illustrates, what it reveals in the relation between the items. A good collection is quite literally more than the sum of its parts.

On a more practical level:

Don't Be Afraid to Touch the Books (Gently)

Part of the thrill of a book fair is to see and touch volumes you have only heard of or never knew existed! Windle comments that "handling rare books is an essential skill and if in doubt ask the dealer to help until you feel confident with a $250,000 book in your hands and $100 in your pocket." Hackenberg advises excited new collectors to "use caution by not splaying volumes open or slapping through pages. Dealers will gladly assist novices on book handling etiquette.” However, if a book is damaged from your mishandling it, the dealer will require you to compensate them for the damage. So keep food and drinks away from the books, make sure your hands are clean, and if in doubt, ask.

When attending the major, ABAA-sponsored fairs like California, New York, and Boston, collectors should make a point of exploring the booths of the international dealers they will have items on display you're unlikely to see anywhere else!

Most forms of payment are accepted

While cash might be impractical for higher-end rarities, John Windle notes that "dealers love cash not for nefarious reasons but because it gives them some spending money in the pocket for purchases, entertainment, etc. when they've been stuck in a hall for four days and have run out of cash!" Book dealers are collectors themselves, and often unexpectedly find essential items to acquire for their own collectors, and like most book lovers, are quite content to forego other pleasures to prevent an exciting book getting away.

https://ilab.org/article/attending-your-first-book-fair

Never bargain with an exhibitor over an item's price. The exhibitor wants to build a relationship with future clients and collectors, but that's difficult if it begins with haggling. If you have a collecting interest and see an item you want and you believe the dealer might offer other such items to you in the future, pay what's on the price tag and you'll be rewarded by getting offered items first in the future. Dealers know the market for rare books intimately, and set prices accordingly.

Don't look up something on your smart phone while standing in a dealer's booth to see if it is available for less online (aka showrooming). That's just rude. And don't begin any sentence addressed to an exhibitor with "But on eBay..." if you want to be taken seriously. In any case, books cannot be evaluated sight unseen, and internet dealers often lack the experience to describe their items accurately, so any prices you might find could be extremely misleading.

Most dealers bring items at all price-levels, so there should be interesting and desireable books and ephemera to be found at the book fair to suit every collectors' budget.

Attend Seminars

Many of a larger book fairs like the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair organize some seminars or lectures on topics or authors of interest. These are great opportunities to learn more about an area of interest, and also a good chance to meet like-minded collectors and dealers.

“Discovery Days” are a chance to bring in an item or two along for appraisal, and in the process learn more about how professionals evaluate antiquarian books. Not all fairs offer this feature, so check the fair website before you go.

Antiquarian book fairs are welcoming places, full of collectors and dealers eager to talk about books, browses the aisles, and see beautiful manuscripts up close. Dealers are happy to discuss and display their wares, and to forge new friendships from shared interests in books and collecting.

Learn more about upcoming book fairs on our events page...

https://ilab.org/article/attending-your-first-book-fair

Don't miss the 63rd New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, April 27-30, 2023 at the Park Avenue Armory!

(Photos: Meredith Nierman Photography)

https://ilab.org/article/attending-your-first-book-fair

MARCH 9 , 202 3

Rare, pristine first edition of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus up for sale

Enlarge/NicolausCopernicusrevolutionizedsciencewiththepublicationofDeRevolutionibusOrbiumCoelestiumin1543.

SophiaRareBooks

Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus revolutionized science when he challenged the 1,400-year dominance of Ptolemaic cosmology with the publication of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) in 1543. His manuscript suggested that the Sun, not the Earth, was at the center of the Solar System, thereby altering our entire view of the Universe and our place in it. Now, a rare, pristine first edition is up for sale for $2.5 million.

The high price tag is a testament not just to the historical importance of the work, but also to the clear provenance and excellent condition of this particular edition, according to Christian Westergaard of Sophia Rare Books, who is handling the sale. (He will be exhibiting the edition at the upcoming New York International Antiquarian Book

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibusup-for-sale/amp/

Fair next month.) A similar copy with just a couple of repairs and a contemporary binding sold at auction for $2.2 million in 2008. But most first editions of De Revolutionibus that come up for sale have dubious provenance, fake bindings, facsimile pages, stamps removed, or similar alterations that decrease the value.

Noted Copernican scholar Owen Gingerich spent 35 years tracking down and examining every surviving copy of the first two editions of De Revolutionibus, ultimately locating 276 first-edition copies (of about 500 originally printed) around the world, most of them part of institutional collections. There are only a handful of editions from Gingerich's census (maybe 10 to 15) in the hands of private collectors, including this one. "It's the holy grail for me," Westergaard told Ars. "If you're going to handle a book in this price range, you want good provenance. You don't want it to suddenly be reported stolen from some library. You want it to be in Gingerich's census. In my opinion, this copy has it all."

Enlarge/The"Toruńportrait"ofNicolausCopernicus(anonymous,c.1580). Publicdomain

Copernicus was raised by his uncle, a canon at Frauenburg Cathedral. He traveled to Italy in 1496 to pursue degrees in canon law and medicine, but after witnessing his first lunar eclipse in March 1497, he found himself drawn to

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibusup-for-sale/amp/

astronomy. Copernicus eventually became a canon at Frauenburg Cathedral himself. He built an observatory in his rooms in the turret of the town’s walled fortification and diligently studied the heavens each night.

In 1514, an anonymous booklet began making the rounds among a few astronomers personal friends of Copernicus, who had authored it. The “Little Commentary” (Commentariolus) laid out his new model of the Universe with the Sun at the center and the Earth and other planets orbiting around it. He correctly determined the order of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter and concluded that the changing positions of the stars are caused by the rotation of the Earth itself. Finally, he explained that the apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused because one is observing them from a moving Earth.

These axioms formed the basis for De Revolutionibus, which wasn’t published until near the end of his life. A young professor of mathematics and astronomy named Georg Joachim Rheticus visited Copernicus at Frauenburg in May 1539, and at his urging, Copernicus finally completed the manuscript. In 1542, Rheticus delivered it to a printer in Nurnberg, delegating responsibility for supervising the process to Andreas Osiander, a local Lutheran theologian.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibusup-for-sale/amp/

Thebookisboundincalfvellumoveroak.

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https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibusup-for-sale/amp/

Alarmed at the potentially heretical content, Osiander replaced Copernicus’ original preface with his own (unsigned) letter to the reader. In it, he claimed the book’s conclusions should not be viewed as the “truth,” but as a new model for a simpler means of calculating the positions of the heavenly bodies. Rheticus never forgave Osiander for what he considered a betrayal, even striking out the replacement preface with a red crayon on several copies. What Osiander and others found heretical was the very notion of a heliocentric universe. The Ptolemaic worldview was seamlessly intertwined with traditional interpretations of certain passages in the Bible which Church doctrine had declared to be infallible implying that the Earth was stationary.

By the time Copernicus received a copy of De Revolutionibus in May 1543, he was on his deathbed, having suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Legend has it that he woke from a coma, looked at his book, and then died peacefully of cerebral hemorrhage shortly thereafter.

For all the controversy, the bulk of the book was a rather dry mathematical treatise so much so, that author Arthur Koestler claimed (in his book The Sleepwalkers) that nobody read De Revolutionibus when it was published. “It was surely a text to be studied, but scarcely to be read straight through,” Gingerich wrote of this prevailing attitude in The Book Nobody Read, which recounts his quest to track down all the first and second editions. But Gingerich discovered that many of the first editions contained richly detailed annotations in the margins, contradicting

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibusup-for-sale/amp/

Koestler's claim although most leading mathematicians and astronomers of the time focused on later chapters concerning Copernicus' models of planetary motion, rather than the earlier chapters on cosmology.

Titlepageoftheedition. SophiaRareBooks

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibusup-for-sale/amp/

Firsttwochapters.

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Pagefromeditionshowingtheoremsforchordgeometry. SophiaRareBoo

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Severalpageshavemarginalannotations.

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Anothermarginalannotation.

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The copy offered by Westergaard also has extensive marginal annotations in two different handwriting styles, which he believes are contemporary, i.e., made in the 16th century. Gingerich identified the two earliest owners as "Brugiere" and "Jacobi Du Roure," although he found no historical records to learn more about them. An Italian dealer named Battiata Galanti handled the sale of this edition in 1949. The book was sold again in 1970 to private collectors before being bought at auction in 1983 by Dutch collector Joost Ritman, who created the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, aka the Ritman Library. Its current owner purchased the volume at auction in 2013.

Nor was this edition subject to the censorship imposed by the Inquisition in 1616, when it included De Revolutionibus on its Index of Prohibited Books prohibited, that is, until very specific corrections had been made. Most of the required changes were designed to emphasize the hypothetical nature of the work, but one called for the removal of the entirety of chapter 8, which concerns the Earth's motion. "For centuries, you had to have a permit to even read this book," said Westergaard. "If a library had a copy of Copernicus, it would be locked away in a little separate cupboard. The copy I have is not censored at all."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/rare-pristine-first-edition-of-copernicus-de-revolutionibusup-for-sale/amp/

Rare

MARCH 13 , 202 3

WEST SIDE STORY Book Signed By All Four Creators to Be at New York Book Fair

It is believed that no other copy of the book is signed by all four creators.

The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair is returning to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 27th-30th, 2023 for its 63rd Edition. Universally referred to as the world's finest antiquarian book fair, NYIABF reveals nearly 200 exhibitors.

Peter Harringon Rare Books from London - one of the leading rare book dealers in the world and the largest antiquarian book dealer in Europe, owned by Pom Harrington - is bringing a rare first edition copy of West Side Story: A Musical, signed by all four creators (Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim). The book is going for £15,000.

This is a first edition and first printing of the book, and it is inscribed "To Clive Hirschorn, Best wishes, Arthur Laurents", "and Leonard Bernstein '86", "To Clive Hirschorn, with best wishes, Jerome Robbins 1998" on front free endpaper, and signed "Stephen Sondheim" on half-title. It is believed that no other copy of the book is signed by all four creators.

Check out photos of the book below!

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Rare-WEST-SIDE-STORY-Book-Signed-By-All-FourCreators-to-Be-at-New-York-Book-Fair-20230313

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Rare-WEST-SIDE-STORY-Book-Signed-By-All-FourCreators-to-Be-at-New-York-Book-Fair-20230313

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Rare-WEST-SIDE-STORY-Book-Signed-By-All-FourCreators-to-Be-at-New-York-Book-Fair-20230313

Theatre and film critic for the Sunday Express, Clive Hirschhorn, bought the book in 1958 in his home town of Johannesburg, according to a dated ownership signature and bookseller's label are present on the front pastedown. He then sought contributions from the four creators with Robbins adding his inscription in the year of his death.

The book features its original grey boards, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, with its dust jacket (priced at $2.95 and with code "3/58" at foot of front flap). The book is housed in a custom black cloth folding box. Its extremities are slightly rubbed, with one corner bumped, minor marks to free endpapers, and abrasion on the front free endpaper. The extremities of the jacket are worn with several closed tears and minor loss.

West Side Story, a contemporary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, was conceived by choreographer Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) who first proposed a collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and playwright Arthur Laurents (1917-2011) in 1949. The project was slow to progress with Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) joining the creative team when Bernstein's first choice of lyricists were unavailable.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Rare-WEST-SIDE-STORY-Book-Signed-By-All-FourCreators-to-Be-at-New-York-Book-Fair-20230313

The Broadway premiere took place at the Winter Garden Theatre on 26 September 1957. It ran for 732 performances and won Jerome Robbins the Tony Award for Best Choreographer. West Side Story included more dancing than any previous Broadway show. Random House published the book in their series of "Recent Broadway Hits" six months after the Broadway premiere.

The first West End production opened on 12 December 1958 and ran for 1,039 performances. There have been numerous Broadway and West End revivals together with two film adaptations (released in 1961, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and 2021, directed by Steven Spielberg.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Rare-WEST-SIDE-STORY-Book-Signed-By-All-FourCreators-to-Be-at-New-York-Book-Fair-20230313

MARCH 13 , 202 3

5 Questions with Kate Mitas

Kate Mitas specialises in 19th and 20th century American social history, with an emphasis on women’s history. She is one of the exhibitors at The Ephemera Society of America fair in March (18-19) and the New York Antiquarian Book Fair (April 27-30).

DealerKateMitas.

1 How did you get your start?

https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/print-edition/2023/march/2584/dealers-diary/5-questions-withkate-mitas/

Like many people, I stumbled into the book trade. In my case, I was a 26-year-old regular at Cellar Stories Bookstore, in Providence, Rhode Island, when the owner joked that I should work there. My heart skipped a beat and I blurted: “Are you hiring?” And that was the start of my career.

I managed the store for the better part of seven years, then worked at Blue Jacket Books in Xenia, Ohio, for another year while paying down my student loans.

After that, I landed a job at Tavistock Books in Alameda, California, and began learning the antiquarian side of the trade, as well as falling in love with the Bay Area. Finally, in 2017 I hung out my shingle, and the business has been growing by leaps and bounds ever since.

2 What is on e great discovery you have made?

An absolutely stunning volvelle of cocktail recipes designed by a woman artist right after the end of Prohibition, found in a pile on the ground at a flea market.

3 What is something you would love to get your hands on?

WomenandTheirBodies,publishedonnewsprint.

WomenandTheirBodies , the first edition of OurBodies,Ourselves , published on newsprint. I’ve had one copy before, and it was electric dealing with it.

4 What is one thing you couldn’t do without?

Archival mylar sleeves! They’re the best protection for ephemera.

https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/print-edition/2023/march/2584/dealers-diary/5-questions-withkate-mitas/

5 Real ale or espresso martini?

I’m more of a Bourbon woman myself. mitasbooks.com

Ifyouwouldliketobefeaturedin5Questions,pleasecontactfrancesallitt@antiquestradegazette.com

https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/print-edition/2023/march/2584/dealers-diary/5-questions-withkate-mitas/

Rare 1st edition of Copernicus' astronomy book could fetch $2. 5M

The book, which is up for auction, was highly controversial at the time as it created a new heliocentric model of the universe.

An alternative to Ptolemy's geocentric model, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium or "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" in English, was a groundbreaking heliocentric theory written by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in the Polish Renaissance.

First printed in 1543 in Nuremberg, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, the book was controversial as it explained that the Earth revolved around the sun and not vice versa. The first edition of the book is expected to be sold for $2.5 million next month in an auction, according to Live Science.

"This book only comes up for auction once in a while," Christian Westergaard the founder of Sophia Rare Books who is handling the sale, told Live Science. "It's rare to find one in this condition. It's a completely perfect copy."

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/edition-copernicus-astronomy-book-25m

The leather-bound book's binding is the sole significant modification; according to Westergaard, it was changed at some point in the 18th century. Several times, copies that are sold have been altered, including institutional stamps being removed, pages being chemically cleaned, and other restoration work.

"Book collecting is a lot like car collecting," Westergaard added. "Collectors want the original."

The Vatican banned the copies

Among the first 500 copies that were printed, only 277 are known to still be in existence because the Vatican banned the majority that were housed in museums, libraries, and other academic institutions. In 2008, a similar copy sold at auction for $2.2 million, according to Christie's.

The manuscript also has numerous handwritten notes, including two early names that can only be read under UV light that are scrawled on the title page. "Brugiere" and "Jacobi Du Roure" are among them.

"Unfortunately, we do not know anything about the two early owners and probable annotators," Westergaard said. "They seem to have been lost in the haze of time. But maybe one day someone will succeed in shedding light on these."

The manuscript will be exhibited during the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair which will be held between April 27-30.

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/edition-copernicus-astronomy-book-25m

MARCH 1 5 , 202 3

First Edition of Nicolaus Copernicus' Book Could Cost $2.5 Million; How Did It Revolutionize Astronomy?

Nicolaus Copernicus' book, "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium," Latin for "On the revolutions of the celestial spheres," was published in 1543. It set the path for subsequent scientists, like Galileo Galilei, and revolutionized the field of astronomy.

A first edition of Copernicus' book, in which he suggested that the Earth circled the Sun rather than the other way around, will be available for sale next month and is estimated to be worth $2.5 million.

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/42820/20230315/first-edition-nicolaus-copernicus-book-cost-25-million-revolutionize.htm

Controversial and Rare Manuscript of Copernicus' Book

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Copernicus' book was considered highly controversial when it was written. It veered away from the common belief that the Sun revolves around the Moon and instead argued a heliocentric model of the universe that puts the Sun at the center of the Solar System.

Since it went against the widely accepted Catholic Church doctrine, the Vatican swiftly banned the book, that only about 277 known first editions existed worldwide. Only a handful of people are also known to possess a copy, and in 2008, Christie's auctioned a similar copy for $2.2 million.

Sophia Rare Books founder Christian Westergaard told Live Science that the book only occasionally comes in the auction as it is rare, especially in a "perfect" condition.

Westergaard added that the only noticeable difference in the leather-bound book is the binding, which might have been replaced in the 18th century. Copies on the market are frequently tampered with, wherein institutional stamps are removed, pages chemically cleaned, and other restoration work is done. But none of that is in the copy to be auctioned next month.

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/42820/20230315/first-edition-nicolaus-copernicus-book-cost-25-million-revolutionize.htm

The first edition copy also contains several handwritten annotations, like the early names of the two possible book owners that can be seen under UV light. The rare manuscript will be auctioned during the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair from April 27 to 30.

Heliocentric Model of the Universe

Copernicus' book is said to have revolutionized the field of astronomy at a time when it was found to be controversial. As per Phys.org, the 16th and 17th centuries were seen as the start of the Scientific Revolution when the foundations of modern science were laid thanks to breakthroughs in physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy.

In his book, Copernicus proposed a universe model where the Earth, other planets, and stars all revolved around the Sun. While creating this model, he resolved the geocentric model's mathematical problems and inconsistencies.

In 1514, Copernicus began distributing his 40-page manuscript to astronomers and scholars describing his heliocentric hypothesis, which is divided into seven general principles. These principles are the following:

• Not all celestial bodies revolve around a single point

• Earth's center is the center of the orbit of the moon around Earth

• Planets rotate around the Sun, which is located near the universe's center

• Parallax is not observed in the stars since the distance between Earth and the Sun is incomparable to the distance between Earth and the Sun to the stars.

• The daily rotation of the Earth affects the daily motion of the stars, which are immovable objects.

• Earth moves around the Sun in different ways that cause the apparent annual migration of the latter.

• Other planets seem to move in reverse due to Earth's orbital motion around the Sun.

Although it was not easy to accept the heliocentric model, it eventually replaced the geocentric model. Its impact on the field of astronomy help in understanding the universe.

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/42820/20230315/first-edition-nicolaus-copernicus-book-cost-25-million-revolutionize.htm

MARCH 1 7 , 202 3

A First Edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ Is up for Grabs

HarryPotterandthePhilosopher’sStone,firstedition,firstprint CourtesyofB&BRareBooks

A rare copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone will be available for US$225,000 at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, to be held at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan from April 27-30.

Only 500 hardcover copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the first book of the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling were printed in 1997 by Bloomsbury Publishing. Of the small print, 300 copies went to libraries.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone became an immediate success and it went through dozens of print runs within the first few years after it was published. Rowling would later become the world’s first billionaire author from the Harry Potter series of films.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/a-first-edition-of-harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-is-up-forgrabs-98535602

“The trifecta of what makes something rare is that there’s a small print run, it’s still very popular in pop culture, and people just always want and need it,” says Sunday Steinkirchner of B&B Rare Books. “That’s what happened with this book.”

The Brooklyn-based antiquarian book dealer is offering the copy on behalf of a private collector, who acquired it in 2017 at a Sotheby’s auction in London for £85,000 (about US$113,000).

The collector was able to get hold of another copy, and decided to offer this book for sale “as the prices of these books have just skyrocketed in recent years,” Steinkirchner says.

The strong market is partly because “Harry Potter is so ingrained in people’s childhoods and in their whole life,” she says. Also more and more people discovered auctions during the pandemic and “that’s part of what’s really driven the market for modern books.”

In December 2021, a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold at Heritage Auctions for US$471,000, becoming the most expensive commercially published 20th-century work of fiction ever sold.

This year’s New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, the 63rd annual event by Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, will take place at the Park Avenue Armory from April 27-30.

About 200 exhibitors from 16 countries will showcase their rare books, maps, manuscripts, and historical documents in a variety of subjects.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/a-first-edition-of-harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-is-up-forgrabs-98535602

Schultz Auctioneers Hosts Three Days Of Estates’ Treasures

Freedom Auction Company Hauls Sea Hagg Treasure

Gabe Boyers

If you’ve ever roamed the aisles of top-shelf antiquarian book and ephemera fairs, you no doubt have encountered a compelling booth under the name Schubertiade Music & Arts, specializing in rare books, manuscripts, art, design and music-related ephemera, owned and managed by Gabe Boyers, one of America’s most widely recognized and respected dealers of rare books. In addition to being a professional violinist, he was past president of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association and is a USPAP-certi ed professional appraiser and active member the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. He opened and ran an art gallery, Kabinett, in Boston’s South End from 2017 to 2020 and his latest venture, “B” Dry Goods, recently opened in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y. Antiques and e Arts Weekly asked Boyers to catch us up on these and other activities.

I understand that there’s a multigenerational family connection to your “B” Dry Goods venture. Can you explain this, please? Where did the gallery name come from?

e name and location trace back to the Crown Heights business owned and operated by my great-grandfather Meyer Bussell (“B”) at the corner of nearby St John’s Place and Troy Avenue. Upon completion of his rabbinical training, “B” immigrated around 1910 from the village of Snov in the Ukraine, his family pooling their meager resources to send him to New York with the understanding that he would do what was necessary to bring each of his eight brothers and sisters over, one at a time, and that is exactly what he did over the following years. He opened his modest department store in 1920 and worked there most days, selling dry goods, from stationery to pantyhose, until his death in 1969. Likewise, my grandfather worked in the store until it closed that year, as did my father until going o to Queens College. e opening of “B” Dry Goods on Franklin Avenue thus represents the 4th generation of the family operating in the neighborhood.

What does the business o er?

I refer to “B” Dry Goods as a “multidisciplinary gallery.” When I rst began Schubertiade Music & Arts, I was strictly focused on materials — manuscripts and published books or scores — related to music and dance. at quickly expanded to include all of the performing arts, adding theatre and lm, and then the literary arts and even some historical autograph

material. I’m a handwriting specialist and so I’m interested in anything with writing on it, basically, but I’ve really carved out a special focus on the performing and visual arts above all else. I’ve always been invested in materials with a strong visual or graphic impact, and that led me to increasingly also be dealing in art, mostly works on paper at rst,

but then paintings and sculpture and some design as well. I’ve found that my clients are, broadly speaking, people who are interested in beautiful and interesting things and that they are willing to join me across category boundaries, so long as the guiding aesthetic or principle is consistent. e gallery in Crown Heights de nitely “reads” like an art gallery when you walk in, but the exhibits of art and design generally will also include both books and manuscript and ephemera of various kinds, and the rear section of the gallery is given over largely to rare books and display cases.

What was the organizing principle behind your Kabinett gallery in Boston?

e rst iteration of Kabinett was more a standard contemporary art gallery. We moved into a larger space after the rst year and while we were still featuring contemporary art, we were certainly starting to move in the direction of the eclecticism of “B” Dry Goods.

In addition to your gallery activities, you’re also a poet and writer whose work has appeared in e Paris Review, among other outlets. How did you get into poetry?

I do write poetry still but haven’t published anything in a long while. I come from a family of writers — my mother is the poet Peg Boyers and my father is a critic — and they founded and run the literary magazine Salmagundi

( continued on page 8 )

MARCH 22 , 202 3

Another Rare “Philosopher’s Stone” Going Up for Sale

To be fair, using the determiner “another” to describe a rare item does feel a bit incongruous, but such is the reality since quarantine. At least, that is one explanation offered by Sunday Steinkirchner of B&B Rare Books, who asserts that the pandemic was when a lot of people first discovered auctions. “That’s part of what’s really driven the market for modern books,” concluded the antiquarian book dealer. And for our purposes, that is what has also put “another” rare copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on the market.

https://www.mugglenet.com/2023/03/another-rare-philosophers-stone-going-up-for-sale/

The book in question is a first edition being sold by a private collector who acquired the copy at a 2017 Sotheby’s auction for £85,000 ($104,000). Having more recently picked up another copy, they decided to take advantage of the current market to sell this one. By all accounts, the collector has reason to be hopeful the copy sells for a good price. “The trifecta of what makes something rare is that there’s a small print run, it’s still very popular in pop culture, and people just always want and need it,” stated Steinkirchner, who explained that the book checks off all three of these categories. Steinkirchner is selling the first edition on behalf of the original collector for the healthy price of $225,000.

It’s also worth noting that, while such a price may seem steep, a comparable edition sold in 2021 for a record $471,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas. That particular lot opened at just $80,000, and a bidding war quickly ensued. Whether this latest edition to hit the market will similarly inspire the ardor of more than one buyer remains to be seen.

The first-edition hardcover will be available for purchase at this year’s New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, which takes place from April 27 to 30. The event, which is in its 63rd year, will be held at Park Avenue Armory. The fair’s website boasts that this year it will offer over 180 exhibitors from a whopping 17 countries. Tickets to attend the event are on sale now.

https://www.mugglenet.com/2023/03/another-rare-philosophers-stone-going-up-for-sale/

MARCH 2 1 , 202 3

Q&A: Gabe Boyers

If you’ve ever roamed the aisles of top-shelf antiquarian book and ephemera fairs, you no doubt have encountered a compelling booth under the name Schubertiade Music & Arts, specializing in rare books, manuscripts, art, design and music-related ephemera, owned and managed by Gabe Boyers, one of America’s most widely recognized and

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/qa-gabe-boyers/

respected dealers of rare books. In addition to being a professional violinist, he was past president of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association and is a USPAP-certified professional appraiser and active member the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. He opened and ran an art gallery, Kabinett, in Boston’s South End from 2017 to 2020 and his latest venture, “B” Dry Goods, recently opened in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y. Antiques and The Arts Weekly asked Boyers to catch us up on these and other activities.

I understand that there’s a multi - generational family connection to your “B” Dry Goods venture. Can you explain this, please? Where did the gallery name come from?

The name and location trace back to the Crown Heights business owned and operated by my great-grandfather Meyer Bussell (“B”) at the corner of nearby St John’s Place and Troy Avenue. Upon completion of his rabbinical training, “B” immigrated around 1910 from the village of Snov in the Ukraine, his family pooling their meager resources to send him to New York with the understanding that he would do what was necessary to bring each of his eight brothers and sisters over, one at a time, and that is exactly what he did over the following years. He opened his modest department store in 1920 and worked there most days, selling dry goods, from stationery to pantyhose, until his death in 1969. Likewise, my grandfather worked in the store until it closed that year, as did my father until going off to Queens College. The opening of “B” Dry Goods on Franklin Avenue thus represents the 4th generation of the family operating in the neighborhood.

What does the business off er?

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/qa-gabe-boyers/

I refer to “B” Dry Goods as a “multidisciplinary gallery.” When I first began Schubertiade Music & Arts, I was strictly focused on materials manuscripts and published books or scores related to music and dance. That quickly expanded to include all of the performing arts, adding theatre and film, and then the literary arts and even some historical autograph material. I’m a handwriting specialist and so I’m interested in anything with writing on it, basically, but I’ve really carved out a special focus on the performing and visual arts above all else. I’ve always been invested in materials with a strong visual or graphic impact, and that led me to increasingly also be dealing in art, mostly works on paper at first, but then paintings and sculpture and some design as well. I’ve found that my clients are, broadly speaking, people who are interested in beautiful and interesting things and that they are willing to join me across category boundaries, so long as the guiding aesthetic or principle is consistent. The gallery in Crown Heights definitely “reads” like an art gallery when you walk in, but the exhibits of art and design generally will also include both books and manuscript and ephemera of various kinds, and the rear section of the gallery is given over largely to rare books and display cases.

What was the organizing principle behind your Kabinett gallery in Boston?

The first iteration of Kabinett was more a standard contemporary art gallery. We moved into a larger space after the first year and while we were still featuring contemporary art, we were certainly starting to move in the direction of the eclecticism of “B” Dry Goods.

In addition to your gallery activities, you’re also a poet and writer whose work has appeared in The Paris Review, among other outlets. How did you get into poetry?

I do write poetry still but haven’t published anything in a long while. I come from a family of writers my mother is the poet Peg Boyers and my father is a critic and they founded and run the literary magazine Salmagundi.

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/qa-gabe-boyers/

And just to add another talent onto the pile, tell us about your role as an active professional violinist who performs with many of New England’s leading ensembles.

I’m very blessed to have been able to maintain a life in music while doing all of this fun stuff with rare books and art. It’s a juggling act, to be sure! I play regularly with a number of ensembles, most often with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Odyssey Opera Company, RI Philharmonic, Cantata Singers and Emanuel Music in Boston.

What kinds of challenges and opportunities present themselves when specializing in such esoteric collecting categories as rare books and manuscripts, antique mu sical scores and the like?

As I’m sure is the case for most dealers, I think the primary challenges run in two directions: on the one side, sourcing and researching fresh materials; on the other side, finding buyers for it!

What is the most valuable musi c - related rarity you’ve handled?

A number of years ago, we sold an important archive of original jazz manuscripts, many for works performed and/or recorded by the Count Basie Orchestra, 1940s-50s, which included 77 song manuscripts in many hands, including a number of original Duke Ellington manuscripts. That was one of the more extraordinary collections I’ve worked on. At the moment, we are offering original musical manuscript sketch leaves by Mozart and Beethoven, including some of his first thoughts about a 9th Symphony. That said, it’s always been important to me to serve a broad clientele, and all of our catalogs and shows have materials accessible to even the most modest of collector budgets.

Emerging from the homebound period of the pandemic, quirky and exuberant works celebrate the quotidian and, through the artist’s vision, just as an innovative designer can do with a chair or table, transform what is familiar into a vision both magical and extraordinary.

It would seem that you come from a family of artists. How do those genes map out?

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/qa-gabe-boyers/

I’ve spoken above about the literary activities of my parents. My eldest brother, Lowell Boyers, is a very fine painter whose work I have exhibited in Boston and will feature at “B” Dry Goods in November. And the middle brother, remarkable in his chosen path outside of art, has always been an enthusiastic supporter of us both. I don’t know how much it’s about genes, per se, but certainly we grew up in a home that was always a place for writers and artists to gather. It was definitely in the air!

Can you give us a sense of the layout at “B” Dry Goods, its opening hours and upcoming exhibitions?

The gallery is open noon to 6 pm, Thursday-Sunday and by appointment. Our show “Fully Furnished,” which opened March 10, focuses on recent paintings and drawings by New York-based contemporary artist Jeannie Weissglass, in conversation with important works of furniture and collectible design with unusual and notable provenance. This show brings more than 60 pieces to the spotlight, including Weissglass’ newest body of work, a series of paintings and drawings where antique tables, sofas, chairs and wash basin stands twirl through richly colored landscapes. Some of the show’s other highlights, displayed in conversation with Weissglass’ pieces, include an original bamboo and wicker chair used on the iconic Rick’s Café set in the film Casablanca, tables and chairs from the collections of Wallace Stevens, Igor Stravinsky, Ringo Starr, Andy Warhol, Rudolf Nureyev and the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Visitors may expect to see a wooden candelabra sconce designed by Jean Cocteau for Igor Stravinsky, a door handle designed by Fernand Leger, drawings by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr, Hans Wegner and Jean-Charles Delafosse and original pieces designed by Jean Prouvé, John Baldessari, Giancarlo Piretti, Maison Dominique, Alessandro Mendini, Georges Jouve, Tony Duquette and others.

In May, we’ll have a small exhibition “Picasso/Matisse: Souvenirs,” including prints and drawings and ephemera. And in the summer, we will be having a show “Identities,” of art exploring gender and in particular, focusing on a body of work by artist Violet Isabelle Frances, tracing her own path of transition and evolution of her gender identity.

Do you plan to participate in any of the international fairs that come to New York City?

We will be exhibiting next at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory in April. At the moment, we are mostly trying to cultivate local relationships around the new space in Brooklyn so we don’t have any art fairs on the docket.

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/qa-gabe-boyers/

NYC events in April 2023

The best NYC events in April include much-needed outdoor activities, new exhibits, impressive theater and pretty flower shows.

Spring has sprung! Some of the best events in NYC are set to bloom in April 2023. Aside from celebrating major holidays like Easter in New York, you'll be able to take in the gorgeous blooms at the dazzling Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. Speaking of buds, take advantage of checking out the best NYC parks, while all the flowers and trees are starting to bloom. And there’s even more greenery fun for outdoorsy folks Earth Day, of course.

Featured events in April 2023

15. Geek out over literary gems at the Antiquarian Book Fair

Now in its 63rd year, this festival for book collectors convenes at Park Avenue Armory for a full weekend of first editions, maps, manuscripts and other treasures from literary epochs past from nearly 200 exhibitors. It's considered the world's finest antiquarian book fair.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/events-calendar/april-events-calendar

Exhibitors this year hail from around the world including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more.

Prices for the items range from $50 to millions. You can buy tickets for just one day or for the whole show, which runs from April 27-30.

Read more Buy ticket

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/events-calendar/april-events-calendar

MARCH 2 4 , 202 3

ABAA 63rd Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

By Staff Writer

Thursday, April 27th, 2023 - Sunday, April 30th, 2023

MID - ATLANTIC

BOOK FAIRS

The Armory’s 55,000 square foot drill hall, reminiscent of the original Grand Central Depot and the great train sheds of Europe, remains one of the largest unobstructed spaces of its kind in New York. A marvel of engineering in its time, it was designed by Regiment veteran and architect Charles W. Clinton, later a partner of Clinton & Russell, architects of the Apthorp Apartments and the famed, now demolished, Astor Hotel.

Fri, April 28th 12pm - 8pm

Sat, April 29th 12pm - 7pm

Sun, April 30th 12pm - 5pm

PREVIEW

Thu, April 27th 5pm - 8pm

Single Day $32

Run of Show $62

Students (at door only, with valid ID) $10 Kids 16 & under FREE

Park Avenue Armory 643 Park Avenue (between 66/67 Streets)

New York, NY

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/events/abaa-63rd-annual-new-york-international-antiquarianbook-fair-2023-04-27

https://www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com/

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/events/abaa-63rd-annual-new-york-international-antiquarianbook-fair-2023-04-27

Pom Harrington was weaned on books. His father, Peter Harrington, launched the family’s first literary enterprise with a humble stall in London’s Chelsea Antiques Market back in 1969. Three decades later, the younger Harrington carried on the family tradition by founding the first Peter Harrington rare book store in Chelsea, then another in Mayfair. What began as a modest family affair has burgeoned into one of the largest rare book and antiquarian retailers in the U.K. and all of Europe.

As a collector, Pom Harrington has a natural affinity for the world of books, particularly the illustrated kind. He’s especially fond of renowned illustrator Quentin Blake, whose playful art graces the pages of the beloved children’s books of Roald Dahl. Blake also created the illustration for the frontispiece of a Beatrix Potter book that Harrington recently acquired from a charity auction.

Harrington’s passion for books has also spawned an interest in art. His art collection boasts works by such luminaries as Arthur Gordon, Glenn Brown, Michael Chandler, and South African artist Natalie Poole. Among his treasures is a David Hockney print from the 1970s.

Ever the bibliophile, Harrington regularly hits the road with his bookish finds. In April, he’ll showcase his latest discoveries at New York’s Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. Along with original illustrations from classic children’s books by E.H. Shepard, Kay Nielsen, and Arthur Rackham, he plans to exhibit two handmade cards by Abstract Expressionist Ad Reinhardt during his student days in the 1930s, as well as a limited-edition book of poetry by French-Mexican Surrealist Alice Rahon. Illustrated by the celebrated Spanish artist Joan Miró, the book was inscribed to Peggy Guggenheim, who supported Rahon’s early forays into painting.

We caught up with Pom Harrington for a read of his art collection.

What was your first purchase?

The first painting I bought was an oil on canvas by Arthur Gordon, an English artist known for his river scenes, and I paid £2,700 ($3,300). The painting is called Putney Bridge with St. Mary’s Church (1894), which is close to where I live. It depicts the new Putney Bridge, which was built in the 1880s and replaced an earlier bridge that connected the two riverbanks between Fulham and Putney. I also have a Whistler etching of Old Putney Bridge, made just before it was taken down, and they both currently hang in my home.

https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/what-makes-the-property-brokering-painting-hoovering-art-king-oftribeca-so-unusual-hes-a-genuinely-good-guy-2275341/amp-page

What was your most recent purchase?

I have a collection of prints from Quentin Blake’s “Anthology of Readers” series currently hanging in my stairwell. The original pen, ink, and watercolor drawings from which these limited-edition prints were made focus on people enjoying the act of reading books. Blake is the illustrator synonymous with books written by Roald Dahl I personally collect inscribed first editions of Dahl and I guess that aspect, as well as the subject matter and quirky poses and postures appealed to me.

https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/what-makes-the-property-brokering-painting-hoovering-art-king-of-

tribeca-so-unusual-hes-a-genuinely-good-guy-2275341/amp-page

Which works or artists are you hoping to add to your collection this year?

I would like a Picasso. I have always liked the linocuts they are very distinctively and identifiably in his style and signed linocuts maintain their collectibility. They are also still relatively rare within his repertoire, while being much more achievable in terms of affordability. I have always liked them.

What is the most expensive work of art you own?

I believe it is an unused original illustration from The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl, which was the first book that Dahl collaborated on with Quentin Blake as the illustrator. This proved to be a hugely successful collaboration that played a big role in the popularity of the books. Dahl and Blake’s relationship mirrored that of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard [of the Winnie-the-Pooh book series] in terms of making his books household names. Most of the original artwork by Blake for Dahl is very difficult to get hold of, locked away in private and museum collections. But this piece which was an unused variation of the opening illustration of the book came up for auction and really appealed to me. I think I paid just over £13,000 ($15,900). I stuck my hand up until I walked away with it.

https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/what-makes-the-property-brokering-painting-hoovering-art-king-of-

tribeca-so-unusual-hes-a-genuinely-good-guy-2275341/amp-page

Where do you buy art most frequently?

I buy art as I see it mainly at auction but sometimes privately. I sometimes tend to pick stuff up at book fairs if a piece catches my eye. I do like art with a local connection such as the Putney Bridge pieces mentioned earlier, but my taste also veers toward the eclectic.

I have a print by the South African artist Michael Chandler called My True Love. The artist describes it as a bit of a love letter to Cape Town, which is where I happen to own a second home with my partner and spend a fair amount of time. The artist often personalizes the piece with details that are meaningful to the buyer, and my print has an illustration of my family at the top of Table Mountain.

https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/what-makes-the-property-brokering-painting-hoovering-art-king-of-

tribeca-so-unusual-hes-a-genuinely-good-guy-2275341/amp-page

Is there a work you regret purchasing?

I bought a large canvas of Mickey Mouse executed by Disney artists for a Disney company director sometime in the 1990s. I was instinctively drawn to it, but I have to admit, what looked amazing in California somehow didn’t look quite right when it came back to my Victorian house in London! I stuck it in the window at the store and someone bought it, so that worked out in the end.

What work do you have hanging above your sofa?

I have a triplicate of prints by Glenn Brown from the series “Half-Life” (after Rembrandt) hanging above my sofa. They are very modernist and Brown is known for reinterpreting works by historical artists in this case Old Master etchings of faces, restyled in a very contemporary manner. I think they are very striking and very cleverly done.

https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/what-makes-the-property-brokering-painting-hoovering-art-king-of-

tribeca-so-unusual-hes-a-genuinely-good-guy-2275341/amp-page

GlennBrown,fromhis“Half-Life”(afterRembrandt)series.CourtesyofPomHarrington.

What is the most impractical work of art you own?

I bought an interesting piece screened in concrete from South African artist Natalie Poole. The medium is scored and then painted on. It weighs a ton and is difficult to move around. It took a while to figure out how I could hang it but there it is!

https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/what-makes-the-property-brokering-painting-hoovering-art-king-of-

tribeca-so-unusual-hes-a-genuinely-good-guy-2275341/amp-page

What work do you wish you had bought when you had the chance?

I would have loved to own a L. S. Lowry. They are of a certain age and I’m still chasing one. Around 20–25 years ago they were still in the realm of the tens of thousands, but I guess the moment has now passed.

If you could steal one work of art without getting caught, what would it be?

It would be one of the Klimts at the Belvedere in Vienna. I think they are just stunning.

https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/what-makes-the-property-brokering-painting-hoovering-art-king-of-

tribeca-so-unusual-hes-a-genuinely-good-guy-2275341/amp-page

ARTEvents

In

MARCH 2 5 , 202 3

April Bring Easter, Spring and Flowers Galore.

His art collection encompasses rare book illustrations, works on paper, and limited-edition prints.

Join the Judy Garland and Fred Astaire tradition with the Easter Bonnet Parade on Fifth Avenue. There is also the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden or right at home the flower show at Macy’s. On select Fridays every month, you can enjoy Free Admission to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum between 5 pm and 9 pm.

https://t2conline.com/events-in-april-bring-easter-spring-and-flowers-galore/

Until 4/9: Macy’s Flower Show . The show includes beautiful, bright floral arrangements, special events including live music, and kids’ activities.

until 4/23: This is The Orchid Show‘ s 20th year. Reconnect with nature while experiencing the picture-perfect beauty of the orchids. On select nights, adults can experience the exhibition through Orchid Nights, with music, cash bars, and food available for purchase.

4/1-30: Sakura Matsuri Ch erry Blossom Festival . The festival, hosted by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, celebrates Japanese culture and the arrival of spring. It features a variety of cultural performances and activities, as well as a small flea market, tea ceremonies, and crafts. The highlight is the magnificent display of cherry blossom trees, with over 200 trees in full bloom. Visitors can admire the pink and white blooms and enjoy a traditional Japanese atmosphere. Tickets are usually around $40 for adults, though seniors and students get a reduced rate of $35.

4/7-16th: The New York International Auto Show . The first new york Auto Show took place in 1900, for over 120 years now they have been sharing what’s new and interesting in the auto industry.

4/9: The Easter Parade starts near St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 10am. The tradition dates back to the 1870s, where elaborate bonnets and fashion galore is full frontal.

4/9: “Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time,” comes to MoMA.

4/15: The Tartan Day Parade is an NYC tradition that offers attendees a unique way to celebrate and honor Scottish culture. For the 25th year, there will be bagpipes, dancers, and even Scottish dogs marching in the parade. Attendance is free and open to the public. In addition to the parade, expect a whole week of Scottishthemed events and festivities.

4/15: Pillow Fight in the Park at Washington Square Park.

4/15: The New York Restoration Project is giving out 3,500 free trees to New Yorkers across all five boroughs. To get one of the 3,500 free trees that will be given away, register in advance on this website, where you’ll also get to browse through the current list of distribution dates, times and locations.

4/15 and 29: f the likes of udon, yakitori, ramen, and taiyaki make your mouth water, then mark your calendar for Japan Fes in Chelsea . The event will be held from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and is considered a paradise for Japanese foodies and cultural enthusiasts.

4/16: Holi in The City demands food, music, dance, and fun while embracing people and organizations from all ethnic and religious backgrounds.

4/22: Earth Day celebrated in NYC with a festive, family-friendly outdoor fair in Union Square. There will be dozens of exhibitors, interactive displays, a green-vehicle show, family activities, music, and entertainment. 126pm.

https://t2conline.com/events-in-april-bring-easter-spring-and-flowers-galore/

4/27: Attend The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience

4/27- 30: Antiquarian Book Fa ir now in its 63rd year, this festival for book collectors at Park Avenue Armory for a full weekend of first editions, maps, manuscripts and other treasures from literary epochs past from nearly 200 exhibitors.

https://t2conline.com/events-in-april-bring-easter-spring-and-flowers-galore/

MARCH 2 2 , 202 3

Antiquarian Book Fair

Buy ticket

Time Out says

Now in its 63rd year, this festival for book collectors convenes at Park Avenue Armory for a full weekend of first editions, maps, manuscripts and other treasures from literary epochs past from nearly 200 exhibitors. It's considered the world's finest antiquarian book fair.

Exhibitors this year hail from around the world including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more.

Prices for the items range from $50 to millions. You can buy tickets for just one day or for the whole show, which runs from April 27-30.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/antiquarian-book-fair

MARCH 2 2 , 202 3

Peter Harrington to Sell Rare Shakespeare Folio s

for $10.5m

Pom Harrington and Adam Douglas share the story behind the landmark offering.

London rare bookseller Peter HarringtonhasannouncedalandmarkofferingofcopiesofeachShakespeare'sfourFolios/©Peter Harrington

https://elitetraveler.com/design-culture/peter-harrington-shakespeare-folios-for-sale

Tucked away on a quiet street in the heart of Mayfair, Peter Harrington is the type of bookshop that transports you back to another time. Mahogany shelves line the walls; the most precious leather-bound volumes encased behind glass. But the real treasures are downstairs. I have come to see copies of Shakespeare’s four Folios and a first collected edition of his poems from the 17th century – among the most important printed works in literary history.

The landmark offering is set to go on sale for a cool $10.5m. It’s the first time in over two decades that all five volumes are available to buy together (although each can be bought individually), and the first time in living memory they are being sold by a bookseller instead of an auction house.

This evening, owner of the London bookstore, Pom Harrington, and senior specialist, Adam Douglas, are hosting an exclusive event with a handful of distinguished collectors before exhibiting the folios at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair at the end of April. The sale, they tell me, is strictly first come first serve: “The gun goes off now.”

Remarkably, when I’m ushered downstairs to see the folios there is no glass case. In fact, Douglas isn’t even wearing gloves. Catching my nervous glance, he assures me the 400-year-old works are safe to be handled. “Clean, dry hands are all you need to turn the pages,” he says with a grin. “With white gloves you actually run the risk of tearing the paper – you need to be able to feel it.”

The excitement from Harrington and Douglas is palpable; it’s a sale that has been a long time coming. With the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio fast approaching, they were eager to do something special to mark the occasion.

And so they embarked on a quest to gather all four folios to bring together for a landmark sale. As you would expect, this wasn’t easy. The star of the show is the First Folio priced at an eye-watering $7.5m. Compiled in 1623 – seven years after Shakespeare’s death – by two of his friends and fellow actors, it brings together 36 of his plays, half of which had not been published before and might otherwise have been lost.

https://elitetraveler.com/design-culture/peter-harrington-shakespeare-folios-for-sale

“They never would have seen the light of day and Shakespeare wouldn’t be the playwright he is now recognized to be if it weren’t for this,” says Harrrington, carefully removing the First Folio from its case.

Save for a few tiny marks left by early readers, it’s in astonishing condition. “There’s a lovely crackle to the leaves still,” smiles Douglas, leafing through the pages before stopping at Macbeth. It’s something the senior specialist has had his eye on for many years.

This particular copy was bought by Lord Hesketh at a London bookseller in 1950 for £5,000 – a huge sum of money at the time. It was purchased in 2010 by its current owner – details of whom remain secret – and held onto for over a decade before Harrington finally managed to persuade them to sell it.

What sets it apart? “In terms of copies circulating in this condition, there are very, very few,” explains Douglas. “This is arguably the nicest example of the First Folio come to market.”

While around 750 copies are thought to have been printed, just 232 are known to exist worldwide, with 27 in private hands and only 14 in the UK. “Probably half of those are still sitting in the country castles they were originally put in,” says Douglas.

The First Folio on sale at Peter Harrington has not been washed – a common practice in the 19th century which flattens the paper – and has a late seventeenth or early 18th-century English calf binding with crisp, clean pages. “In the world of book collecting you want to have it as close to the original condition as it was born in,” says Harrington. “This represents that very nicely.”

https://elitetraveler.com/design-culture/peter-harrington-shakespeare-folios-for-sale

Harrington also managed to track down an elusive first issue of Shakespeare’s Third Folio

the rarest of all four folios, probably because many copies were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. This particular copy

one of only three to remain in private hands – is on sale for $1.5m.

The First and Third Folio are on offer alongside the Second Folio (priced at $550,000), the Fourth Folio (costing $225,000) and an extremely rare first collected edition of Shakespeare’s Poems which brings together all but eight of the sonnets – on sale for $750,000.

Together, says Harrington, they represent an “incredibly important object of British history – it’s a trophy piece as much as anything else.”

Does he feel protective about the precious volumes finding a good home? “I’ve got a few ideas of where I would like them to go,” he tells me. “[The First Folio] is well represented in libraries so I don’t feel like the public have been denied an opportunity to see it; I think it’s legitimate to go to a collector.”

https://elitetraveler.com/design-culture/peter-harrington-shakespeare-folios-for-sale

And, while he concedes “there aren’t too many people in the world who can literally write a check” for millions of dollars at the drop of a hat, he is confident they will find a buyer within the next few weeks.

As he starts to slip the First Folio back into its case, I ask whether he worries about a thief getting their hands on the prized volumes. We are, after all, sitting in a room with works about to be sold for over $10m.

“Tom Cruise could do it,” chuckles Harrington. “But to be honest if somebody broke in, they’d probably take the Harry Potter.”

peterharrington.co.uk

https://elitetraveler.com/design-culture/peter-harrington-shakespeare-folios-for-sale

MARCH 2 9 , 202 3

A Collection of Rare Shakespeare Folios Is on Sale for $10.5 Million

Just in time for the 400-year anniversary of the first printing of his (nearly) complete works.

A collection of five very rare editions of William Shakespeare’s works will be offered as a group at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (April 27-30) with an overall asking price of $10.5 million.

The collection includes each of Shakespeare’s four folios, along with a first edition of his collected poems. “The 400-year anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio being produced and printed has been coming at us for a few years, and I’ve been trying to work out a way of how to do it,” says Pom Harrington, the owner of the rare book dealer Peter Harrington in London, which is selling the group. “The Four Folios establish Shakespeare as being the king of literature.” Before coming to New York, the books will be on public view in Harrington’s Mayfair store.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-29/incredibly-rare-shakespeare-folios-are-on-salefor-10-5-million#xj4y7vzkg

The First Folio

The books are offered as a package but also can be sold individually.

Most expensive and most important is the First Folio, a compilation of 36 out of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, which was published in 1623, seven years after the bard’s death. The First Folio is prized as a record of 18 plays that otherwise might have been lost forever: It’s thought that none of Shakespeare’s original manuscripts have survived, and only 17 of his plays were printed during his lifetime (one was printed after his death), meaning that without the First Folio, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and The Tempest might have been lost forever, according to the British Library.

Harrington’s First Folio first came onto the public market in about 1950 and was owned by Frederick FermorHesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh. Trustees of his will sold it decades after his death; it was acquired by its current owner 13 years ago, according to Harrington. “We presume it was sitting in an old country house,” Harrington says, noting that it lacks four of the eight preliminary leaves. “Every copy varies,” says Harrington. “They’ve all got misprints, and the vast majority have something missing.”

The standalone price of Harrington’s First Folio is $7.5 million.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-29/incredibly-rare-shakespeare-folios-are-on-salefor-10-5-million#xj4y7vzkg

Today, 232 copies of the First Folio are known to exist: A 2012 census cataloged every one. All but 27 of these copies, Harrington says, reside in institutional collections, meaning that their presence on the market is a relatively rare occurrence. In 2020, another copy of the First Folio came up at Christie’s with a high estimate of $6 million and sold for just under $10 million. In doing so, it set a world record for any work of literature at auction.

The Other Folios

After the commercial success of the First Folio, the Second Folio was published in 1632 and included, according to Harrington, some 1,700 changes to the first. “It was designed to be a copy of the First Folio, so it was reset,” he says. “This copy is complete, and it’s in a very similar binding, and that tends to be what most collectors at this range satisfy themselves with, because they either don’t have the opportunity to buy the First Folio, or it’s way out of their budget.” Harrington sold the work to its current, London-based owner 20 years ago; before that it was in the collection of a California collector. This copy is on sale for $550,000.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-29/incredibly-rare-shakespeare-folios-are-on-salefor-10-5-million#xj4y7vzkg

The Third Folio, priced at $1.5 million, “is actually the rarest of them all,” Harrington says. It was initially published in 1663, “and only 27 extant copies are known, of which only three are held privately,” he explains. For years, it was in the possession of the noted bibliophile Mary Hyde Eccles, who died in 2003; its current owner acquired it in 2004. And the Fourth Folio, published in 1685, was the last of the 17th-century Shakespeare editions and “is comparatively easy to get,” Harrington says. As such, it’s priced at a relatively modest $225,000. It’s been in Harrington’s own collection for more than a year; before that, he says, “it went from bookseller to bookseller, with a nice north of England provenance.”

The copy of the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s Poems is also extremely rare, according to Harrington, who says there are about 65 copies extant and only five in private hands. The binding, he says, seems to be contemporary to its printing. “This is the only edition of the poems published in the 17th century,” he says. “It’s got a very sweet provenance there’s an inscription from an Englishman in Rome in 1664. It was clearly in Italy for some centuries.” Eventually it made its way to London, where Harrington says an American collector bought it in 2006 and has held onto it ever since. This copy is on sale for $750,000.

The Market

All of the works are in very good condition, the product of “curation and good fortune,” Harrington says. By that, he continues, he had the choice of selling a few different examples of the folios and chose what he considered to be the best, hoping the owners would go along with it. “I approached the [folios’] owners and sweet-talked them into letting me play,” he says. “They seem to have enjoyed the process.”

The result, he concludes, is a triumph. “Normally, I’d be making all kinds of excuses about condition, but this time I don’t have to,” he says. “It’s great.”

Given Shakespeare’s worldwide fame, along with the folios’ condition, provenance and historic import, Harrington says that even though some or all of the folios could be acquired by a library (“there are no copies [of the First

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-29/incredibly-rare-shakespeare-folios-are-on-salefor-10-5-million#xj4y7vzkg

Folio] in the Middle East, and it’s only a matter of time before one of their libraries will want a copy”), he speculates that the group will end up with a private collector.

“This is a trophy piece,” he says. “And you mention it to old-school book collectors and they just go, ‘Oh, my God.’”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-29/incredibly-rare-shakespeare-folios-are-on-salefor-10-5-million#xj4y7vzkg

MARCH 29 , 202 3

A Rare Collection of Shakespeare Folios Is on Sale for

$10.5 Million

The 17th-century works will be accompanied by a first collected edition of Shakespeare’s Poems.

It’s been 400 years since William Shakespeare’s First Folio was published. To commemorate the anniversary, a group of his rare 17th-century editions is up for grabs.

The five impressive volumes which comprise four folios, plus a first edition of poems are being offered by Peter Harrington, a leading rare bookseller based in London. In the coming weeks, the esteemed works will head to the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair which runs from April 27 to 30. The folios and collected poems can be purchased individually, although, for $10.5 million, you can get the whole package.

https://robbreport.com/shelter/art-collectibles/rare-collection-four-shakespeare-folios-auction1234824279/

“We feel hugely privileged to be able to offer these landmark works for sale in the 400th anniversary year of the First Folio being published,” says Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington, in a press statement. “We cannot recall the last time in living memory that a bookseller offered all four folios and the poems for sale at the same time; the last time the works appeared as a collection was when it was offered by an auction house more than 20 years ago.”

Leading the sale at $7.5 million is the First Folio, which was published in 1623 by two of the Bard’s fellow actors. It’s considered to be one of the most important books in English literature, next to the King James Bible. The tome contains all but one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays; it’s also the first printed source for works including Macbeth and The Tempest. “The attraction of this copy is the early binding and the freshness of the contents,” Harrington explains. “There are a few marks left by early readers, but the French linen paper still has a wonderful crisp texture, unlike so many copies that were washed and pressed flat in the 19th century.”

https://robbreport.com/shelter/art-collectibles/rare-collection-four-shakespeare-folios-auction1234824279/

Also available is the Second Folio, priced at $550,000 and known for featuring the first published poem by John Milton, entitled My Shakespeare. According to Harrington, the Third Folio is the rarest of the volumes as the majority of copies were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1966. To date, there are only two other copies that remain in private hands. Naturally, it has a standalone price of $1.5 million. The Fourth Folio was published in 1685, the last of the 17th-century editions, and is listed at $225,000. “I’ve already been asked several times if we foresee a single collector buying them all,” adds Harrington. “The Four Folios have sold to a single buyer before, so I would not rule it out.”

https://robbreport.com/shelter/art-collectibles/rare-collection-four-shakespeare-folios-auction1234824279/

Considerably smaller in size but even rarer than the Folios are the Poems, on sale for $750,000. As it stands, there are a mere 64 copies in existence and only five in private hands. The volume contains all but eight of the playwright’s 154 sonnets, in addition to shorter compositions and an appendix of poems by Milton, Ben Johnson, Francis Beaumont, and Robert Herrick. “Together with the Poems, possessing any of the four Folios would be the greatest prize for any significant rare book collector,” says Harrington. “And owning them all is obviously a huge coup.”

https://robbreport.com/shelter/art-collectibles/rare-collection-four-shakespeare-folios-auction1234824279/

“

MARCH 29 , 202 3

Una colección de folios raros de Shakespeare está a la venta por US$10,5 millones

La colección incluye cada uno de los cuatro folios de Shakespeare, junto con una primera edición de sus poemas completes”

Una colección de cinco ediciones muy raras de las obras de William Shakespeare se ofrecerá en la Feria Internacional del Libro Anticuario de Nueva York (del 27 al 30 de abril) con un precio de venta total de $10,5 millones si se compran en grupo.

La colección incluye cada uno de los cuatro folios de Shakespeare, junto con una primera edición de sus poemas completos.

"El aniversario de 400 años de la producción e impresión del primer folio de Shakespeare nos ha estado llegando durante algunos años, y he estado tratando de encontrar una manera de hacerlo", dice Pom Harrington, propietario de la el comerciante de libros raros Peter Harrington en Londres, que está vendiendo el grupo. “Los Cuatro Folios establecen a Shakespeare como el rey de la literatura”. Antes de venir a Nueva York, los libros estarán a la vista en la tienda Mayfair de Harrington con cita privada.

El primer folio

https://www.larepublica.co/ocio/una-coleccion-de-folios-raros-de-shakespeare-esta-a-la-venta-por-us10-5-millones-3580463

Los libros se promocionan como un paquete, pero también se pueden vender individualmente.

ARTÍCULO RELACIONADO

La séptima edición de La Feria Internacional de Arte traerá 56 exposiciones artísticas

El más caro, y el más importante, es el First Folio, una compilación de 36 de las 37 obras de Shakespeare, que se publicó en 1623, siete años después de la muerte del bardo. El First Folio es apreciado como un registro de 18 obras que de otro modo podrían haberse perdido para siempre: se cree que ninguno de los manuscritos originales de Shakespeare ha sobrevivido, y solo 17 de sus obras se imprimieron durante su vida (una se imprimió después de su muerte), lo que significa que sin First Folio, Twelfth Night , Measure for Measure , Macbeth , Julius Caesar y The Tempest podrían haberse perdido para siempre, según la Biblioteca Británica.

El primer folio de Harrington salió por primera vez al mercado público alrededor de 1950 y era propiedad de Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, segundo barón de Hesketh. Los fideicomisarios de su testamento lo vendieron décadas después de su muerte; fue adquirida por su actual propietario hace 13 años, según Harrington. “Suponemos que estaba en una antigua casa de campo”, dice Harrington, señalando que le faltan cuatro de las ocho hojas preliminares. “Cada copia varía”, dice Harrington. “Todos tienen errores tipográficos y a la gran mayoría les falta algo”.

El precio independiente del First Folio de Harrington es de 7,5 millones de dólares.

Hoy en día, se sabe que existen 232 copias del Primer Folio: un censo de 2012 catalogó cada una. Todas menos 27 de estas copias, dice Harrington, residen en colecciones institucionales, lo que significa que su presencia en el mercado es un hecho relativamente raro. En 2020, apareció otra copia del First Folio en Christie's con una estimación alta de $ 6 millones y se vendió por poco menos de $ 10 millones. Al hacerlo, estableció un récord mundial para cualquier obra literaria en subasta.

Los otros folios Tras el éxito comercial del First Folio, el Second Folio se publicó en 1632 e incluía, según Harrington, unos 1.700 cambios al primero. “Fue diseñado para ser una copia del First Folio, por lo que se reinició”, dice. “Esta copia está completa y tiene una encuadernación muy similar, y eso suele ser lo que satisface a la mayoría de los coleccionistas de este rango, porque no tienen la oportunidad de comprar el First Folio o está fuera de sus posibilidades. presupuesto." Harrington vendió la obra a su propietario actual con sede en Londres hace 20 años; antes de eso estuvo en la colección de un coleccionista de California. Esta copia está a la venta por $550,000.

El Third Folio, con un precio de US$1,5 millones, "es en realidad el más raro de todos", dice Harrington. Se publicó inicialmente en 1663, “y solo se conocen 27 copias existentes, de las cuales solo tres se encuentran en manos privadas”, explica.

Durante años estuvo en posesión de la destacada bibliófila Mary Hyde Eccles, fallecida en 2003; su propietario actual lo adquirió en 2004. Y el Cuarto Folio, publicado en 1685, fue la última de las ediciones de Shakespeare del siglo XVII y “es comparativamente fácil de conseguir”, dice Harrington. Como tal, tiene un precio relativamente modesto de US$ 225,000. Ha estado en la propia colección de Harrington durante más de un año; antes de eso, dice, “pasaba de librero en librero, con una bonita procedencia del norte de Inglaterra”.

ARTÍCULO RELACIONAD O

Cartagena recibió por primera vez a los líderes de banca retail que hacen parte del Wsbi

La copia de la primera edición recopilada de los Poemas de Shakespeare también es extremadamente rara, según Harrington, quien dice que existen alrededor de 65 copias y solo cinco en manos privadas. La encuadernación, dice, parece ser contemporánea a su impresión. “Esta es la única edición de los poemas publicada en el siglo XVII”, dice.

"Tiene una procedencia muy dulce: hay una inscripción de un inglés en Roma en 1664. Es evidente que estuvo en Italia durante algunos siglos". Eventualmente llegó a Londres, donde Harrington dice que un coleccionista

https://www.larepublica.co/ocio/una-coleccion-de-folios-raros-de-shakespeare-esta-a-la-venta-por-us10-5-millones-3580463

estadounidense lo compró en 2006 y lo ha conservado desde entonces. Esta copia está a la venta por US$750,000.

El merca do Todas las obras están en muy buenas condiciones, producto de la "curación y buena fortuna", dice Harrington. Por eso, continúa, tenía la opción de vender algunos ejemplos diferentes de los folios y eligió lo que consideraba mejor, con la esperanza de que los propietarios lo aceptaran. “Me acerqué a los dueños, de los folios, y los engatusé para que me dejaran jugar”, dice. “Parecen haber disfrutado el proceso”.

ARTÍCULO RELACIONADO

Aparecen maniquíes desnudos y con diversos carteles de moda sostenible en Bogotá El resultado, concluye, es un triunfo. “Normalmente, estaría poniendo todo tipo de excusas sobre la condición, pero esta vez no tengo que hacerlo”, dice. "Es genial."

Dada la fama mundial de Shakespeare, junto con la condición, la procedencia y la importancia histórica de los folios, Harrington dice que aunque una biblioteca podría adquirir algunos o todos los folios ("no hay copias [del Primer Folio] en el Medio Oriente , y es solo cuestión de tiempo antes de que una de sus bibliotecas quiera una copia”), especula que el grupo terminará con un coleccionista privado.

“Esta es una pieza de trofeo”, dice. “Y se lo mencionas a los coleccionistas de libros de la vieja escuela y simplemente dicen: 'Oh, Dios mío'”.

https://www.larepublica.co/ocio/una-coleccion-de-folios-raros-de-shakespeare-esta-a-la-venta-por-us10-5-millones-3580463

MARCH 29 , 202 3

A collection of rare Shakespeare folios is on sale for $10.5 million

A collection of five very rare editions of William Shakespeare’s works will be offered as a group at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (April 27-30) with an overall asking price of $10.5 million.

The collection includes each of Shakespeare’s four folios, along with a first edition of his collected poems. “The 400-year anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio being produced and printed has been coming at us for a few years, and I’ve been trying to work out a way of how to do it,” says Pom Harrington, the owner of the rare book dealer Peter Harrington in London, which is selling the group. “The Four Folios establish Shakespeare as being the king of literature.” Before coming to New York, the books will be on public view in Harrington’s Mayfair store.

The books are offered as a package but also can be sold individually.

Most expensive - and most important - is the First Folio, a compilation of 36 out of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, which was published in 1623, seven years after the bard’s death. The First Folio is prized as a record of 18 plays that otherwise might have been lost forever: It’s thought that none of Shakespeare’s original manuscripts have survived, and only 17 of his plays were printed during his lifetime (one was printed after his death), meaning that without the First Folio, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and The Tempest might have been lost forever, according to the British Library.

Harrington’s First Folio first came onto the public market in about 1950 and was owned by Frederick FermorHesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh. Trustees of his will sold it decades after his death; it was acquired by its current owner 13 years ago, according to Harrington. “We presume it was sitting in an old country house,” Harrington says, noting that it lacks four of the eight preliminary leaves. “Every copy varies,” says Harrington. “They’ve all got misprints, and the vast majority have something missing.”

The stand-alone price of Harrington’s First Folio is $7.5 million.

Today, 232 copies of the First Folio are known to exist: A 2012 census catalogued every one. All but 27 of these copies, Harrington says, reside in institutional collections, meaning that their presence on the market is a relatively rare occurrence. In 2020, another copy of the First Folio came up at Christie’s with a high estimate of $6 million and sold for just under $10 million. In doing so, it set a world record for any work of literature at auction.

After the commercial success of the First Folio, the Second Folio was published in 1632 and included, according to Harrington, some 1,700 changes to the first. “It was designed to be a copy of the First Folio, so it was reset,” he says. “This copy is complete, and it’s in a very similar binding, and that tends to be what most collectors at this range satisfy themselves with, because they either don’t have the opportunity to buy the First Folio, or it’s way out of their budget.” Harrington sold the work to its current, London-based owner 20 years ago; before that it was in the collection of a California collector. This copy is on sale for $550,000.

The Third Folio, priced at $1.5 million, “is actually the rarest of them all,” Harrington says. It was initially published in 1663, “and only 27 extant copies are known, of which only three are held privately,” he explains. For years, it was

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/mar/29/a-collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-is-on-sale/

in the possession of the noted bibliophile Mary Hyde Eccles, who died in 2003; its current owner acquired it in 2004. And the Fourth Folio, published in 1685, was the last of the 17th-century Shakespeare editions and “is comparatively easy to get,” Harrington says. As such, it’s priced at a relatively modest $225,000. It’s been in Harrington’s own collection for more than a year; before that, he says, “it went from bookseller to bookseller, with a nice north of England provenance.”

The copy of the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s Poems is also extremely rare, according to Harrington, who says there are about 65 copies extant and only five in private hands. The binding, he says, seems to be contemporary to its printing. “This is the only edition of the poems published in the 17th century,” he says. “It’s got a very sweet provenance - there’s an inscription from an Englishman in Rome in 1664. It was clearly in Italy for some centuries.” Eventually it made its way to London, where Harrington says an American collector bought it in 2006 and has held onto it ever since. This copy is on sale for $750,000.

All of the works are in very good condition, the product of “curation and good fortune,” Harrington says. By that, he continues, he had the choice of selling a few different examples of the folios and chose what he considered to be the best, hoping the owners would go along with it. “I approached the [folios’] owners and sweet-talked them into letting me play,” he says. “They seem to have enjoyed the process.”

The result, he concludes, is a triumph. “Normally, I’d be making all kinds of excuses about condition, but this time I don’t have to,” he says. “It’s great.”

Given Shakespeare’s worldwide fame, along with the folios’ condition, provenance and historic import, Harrington says that even though some or all of the folios could be acquired by a library (“there are no copies [of the First Folio] in the Middle East, and it’s only a matter of time before one of their libraries will want a copy”), he speculates that the group will end up with a private collector.

“This is a trophy piece,” he says. “And you mention it to old-school book collectors and they just go, ‘Oh, my God.’”

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/mar/29/a-collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-is-on-sale/

APRIL 5 , 202 3

ABAA Connect Returns to New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

NEWYORKINTERNATIONALANTIQUARIANBOOKFAIR

The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) and the New York Public Library (NYPL) have announced that ABAA Connect will return for the second year in a row for its 63rd edition.

A program resurrected from the early 2000's, ABAA Connect allows the NYPL to request items at the fair from exhibitors, purchased for the institution by various donors.

The NYIABF will kick-off ABAA Connect by sharing a broad list of topics and items that the NYPL is seeking, offering exhibitors the chance to suggest items most suited to these subjects. Exhibitors may send descriptions of up to five items they would like to be considered, and these items will then be compiled in one Offer List. NYPL curators will browse the Offer List in advance of the fair and choose items they are interested in acquiring. Exhibitors will be notified if their items were selected, and these items become part of the Request List.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/abaa-connect-returns-new-york-internationalantiquarian-book-fair

By participating in the program, exhibitors agree to reserve these items for the NYPL curators and donors through the preview of the fair on April 27. NYPL curators will share the Request List with donors to solicit their participation in the program and invite them to attend the fair.

To ensure its success, NYPL is hosting a special event on April 17 where the curators will present and discuss their requested items with donors. During the Thursday Preview, curators and donors will receive complimentary admission when the fair opens. Items may be viewed and purchased directly from the exhibitors offering them during the opening preview. If any items are not purchased, exhibitors may offer them for sale to anyone after the close of the preview.

The NYIABF hopes this program will expose curators to exciting items, connect booksellers with NYPL curators, entice curators and donors to attend the fair and purchase items (for the NYPL and their personal collections), and inspire any fairgoer to become a donor.

ABAA Connect runs at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City April 27-30.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/abaa-connect-returns-new-york-internationalantiquarian-book-fair

APRIL 4 , 202 3

Rare collection of Shakespeare's work worth millions up for sale

Five rare editions of work from famed English playwright William Shakespeare will be on sale for more than $14.6 million at an upcoming book fair in New York.

Owned by rare book dealer Peter Harrington in London, the editions will be offered for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair from April 27 to 30.

They include the four folios of Shakespeare's plays, as well as a book of poems, all published in the 17th century and each individually priced.

Peter Harrington says this is the first time all five volumes have been up for sale at the same time in more than 20 years.

"It's the most desirable book in the English language," Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington, said in a video on the First Folio.

The sale comes on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio, published in 1623 by two of the playwright's close friends seven years after his death.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/rare-collection-of-shakespeare-s-work-worth-millions-up-for-sale-

1.6340638

The First Folio is credited for solidifying Shakespeare's influence on the English language, Peter Harrington says on its website.

The book contains 36 plays, half of which were never previously published, among them Henry VIII, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest.

An estimated 750 copies are believed to have been made in the original print run, of which 232 are still in existence as of 2012.

The copy of the First Folio up for sale is being sold for $10.4 million (£6.25 million).

A copy of Shakespeare's Second Folio, published in 1632, is for sale for $750,700 (£450,000).

The Third Folio published in 1663, considered the rarest of the four folios with only 29 copies of the first issue in existence three in private hands is listed at approximately $2.08 million (£1.25 million).

Shakespeare's Fourth Folio, the last of the 17th century editions of his work, published in 1685 and noted for its larger height, is for sale for approximately $309,000 ((£185,000).

The last book, the first collected edition of Shakespeare's poems published in 1640, is considered even rarer than the First Folio, Peter Harrington says, with 64 copies located along with one fragment, with only five complete versions held privately.

Despite being smaller, the book is priced at more than $1.04 million (£625,000).

https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/rare-collection-of-shakespeare-s-work-worth-millions-up-for-sale-

1.6340638

APRIL 3 , 202 3

Rare collection of Shakespeare's work worth millions up for sale

TheshadowofthehandofaSotheby'semployeeiscastovera17th-centurycalfbound1623copyoftheFirstFolioeditionofWilliam Shakespeare'splaysincentralLondon,onMarch30,2006.(APPhoto/MattDunham,File)

Five rare editions of work from famed English playwright William Shakespeare will be on sale for more than $14.6 million at an upcoming book fair in New York.

Owned by rare book dealer Peter Harrington in London, the editions will be offered for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair from April 27 to 30.

They include the four folios of Shakespeare's plays, as well as a book of poems, all published in the 17th century and each individually priced.

Peter Harrington says this is the first time all five volumes have been up for sale at the same time in more than 20 years.

"It's the most desirable book in the English language," Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington, said in a video on the First Folio.

https://www.iheartradio.ca/chom/rare-collection-of-shakespeare-s-work-worth-millions-up-for-sale1.19495575

The sale comes on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio, published in 1623 by two of the playwright's close friends seven years after his death.

The First Folio is credited for solidifying Shakespeare's influence on the English language, Peter Harrington says on its website.

The book contains 36 plays, half of which were never previously published, among them Henry VIII, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest.

An estimated 750 copies are believed to have been made in the original print run, of which 232 are still in existence as of 2012.

The copy of the First Folio up for sale is being sold for $10.4 million (£6.25 million).

A copy of Shakespeare's Second Folio, published in 1632, is for sale for $750,700 (£450,000).

The Third Folio published in 1663, considered the rarest of the four folios with only 29 copies of the first issue in existence three in private hands is listed at approximately $2.08 million (£1.25 million).

Shakespeare's Fourth Folio, the last of the 17th century editions of his work, published in 1685 and noted for its larger height, is for sale for approximately $309,000 ((£185,000).

The last book, the first collected edition of Shakespeare's poems published in 1640, is considered even rarer than the First Folio, Peter Harrington says, with 64 copies located along with one fragment, with only five complete versions held privately.

Despite being smaller, the book is priced at more than $1.04 million (£625,000).

https://www.iheartradio.ca/chom/rare-collection-of-shakespeare-s-work-worth-millions-up-for-sale1.19495575

Re:Imagining Musicals

Banks, Toys & Trains: Bertoia Welcomes Spring With $1.8 Million Auction

‘Vrel, Forerunner Of Vermeer’ Now On View At Mauritshuis

Hake’s $2.57 Million Auction Sells Collections, Prototypes & Rarities

Schoharie Spring Antiques Show Goes Back To School Strong Prices For Groundbreaking

ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair Returns

An illuminated manuscript on vellum by Alberto Sangorski, one of the early Twentieth Century’s most highly regarded illuminators, with 14 large miniatures depicting scenes of women and putti, views of Stratford-upon-Avon, and portraits of Shakespeare, executed in a color scheme of predominately rich purples, dark greens and blues, the borders frequently incorporating jewel shapes and hearts. Courtesy Peter Harrington Booksellers.

At Park Avenue Armory, April 27-30

NEW YORK CITY — The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF), officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) and produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith + Associates, returns to the Park Avenue Armory April 27-30 for its 63rd Edition.

The NYIABF is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy spring season. NYIABF will feature nearly 200 exhibitors this year from around the world. The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design and book enthusiasts and collectors, both seasoned and entry level. In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to mil-

lions.

This year, the fair welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries, including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. An impressive number of US exhibitors also highlight the wealth of material available stateside. Exhibitors will present rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, prints and print ephemera.

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual — to the bedrock of secular culture, finance, politics — the fair boasts offerings in every conceivable genre and subject.

Kimbell Art Museum Presents Conservation Panel Discussion

FORT WORTH, TEXAS —

The Kimbell Art Museum announces an art conservation panel discussion, “The Past, Present, and Future of Conservation at the Kimbell,” on Saturday, April 22, at 10 am. To mark the 50th anniversary of the museum, Kimbell conservators past and present will look back at memorable research and treatments, discuss the vital role of the conservation program within the museum and reflect on changes in the profession.

The program will begin with a welcome from Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum, and the panel will include Claire Barry, director of conservation emerita, Kimbell Art Museum; Michael Gallagher, Sherman Fairchild Chairman of the Department of Paintings Conservation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Elise Effmann Clifford, head of paintings conservation, the Fine Arts Museums

of San Francisco; Bart J.C. Devolder, chief conservator, Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; and Peter Van de Moortel, chief conservator, Kimbell Art Museum.

“The Kimbell has had a distinguished history in conservation, and many leading conservators have been associated with its department,” said Lee.

“The panel will be a reunion of sorts, with current and former Kimbell conservators looking at where the department and field of conservation has been, where it is now and where it is going.”

Admission is free and no reservations are not required, but seating is limited. The discussion will take place in the Pavilion Auditorium and be simulcast in the Kahn Auditorium.

The Kimbell Art Museum is at 3333 Camp Bowie Boulevard. For information, 817-3328451 or www.kimbellart.com.

Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. However, the fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming 11 new exhibitors this year, including Capitol Hill Books; Editio Altera; Kate Mitas, Bookseller; Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber; Langdon Manor Books; Librairie Paul Jammes; Librairie Pierre-Adrien YVINEC; Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera; Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller; Thorn Books; and W.C. Baker Rare Books and Ephemera.

In its 63rd Edition, NYIABF continues to endorse the finest tradition of material culled from American and international antiquarian booksellers.

In addition to 106 US booksellers, NYIABF enjoys strong international participation with booksellers hailing from the United Kingdom (30),

WANTED

Wedgwood

Bone china, partial sets OK, good condition only. Will pick up. Ellen (203) 284-9090 www.wedgwoodlady.com

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), autograph musical manuscript, including sketches of a Ninth Symphony. Courtesy Schubertiade Music & Arts.

France (17), Italy (4), Germany (4), Netherlands (5), Austria (5), Denmark (2), Spain (2), Switzerland (2), Argentina (1), Canada (1), Sweden (1), Belgium (1), Hungary (1), Japan (1) and Czech Republic (1). The list of exhibitors includes booksellers from three countries that will participate in the fair for the first time.

A full list of exhibitors may be found at www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com/dealers

Preview: $65 (includes one daily readmission); single-day admission: $32; students: $10 (with valid ID - at the door only); run of show: $62.

Discovery Day is Sunday,

April 30, 1 to 3 pm. A NYIABF tradition, Discovery Day offers ticketed visitors the opportunity to bring their own rare books, manuscripts, maps, etc. (up to five items) Exhibitors will be on hand to offer expert advice and free appraisals. Park Avenue Armory is at 643 Park Avenue. For information, www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com.

BATH ANTIQUE SALE

Sunday, April 16 • 10am-2pm

6 Old Brunswick Rd, Bath, ME

Admission $5 • Under 25 Free gurleyantiqueshows.com

(207) 396- 4255

•ALL BETTER ART, especially CONTEMPORARY ART: incl. any BASQUIAT, WARHOL, HURST, etc.

•ALL BETTER WATCHES incl. any ROLEX PATEK, VACHERON, etc.

• ALL SPORTS CARDS & MEMORALBIILIA

•ALL ANTIQUES, incl. SCULPTURES, FRENCH FURNITURE, BRONZES, ETC.

•ANY STAMP COLLECTIONS, COIN COLLECTIONS & DEALER STOCKS

•ANY BETTER LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS, especially EMILIO SANCHEZ, etc.

•ALL DESIGNER JEWELRY, especially SIGNED PIECES

•ALL GOLD & SILVER BULLION and FRANKLIN MINT ITEMS

•ANYTHING BY TIFFANY

•ALL STERLING SILVER & JUDAICA

•ALL ENTERTAINMENT MEMORABILIA

•ANY BETTER AUTOGRAPHS, LETTERS DOCUMENTS

•THE RARER AND MORE UNIQUE, THE BETTER!

NY

This March 9, 2023, photo provided by RR Auction shows a painting by American artist Oleg Jones of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was signed by Zelenskyy. The painting is being sold at auction, which will conclude April 12, 2023, and proceeds from the sale will be used to benefit the nation’s people suffering during its war with Russia (Nikki Brickett/RR Auction via AP).

Boston Auction Of Signed Zelenskyy Painting To Help Ukraine

BOSTON (AP) — An original painting of Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed by the Ukrainian president is being sold at auction and proceeds from the sale will be used to benefit the nation’s people suffering during its war with Russia.

Bidding on the 40-by-24-inch (101.5-by-61-centimeter) painting by American artist Oleg Jones starts at $50,000, and the goal is to sell it for at least $100,000, Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of auctioneer RR Auction in Boston, said Thursday, March 30.

The painting features an image of Zelenskyy against the

background of Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag. Several raised stars in the upper left of the piece form a heart around the gold trident from the nation’s coat of arms.

The acrylic paints are coated in resin sprinkled with glass dust, giving it a sparkling effect.

It is signed, in English, “Zelenskyy, Glory to Ukraine.” It’s also signed by the artist.

The auction, which concludes April 12, includes photos of the president signing it in his office.

The proceeds of the auction will benefit the Kyiv-based

Dmytro Kasyanenko International Charitable Foundation via U.S.-based The Power of A Dream Foundation and will be used for the purchase of medical equipment, tools and medicine for the Ukrainian people, RR Auction said.

“The need for funding these agencies is so great that Zelenskyy took the time to sign this painting amid the incredible stress his country is facing,” Livingston said.

A baseball signed by Zelenskyy sold at auction in May for $50,000, much of which went to provide humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

APRIL 7 , 202 3

Revered New York Int’l Antiquarian Book Fair returns April 27 - 30

GarthWilliams’original1952inkdrawingforthecoverdesignofthebook‘Charlotte’sWeb,’togetherwiththehand-coloredblueline design,signedatthebottomright.ItwillbeofferedatBattledoreNY,oneofalmost200exhibitorsattheNewYorkInternational AntiquarianBookFairinApril.CourtesyNewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookFair.

NEW YORK – The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from Thursday, April 27, through Sunday, April 30 for its 63rd edition.

The NYIABF is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy spring season. Universally referred to as the world’s finest antiquarian book fair, NYIABF is excited to include nearly 200 exhibitors this year from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair. This

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/treasures-beyond-measure-enliven-new-york-intlantiquarian-book-fair/

year, it welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

UrsusBooksLtd,anexhibitoratthe2023NewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookFair,willshowacollectionof18worksbyEl Pintor,thecollectivepennameforJacobKlootandAnnaGalinkaEhrenfest;theyworkedunderthisnameinthe1940stoobscurethe factthatKlootwasJewish.Shownisoneitemfromthecollection.ImagecourtesyoftheNewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBook Fair.

An impressive number of US exhibitors also highlight the incredible wealth of material available stateside. Exhibitors will present a vast treasure trove of items: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, prints and print ephemera.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/treasures-beyond-measure-enliven-new-york-intlantiquarian-book-fair/

Dr.JornGuntherRareBooks,anexhibitoratthe2023NewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookFair,willshowa1532Bookof Hours,inLatinandEnglishonvellum,illustratedbytheMasterofFrancoisdeRohan.ImagecourtesyoftheNewYorkInternational AntiquarianBookFair.

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy and children’s books. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual to the bedrock of secular culture, as well as finance and politics, to name a few, the fair boasts offerings in every conceivable genre and subject.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/treasures-beyond-measure-enliven-new-york-intlantiquarian-book-fair/

Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. However, the fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming 11 new exhibitors this year, including Capitol Hill Books; Editio Altera; Kate Mitas, Bookseller; Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber; Langdon Manor Books, LLC; Librairie Paul Jammes; Librairie Pierre-Adrien YVINEC; Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera; Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller; Thorn Books and W.C. Baker Rare Books and Ephemera.

A full list of exhibitors may be found at: https://www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com/dealers

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/treasures-beyond-measure-enliven-new-york-intlantiquarian-book-fair/

ThissignedautobiographyofBabeRuthwillcarrya$10,000pricetagatthe63rdannualAntiquarianBookFairinNewYork. COURTESYOFB&BRAREBOOKS

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschlossberg/2023/04/11/vintage-baseball-volumes-to-bring-highprices-at-rare-books-fair/?sh=44ff8a722a78

A Babe Ruth autobiography published in 1948 will bear a price tag of $10,000 at the Antiquarian Book Fair in New York later this month.

That’s because it carries the signatures of Ruth, former Yankees co-owner Dan Topping, plus pitcher Bob Porterfield, who spent 12 years with the team.

The hardcover Babe Ruth Story, was co-authored by Hearst reporter Bob Considine.

“It’s a very fair price for what it is,” said Sunday Steinkirchner, chair of the fair and co-owner of B& B Rare Books, which is bringing numerous baseball-related items to the show.

“The book belonged to Alfred Sloan, who went to a game in 1948 and got it signed and inscribed by Ruth. Since he died that August, it might have been one of the last items he actually signed or even touched.

“We are interested in the signature, the inscription, and the information. Had his signature been on an earlier book, it would be even more valuable.”

Steinkirchner, 41, buys and sells old books, including first editions of Pride and Prejudice, The Catcher in the Rye, and signed Ernest Hemingway novels.

If the Ruth book does not sell at the New York show, she and business partner Josh Mann will bring it to other fairs. They are doing at least three in the United Kingdom but also going to Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, for a one-day show June 24 at the Clark Sports Center.

“It should get a lot of attention there,” she said of the show, which is run by Willis Monie Books, a Main Street rare books shop that has scheduled author signings during Hall of Fame Induction Weekends every July.

“We have rare books, signed books, and first editions, but people come to Cooperstown for baseball material.”

ItemssignedbyBabeRuthandLouGehrigareexpectedtocommandconsiderableattentionduringtheAntiquarianBookFairatthe

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschlossberg/2023/04/11/vintage-baseball-volumes-to-bring-highprices-at-rare-books-fair/?sh=44ff8a722a78

The 63rd annual New York show, which Steinkirchner calls the biggest on the rare books calendar of events, drew 9,500 spectators last year and generated $30 million in sales for vendors.

“I think it was the highest-grossing book fair of all time,” she said. “It attracted people from all over the world.”

This year’s roster includes more than 111 U.S. booksellers; 79 international, from 17 countries; and dozens of celebrity guests.

According to promoter Stanford L. Smith + Associates, increased interest from younger collectors and visitors should help attendance jump another 10% this year, with online ticket sales already up by 30%. Their theory is more attendance equals more sales.

“Rarity is based upon demand,” Steinkirchner explained, “so it could even be something new if it’s a limited edition. The first Harry Potter book was published in 1987 but there were only 500 copies printed. It ended up being a world phenomenon, so that’s what makes it rare.”

Prices of items at the fair range from $50 to seven figures, she said.

A copy of The Emancipation Proclamation once sold for $2 million at the fair and justjust +3.5% last year, a miniature book by the 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, was purchased for $1.25 million by a charity that planned to donate it to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

On Discovery Day, the last day of the weekend show, sellers can bring items for appraisal, evaluation, and potential match-making. “If people want to sell, we’ll give them the names of interested dealers,” she said. “Every once in awhile we get really cool things that come through. people find these things in their homes and find out they’re really valuable.”

Founded in 2003, B&B Rare Books occupies a small space in Manhattan nearnear +5.3% the former site of Foley’s, a West Side Irish pub that was loaded with baseball memorabilia.

“During the pandemic, we started selling baseball material because we were bored,” revealed Steinkirchner, a Buffalo native who now roots for the Yankees. “We found people love buying bats, balls, cards, and letters but not antiquarian books. So we started buying books at memorabilia shows.

“If people like it, it’s fine. If nobody likes it, we get to keep it. It’s hard to find books in nice condition. I bet there’s a lot of 19th century baseball material out there.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschlossberg/2023/04/11/vintage-baseball-volumes-to-bring-highprices-at-rare-books-fair/?sh=44ff8a722a78

Books with original dust covers are especially valuable, she said. That’s why the 1931 first edition How to Play Baseball, written by Babe Ruth, will go into the show with a price tag of $2,500.

“It has its original dust cover,” Steinkirchner said. “It’s amazing to me how many people take dust covers off and throw them away.”

In addition to the Ruth book, a 1914 Ty Cobb first edition called Bustin ‘Em, also from B&B Rare Books, is on sale for the same price. A much later work B&B will offer is a 1991 autographed hardcover, My Favorite Summer 1956, by Mickey Mantle. It is priced at $1,500 because of the signature.

The rare books store will also display an archive of material from Lefty Gomez, a Hall of Fame pitcher who spent his entire career with the Yankees.

“A lot of book sellers have inventories in the thousands,” said Steinkirchner, who plans to bring 150 different items to the show, “but we’re so small that we only buy certain things.”

She and Mann met in college, lived in the East Village, and searched for a way to support themselves. They found an old edition of Alice in Wonderland at a street sale and gladly purchased it for $1. That’s when they realized people collect rare books the way they collect art and antiques.

“We started as scouts, helping people find what they were looking for,” she said. “That’s how we figured out what we wanted to do: buying and selling.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschlossberg/2023/04/11/vintage-baseball-volumes-to-bring-highprices-at-rare-books-fair/?sh=44ff8a722a78

They bought the Babe Ruth book from the son of the person it was inscribed to.

“We buy from the general public,” she said. “It can be one book or a whole collection.”

The 63rd annual show is set for New York’s Park Avenue Armory from April 27-30.

“We love having old books in the old armory,” Steinkirchner said. “There aren’t that many places like that in New York anymore.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschlossberg/2023/04/11/vintage-baseball-volumes-to-bring-highprices-at-rare-books-fair/?sh=44ff8a722a78

APRIL 11 , 202 3

Morris - Levin Publishers’ Bindings Collection to Sale

HONEY&WAXBOOKSELLERS/JOHNSONRAREBOOKS&ARCHIVES

FromTheMorris-LevinCollectionofPublishers’Bookbindings

Honey & Wax Booksellers and Johnson Rare Books & Archives have announced the offering of the Morris-Levin collection of publishers’ bindings.

Over 50 years, Ellen Morris and Edward Levin collected more than 3,000 volumes representing the first century of commercial book design in Europe and the United States. Morris and Levin curated the historic 2000 Grolier Club exhibition The Art of Publishers’ Bookbindings, 1815-1915, and wrote the accompanying print catalogue, now a standard reference. The 254 bindings included in the Grolier exhibition were hand-picked by Morris and Levin to illustrate international developments in book production, design, and marketing, from the earliest publishers’ bindings to the dawn of the dust jacket.

At this year’s New York Antiquarian Book Fair, the 254 Morris-Levin exhibition books will be offered en bloc by Honey & Wax Booksellers (booth B33) and Johnson Rare Books and Archives (booth A10). Both booths will display a selection of publishers’ bindings from the original Grolier show, including uncommon examples that have not appeared on the market in decades.

The booksellers are committed to keeping the Grolier exhibition books together, accompanied by the descriptive catalogue prepared by Ellen Morris and Edward Levin, for use as a teaching collection. The group of 254 bindings is offered for $250,000.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/morris-levin-publishers-bindings-collection-sale

The larger Morris-Levin collection, comprising thousands of publishers’ bindings issued from the end of the Napoleonic Wars through the beginning of World War I, is also available for purchase. Prospective buyers of all or part of the collection are encouraged to inquire.

The 2023 New York Antiquarian Book Fair runs April 27 through April 30 at the Park Avenue Armory.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/morris-levin-publishers-bindings-collection-sale

DA JOHANNES GUTENBERG A OGGI

L’Antiquarian Book Fair torna a Park Avenue Armory per la 63a edizione, con 200 espositori specializzati in manoscritti e volumi rari. Di Laura Civinini

Pilastro della stagione culturale di New York, l’International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) ritorna a Park Avenue Armory dal 27 al 30 aprile per la sua 63a edizione. Organizzata dall’Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) e dalla International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), è universalmente definita la migliore fiera del libro antico al mondo. Partecipano all’edizione di quest’anno quasi 200 espositori in-

IN ALTO, DA SINISTRA:

“Le Ore” di Jean-Antoine de Mahieu e Jacqueline de Sivry, Paesi-Bassi, 1460 (da Les Enluminures);

“Vita Christi” di Ludolphus Carthusiensis, Parigi, 1506-1508 (da Jörn Günther rare books).

A DESTRA: mappa dal volume di Johannes Janssonius, 1657 (da Delirium Books).

ternazionali, provenienti da 16 Paesi oltre agli Stati Uniti: Argentina, Austria, Belgio, Canada, Repubblica Ceca, Danimarca, Francia, Germania, Ungheria, Italia, Giappone, Gran Bretagna, Paesi Bassi, Spagna, Svezia, Svizzera. La fiera attira un pubblico eterogeneo di appassionati, studiosi, collezionisti, influencer e celebrità; negli ultimi anni, infatti, ha catturato sempre

più l’attenzione di giovani collezionisti alla ricerca di offerte a prezzi che vanno da pochi dollari a cifre milionarie.

Grande varietà. In mostra libri rari, mappe, codici miniati, incunaboli, rilegature di pregio, illustrazioni, documenti storici, stampe ed ephemera di vari soggetti, come arte, scienza, medicina, letteratura, storia, moda, finanza,

politica, filosofia e racconti per bambini. Molte gallerie partecipano alla fiera sin dalle prime edizioni, come ad esempio Les Enluminures, con sedi a Parigi, New York e Chicago, specializzata in manoscritti medievali miniati, ma ogni anno nuove librerie antiquarie prendono parte alla rassegna, che conta per il 2023 ben 11 new entry. (nyantiquarianbookfair.com).

APRIL 11 , 202 3

New York, rara Bibbia italiana in vendita per mezzo milione

Su 1500 Bibbie portatili, solo il 16% sono italiane, per lo più provenienti da Bologna

Holyscriptures

A rare illustrated portable Italian Bible will go on sale in New York for nearly half a million dollars. The precious document will be on display at the 63rd edition of the ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, which will take place at the Park Avenue Armory from April 27th to 30th.

The Bible - explains a note - will be brought by the antiquarian 'Roland Belgrave Vintage Photography'. Citing some researches, it is underlined that out of 1500 portable Bibles only 16% are Italian, mostly from Bologna, while the one that will be on sale in New York (to be exact at 480,000 dollars) comes from southern Italy, and with the addition of being illustrated it is even more of a rarity.

https://www.laregione.ch/rubriche/curiosita/1659483/new-york-bibbia-vendita-milione-italia

Signed Babe Ruth Autobiography Among Rare Baseball Books Fetching High Prices

The hardcover edition of The Babe Ruth Story, signed in 1948, may be one of the last items the legendary slugger signed before he died that August.

Hollywood Stars

From L’Oréal’s Carol Hamilton to celeb hairstylist Chris Appleton and supermodel entrepreneur Cindy Crawford, L.A.’s top beauty and wellness execs came out in full force for WWD’s first West Coast beauty forum, held last week at The London in West Hollywood. Full coverage starts on page 5. PLUS: Can fashion retailers win in beauty and why wellness clubs are the new hot spots.

COLLAGE BY MELODY HSIEH

A Scent Story Of the Past

A rare antique sample book by French perfumery house, L.T. Piver, has come to light.

BOOK COLLECTING CAME

early for Ben Kinmont.

He first took interest in the avocation during his adolescence and cultivated a passion (and, equally important, an instinct) for the craft throughout college, during which he primarily collected mid-17th-century English radical literature.

After making the switch from collecting to selling in his mid-20s, Kinmont turned his focus to rare books about food and perfume, a decision that has since granted him the unique ability to say he has unearthed once-in-a-lifetime finds, several times in his life.

His latest: A 19th-century perfume sample album from L.T. Piver — one of the earliest French perfumery houses — filled with more than 220 printed and hand-painted illustrations of antique fragrance bottles and myriad cosmetics products also produced by the company, including oils, aromatic vinegars, soaps and creams.

“For me, there’s this crossover between rarity, original condition and an interesting subject — when those three things intersect, that’s what makes a book truly astonishing,” said Kinmont, who believes that due to the book’s “utterly remarkable” condition (down to its unimpeded binding), it was likely created strictly for inhouse use by the company, which was established in the late eighteenth century and was a leading supplier of perfumed products at the time.

Kinmont will unveil the album at the annual International Antiquarian Book Fair, sanctioned by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, taking place from April 27 through April 30 at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory.

The book will be available for purchase for $28,000.

“What’s exciting about rare and antique books is they embody much more than just text,” said Kinmont, adding that the increasing digitization

of knowledge only makes such books — of which few are made and even fewer survive — even more profound.

“A book is almost like a body; it shows its wear, it shows if it has been loved — it moves and changes over centuries.”

So what does an antique perfume sample book smells like? “To me, it’s a very earthy, homey smell; it’s what I call old book smell,” said Kinmont, adding after a pause: “It’s the smell of knowledge.”

This Antique L.T. Piver Perfume Sample Album Is on Sale for $28,000

Filled with rare illustrations and prints of antique perfume bottles and other offerings, the book will arrive to New York's International Antiquarian Book Fair on April 27.

Book collecting came early for Ben Kinmont.

He first took interest in the avocation during his adolescence and cultivated a passion (and, equally important, an instinct) for the craft throughout college, during which he primarily collected mid-17th-century English radical literature.

https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/this-antique-l-t-piver-perfume-sample-album-ison-sale-for-1235609820/

After making the switch from collecting to selling in his mid-20s, Kinmont turned his focus to rare books about food and perfume, a decision that has since granted him the unique ability to say he has unearthed once-in-alifetime finds, several times in his life.

His latest: A 19th-century perfume sample album from L.T. Piver one of the earliest French perfumery houses filled with more than 220 printed and hand-painted illustrations of antique fragrance bottles and myriad cosmetics products also produced by the company, including oils, aromatic vinegars, soaps and creams.

“For me, there’s this crossover between rarity, original condition and an interesting subject when those three things intersect, that’s what makes a book truly astonishing,” said Kinmont, who believes that due to the book’s “utterly remarkable” condition (down to its unimpeded binding), it was likely created strictly for in-house use by the company, which was established in the late eighteenth century and was a leading supplier of perfumed products at the time.

Kinmont will unveil the album at the annual International Antiquarian Book Fair, sanctioned by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, taking place from April 27 through April 30 at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory.

The book will be available for purchase for $28,000.

“What’s exciting about rare and antique books is they embody much more than just text,” said Kinmont, adding that the increasing digitization of knowledge only makes such books of which few are made and even fewer survive even more profound. “A book is almost like a body; it shows its wear, it shows if it has been loved it moves and changes over centuries.”

So what does an antique perfume sample book smell like? “To me, it’s a very earthy, homey smell; it’s what I call old book smell,” said Kinmont, adding after a pause: “It’s the smell of knowledge.”

https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/this-antique-l-t-piver-perfume-sample-album-ison-sale-for-1235609820/

Rare Book Monthly

The 63rd Annual ABAA New York Antiquarian Book Fair: We’re back to business

The premier Book Fair in the world is soon to be staged in New York April 27-30 at the Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Avenue between 66/67 Streets.

180 dealers from 17 countries will take over the storied venue.

Not so long ago book shops were found in groups nestled into neighborhoods. Anymore, they are almost as rare as the exceptional material they offer and to find them look in two places: going to in-person book fairs or scan the internet in hope you'll locate them by their name and specialty.

These dealers are individuals, unique in their capabilities and specialties, and united in their interest in deep and complex subjects.

If your interests fall within the category of science, the greatest practitioners of the craft will be in the display rooms or nearby. The same applies to Americana, European history, the age of exploration, the decorative arts, fiction often segmented by century, style and the author’s native language. They encourage discussion and will keep notes as you should too. Many of the great American collectors over the past 70 years found their inspiration on the floor at the annual book fairs.

And please note. Wear comfortable shoes and plan to spend hours. The show is a masterclass of taste and discernment.

Here are the basic facts:

Venue: Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Avenue, New York

New York, New York

Hours: Preview

Thursday, April 27

5:00 – 8:00 pm

Fair Hours

Friday, April 28

12:00 – 8:00 pm

Saturday, April 29

12:00

7:00 pm

Sunday, April 30 12;00 – 5:00 pm

Here is a link to this year’s 180 exhibitors

https://www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com/dealers

https://www.rarebookhub.com/articles/3368

APRIL 1 4 , 202 3

The Bruce M. Lisman Collection of Important American Literature

投开始尚余: 62 日 拍

Highlights from TheBruceM.LismanCollectionofImportantAmericanLiteraturewill be on view at Christie's New York 29 April – 9 May 2023, coinciding with the 63rd Annual ABAA New York Antiquarian Book Fair.

For a Short-Title List of the collection or to confirm viewing times, please email Books & Manuscripts Department Assistant Grace McCormack gmccormack@christies.com

Auction times

6月15日 10:00 上午 (EDT)

https://www.christies.com.cn/zh-CN/auction/the-bruce-m-lisman-collection-of-important-americanliterature-22474-nyr/overview#viewing

https://www.christies.com.cn/zh-CN/auction/the-bruce-m-lisman-collection-of-important-americanliterature-22474-nyr/overview#viewing

ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

APRIL 27–30, 2023

PARK AVENUE ARMORY / NEW YORK

Often deemed the finest convention of rare books in the world, the 63rd annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Park Avenue Armory this spring. Almost 200 exhibitors from 16 countries will be selling rare books, manuscripts, historical documents, and various other one-of-a-kind archival materials. History, science, religion, art, philosophy, politics, and every other imaginable genre will be featured in the firstedition, of course. Highlights are sure to include a $225,000 British first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’sStoneand an immaculate $2.5 million first edition of Copernicus’s DeRevolutionibus . With prices beginning at $50 (and heading into seven figures), there’s a page-turner for every bibliophile. L.H.

VISIT

Park Avenue Armory

643ParkAve,NewYork,NY10065

Get Directions »

https://airmail.news/arts-intel/events/abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-7795

APRIL 1 8 , 202 3

New York International Antiquarian Book Fair: Events Series Details

NEWYORKINTERNATIONALANTIQUARIANBOOKFAIR

NYIABF Presents is an annual event at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair that focuses on the rare book industry and ideas about literature, print, and material culture.

The series of talks and events, curated by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, will be held on April 29. They are all free with fair admission and will take place in the Field and Staff room.

10am-11am:ABAA Gender Equity Initiative Brunch

With light refreshments

11am:To Be Loved is To Be Changed: The Importance (and Joy) of Well - Worn Books

With Allie Alvis, rare-book cataloguer at Type Punch Matrix, book historian, and educator Allie Alvis who as @book_historia, an illustrious Instagrammer (and Tweeter, and YouTuber) illuminates the world of rare books for

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fairevents-series-details

an online audience. In their talk, Alvis explains how books change over time and with use, and explores how the restoration process can be an expression of love.

1pm:Presentations and Provenance: How Signatu res Add Value to Books

With Joshua Mann, founder of B & B Rare Books. Books signed by the authors have always been desirable, but there is a spectrum of value that depends on how the book was signed and who owned it. An inscription to someone notable or influential in the author's life can place a book in an entirely different league of value. Joshua will examine and discuss several examples of signed books from B & B Rare Books' inventory.

2.30pm:BSA Lecture: Wayward Classifications: Dorothy Porter and the Order of Black Books

With Laura E. Helton

In this talk, produced in conjunction with the Bibliographical Society of America, assistant professor of English and History at the University of Delaware Laura E. Helton presents her research on librarian, archivist, and curator Dorothy Porter (1905-1995). Porter was the first Black woman to receive a library science degree from Columbia University and went on to build an extensive, world-class collection at Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. She exposed the racism inherent in the Dewey Decimal System and as a result developed new methods of cataloging and classifying books, which Helton investigates in this talk.

7pm-8.30pm:ABAA Gender Equity Initiative Mixer

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fairevents-series-details

APRIL 1 9 , 202 3

10 MOST SURPRISING FINDS AT TH E NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR

The 63rd Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair will take over the drill hall at New York City’s historic Park Avenue Armory this April 27th through 30th. The 55,000 square foot space will be packed with rare booksellers from all over the world and their unique treasures. Along with books, the vendors will also be selling maps, historical documents, photographs, prints, memorabilia, and ephemera covering a wide variety of topics such as art, design, popular culture, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, music, philosophy, and much more. While the idea of an antiquarian book fair might strike some as stuffy and boring, this selection is anything but. Here, we take a look at 10 of the rarest and most surprising items up for sale, from a book about bread to fake band memorabilia and photographs from space!

1. The Book of Bread

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

One of the most quirky items up for sale at the New York book fair will be an extremely rare “edition de luxe” of The Book of Bread brought by Roland Belgrave Vintage Photography. This early photobook of life-sized photographic reproductions of bread loaf cross sections was originally intended as a technical monograph on bread-making for manufacturers. Today, the book is recognized as a work of conceptual art.

Nineteenth-century photobooks like this one were created to serve as an archive in which the things of the world were stored and cataloged. Only 350 copies of the “edition de luxe” were made. What sets this edition apart from the standard edition is that it is bound in morocco rather than the usual publisher’s green cloth. It also contains more pages and different advertisements. The most significant differentiation however is that the “edition de luxe” features 10 bromide prints, as opposed to just 2 in the standard edition. Inside, there are images of different types of bread from a crumby loaf to a prize tin loaf.

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

Holiday,Billie.(1915–1959)

RitalinPrescriptionforBillieHoliday,withaBarTabsigned“LadyDay”.$3500

At the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, you won’t just find books. Vendors also have historical documents, photographs, memorabilia, and other ephemera. Schubertiade Music and Arts, a Brooklyn-based dealer and gallery of “rare and interesting offerings for collectors, scholars, music lovers, gift-givers, museums, and libraries” will be bringing such items.

Among the most surprising of their wares is this Ritalin Prescription for Billie Holiday (1915–1959) and a bar tab that the jazz singer signed with “Lady Day.” Holiday, who was born Eleanora Fagan, was given the Lady Day nickname by jazz saxophonist Lester Young. This pair of documents is on sale for $3,500.

3. ABookofCats

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

Anything to do with cats usually gets a lot of attention, so there are sure to be many buyers vying for Eric Chiam Kline Bookseller’s rare copy of A Book of Cats. This book features 20 illustrated plates of etchings of cats and kittens by acclaimed Japanese-French artist Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1958). Each cat image has its own name and is accompanied by a poem about the respective cat by British writer Michael Joseph (1897-1958).

The feline etchings in this first edition copy from 1930 are adorable! As cats pose, rest, or play, Foujita brings out their own individual characters in his lifelike etchings. All images have the artist’s dated signature in English and Japanese printed on the plate. This book is selling for $60,000.

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

This photograph was taken by Apollo 8 Lunar Module Pilot William Anders. It captures a phenomenon called “earthrise,” where the Earth appears to be rising as we usually see the sun or moon rise from our planetary vantage point. The image was captured as the spacecraft came around from the far side of the moon in its third orbit. The historic image offers a powerful change in perspective and left a lasting imprint on Anders who said, “We’d spent most of our time on Earth training about how to study the Moon, how to go to the Moon; it was very lunar oriented. And yet, when I looked up and saw the Earth coming up on this very stark, beat up lunar horizon, and Earth that was the only color that we could see, a very fragile looking Earth, a very delicate looking Earth, I was immediately almost overcome by the thought that here we came all this way to see the Moon, and yet the most significant thing we’re seeing is our own home planet, the Earth.”

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

More ephemera at the New York book fair will come from Johnson Rare Books & Archives, which will bring highlights from the private library of revered British actor Eric Idle, a founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Idle’s library of more than 4,000 books encompasses British history, literature, rock and roll, along with humor, comedy, and musical theater. Many of his books are signed by famous friends like George Harrison and Ringo Starr of The Beatles.

One amusing piece from Idle’s collection that will be at the fair is a signed concert poster for “The Rutles,” a Beatles parody band that Idles founded with Neil Innes. The band was formed for a sketch on the BBC television comedy series RutlandWeekendTelevision , but they actually went on to tour and recorded two albums. Other highlights from Idle’s collection that will be on sale include a DictionaryofInternationalSlursand a 19th-century book on TheComicHistoryofEngland.

6. “Madeline’s Rescue” Illustration

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

BEMELMANS(Ludwig)[1898

1962]Madeline’sRescue,“AndDraggedHerSafeFromaWateryGrave”,1953Mixedmediaon paperboard,laiddowntoboardMeasures223/4x165/8inchesFullpageillustrationforthepublishedbook[p.9](NewYork:The VikingPress,1953)CaldecottAwardMedalWinner(1954)

At the New York Internation Antiquarian Book Fair, you can expect to see many of your favorite literary characters. In this item from Battledore LTD, we see the beloved children’s book character Madelaine in a bit of a precarious situation. This full-page illustration shows the French schoolgirl being dragged from a “watery grave” by a heroic dog who becomes her pet.

The illustration is from the book “Madelien’s Rescue,” published in 1953. It was the second book in the Madeline series by Ludwig Bemelman. Bemelman, who also did the illustrations, won a Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1954.

7. Autographed West Side Story Book

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

Peter Harrington Rare Books will have a wide selection of items at the fair, including this 1958 copy of A West Side Story signed by all four creators of the original musical: choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, songwriter Stephen Sondheim, and playwright Arthur Laurents. No other book is known to contain all four signatures.

West Side Story is a quintessential New York tale. The play debuted on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre in September 1957. With more dancing than any previous Broadway production, the show won Robbins a Tony Award for Best Choreography. The original run lasted for 732 performances. This book was published by Random House as part of their series of “Recent Broadway Hits” six months after the Broadway premiere. This copy was owned by theatre and film critic for the Sunday Express, Clive Hirschhorn.

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

ImageCourtesyofPeterHarrington

Another prized tome from Peter Harrington Rare Books, the largest antiquarian book dealer in Europe, is this 16th-century first edition of the most important work on witchcraft in English,The Discoverie of Witchcraft, written by Scot Reginald (d. 1599). Scot, a Kentish engineer and surveyor in Elizabethian England, didn’t believe that witchcraft was real and strove to prove that all of the witches executed were innocent.

In this book, he aims to demystify witchcraft by explaining how tricks and illusions were performed. He also traces the sociological origins of witch accusations, describing those who confessed to being witches as either deluded or the victims of torture. Scot rejects the evidence of previous writers on witchcraft such as Bodin, and denies that there is a biblical sanction for the execution of witches. This fundamental text on witchcraft was known to and often criticized by other renowned writers of the time and in the following centuries. Scot’s skepticism and process of deducing the truth amid obscurity are echoed today in the writings of modern magicians and scientists such as James Randi, Richard Dawkins, and others. The price of this rare book is $160,000. Along the lines of witches, a first edition, hardcover copy of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone will also be for sale, by B & B Rare Books, for $225,000.

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

ImageCourtesyofBarryLawrenceRudermanAntiqueMapsINC

Along with books, maps are a popular item to find at the antiquarian book fair. The book featured above is one of the most sought-after celestial atlases in existence. Produced by Dutch cartographer Andreas Cellarius in 1661, Harmonia Macrocosmica is priced at a whopping $395,000.

Considered Cellarius’s magnum opus, this map was made to illustrate competing theories of celestial mechanics, or how the solar system worked. The universe’s heavenly bodies are depicted in vibrant colors throughout 29 extremely detailed, hand-colored, double-page engraved plates in the book. The images take theories put forth by great thinkers and scientists like Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, Nicolaus Copernicus, as well as lesser-known figures such as Aratus of Soli, and present them in an accessible way through images.

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

ImageCourtesyofCharlesAgvent

We love to see items connected to the history of New York City, and this item from Charles Agvent gives us an exciting glimpse into the past. Pictured above are pages from A Pictorial Description of Broadway by the Mail & Express from 1899. This first edition folio contains 74 colored pages measuring 17 by 6 inches, covered with images of Broadway from Steamship Row and Bowling Green all the way up to 59th Street. This book, on sale at the New York Antiquarian book fair, offers a rare block-by-block survey of turn-of-the-century New York City.

https://untappedcities.com/2023/04/19/surprising-finds-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

APRIL 20 , 202 3

Newly Rediscovered Draft of Martin Luther King Jr's Letter from Birmingham Jail

JAMESCUMMINSBOOKSELLER MLK letter from Birmingham Jail

Sixty years ago this month, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat in a Birmingham, Alabama jail cell, without a light or even a mattress on the bedsprings, and penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail, the most important written statement of the civil rights movement.

The newly-rediscovered Joan Daves copy of an early draft of the Letter from Birmingham Jail will be exhibited and offered for sale by James Cummins Bookseller at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, to be held April 2730 at the Park Avenue Armory.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/newly-rediscovered-draft-martin-luther-king-jrsletter-birmingham-jail

The original manuscript, written on the margins of a newspaper, on small scraps of paper and pieces of toilet paper, was destroyed, making this pre-publication copy - from the files of his literary agent - one of the earliest obtainable versions.

On Good Friday, April 12, 1963, King marched with his supporters from the steps of the Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Baptist Church toward City Hall and the Birmingham central business district in direct violation of an injunction prohibiting the protest. Arrested along with Ralph Abernathy and approximately fifty other African American peaceful protesters for parading without a permit, King was taken to Birmingham jail and placed in isolation. Refusing to post bail, King remained in jail to focus the attention of the media on the injustices of segregation. The day after his arrest, on Saturday, April 13, eight prominent white interdenominational clergymen published a statement in the Birmingham News urging protesters to withdraw and referring to the protests as “extreme”, “unwise and untimely.”

Dated April 16, 1963, although written as an intellectual and philosophical response to close colleagues, the Letter transcended that narrow focus to become a cri de coeur, explaining to white moderates in no uncertain terms the justifications for civil disobedience and the Civil Rights movement, and arguably becoming the most important written document of the era.

The Letter was originally written on scraps of paper smuggled from the jail by King’s lawyers and transcribed by Wyatt Tee Walker, the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. After King’s release, work continued on the Letter. By the first week in May 1963, the final draft was completed, typed by Walker’s secretary, duplicated, and released to a small select group of media, African American churches, and important supporters.

Following an unauthorized printing of excerpts of the Letter in the New York Post, Stanley Levison, King’s attorney and close advisor (whose phone was being tapped by the FBI), conveyed the present example to Daves, King’s literary agent. By late May 1963, she had secured a deal with Harper & Row to publish King’s next book, Why We Can’t Wait, including the text of the Letter. This copy of the Letter was discovered among her papers and bears her inked stamp in the upper right corner of the first page.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/newly-rediscovered-draft-martin-luther-king-jrsletter-birmingham-jail

APRIL 20 , 202 3

Five Rare Books for Collectors: Eric Idle's Library

JOHNSONRAREBOOKS&ARCHIVES

Dylan Thomas, Collected Poems 1934 - 1952. London: J.M. Dent, 1959. Reprint. Octavo. Origina l blue cloth binding, with gilt stamping. Some minor browning and wear along the extremities of the dust jacket. $250.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-eric-idles-library

With a presentation label from The Royal Wolverhampton School awarding this volume to Eric Idle for “Service to the School” on July 6, 1962. In The Pythons' Autobiography by The Pythons (2003), Idle reflected on his time at the boarding school: “I got used to dealing with groups of boys and getting on with life in unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive at the expense of authority. Perfect training for Python.”

Dylan Thomas is included in Idle’s list of influences on his Eric Idl e Online! blog.

Highlights from the private library of revered British actor Eric Idle, founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, will be on offer at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) by johnson rare books & archives. British history, literature, rock and roll, along with humor, comedy and musical theater are just a few of the subjects covered in Idle’s library, accumulated over the nearly three decades he lived in Los Angeles.

“I’m never happier than when reading a book. I read a lot of books. I find books endlessly inspiring,” Idle says, pointing to a shelf of British history he referenced for sketch ideas. Among the books for sale are first editions of Winston Churchill’s four volume A History of the English-Speaking People (1956-58) and Gilbert Abbott à Beckett’s The Comic History of England (1847-48).

As for the new owners of the books, Idle’s advice is: “Enjoy them. I think books are there to be enjoyed. Read them with pleasure and share your pleasure with other people.” The collection includes books signed by several rock musicians, who Idle counted among his friends, such as George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-eric-idles-library

Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, TheComicHistoryofEngland . London: Published at the Punch Office, 1847 - 48. First edition. Original twenty parts in nineteen, published from July 1946 to February 1848. Octavo: xii, 320; xii, 304 p. Twenty colored steel - engravings after designs by John Leech, plus 240 woodcuts in t he text. $2,000.

The set collates near complete: lacking the pink slip advertising The Battle of Lifeand Dombey&Sonat the front of Part VI. The back wrapper of Part XVIII supplied from a Part XI (with ElementsofBotanyon the inside and Mr. Dickens New Monthly Workon the outside). The ads on the back wrapper of Part V match those called for by Tooley (with OpinionsofthePresson the inside and Rowlands Macassar Oilon the outside) rather than Abbey (with First Vol. of the Music Bookon the inside and Works by G. A'Becketton the outside).

Original blue printed wrappers. The usual rebacking. A very clean and bright set. Housed in a full olive morocco folding case (spine faded to brown).

JOHNSONRAREBOOKS&ARCHIVES

Special “The Rutles” issue of What'sHappening?from WEA Records Ltd. in London, issued in advance of the television mockumentary All You Need Is Cash(1978). Signed by Eric Idle, who co - directe d the affectionate parody of The Beatles with Gary Weis and appeared as Dirk McQuickly, the Paul McCartneystyled character in the group.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-eric-idles-library

JOHNSONRAREBOOKS&ARCHIVES

George Harrison, LiveinJapan:GeorgeHarrisonwithEricClaptonandBand . Guildford, England: Genesis Publications Ltd, 1993. First edition. This is copy number 30 of 3500 signed by George Harrison. Accompanied by a double CD with original artwork and 19 live tracks, a l aminated “After Show” pass, and Eric’s and George’s guitar picks. Quarto. Bound in black leather with gold and red tooling and gilt edged pages. Near fine. Housed in the publisher’s slipcase. $3,000.

Pictorial celebration of George Harrison’s “Rock Legen ds” tour of Japan in 1991, featuring almost 500 previously unpublished photographs. The foreword by Eric Clapton explains how George was persuaded to return to touring after a break of 17 years. The first (and longest) chapter is written by George himself and details his thoughts and feelings on taking to the road after such a long absence. It includes George’s personal recollections of the tour and memories of times on the road with The Beatles. Subsequent chapters are written by each member of Eric Clapto n’s band and reveal private moments behind the scenes, during sound checks, on stage and in transit.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-eric-idles-library

JOHNSONRAREBOOKS&ARCHIVES

A.A. Roback, A DictionaryofInternationalSlurs(Ethnophaulisms),withaSupplementaryEssayonAspects ofEthnicPrejudice . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sci - Art Publishers, 1944. Fir st edition. This is number 912 of 1000 copies signed by the author. Octavo. In a later one quarter black morocco over black cloth binding, with gilt titles and five raised bands. $500.

Signed on the half - title “Ex Libris Eric Idle”.

The dictionary cons ists of a collection of approximately 1000 slurs in English on other nationalities; a lexicon of slurs in a number of foreign languages (over 1,000 expressions) translated literally and idiomatically, together with the original words or phrases; and an inv entory of over 1,000 proverbs which relate to some 50 national groups and are provided with historical cues. A short treatise on ethnic prejudice gives the backgrounds of the various nationalities, together with the accepted group traits for each. A biblio graphy of linguistic, folkloristic, and general works is included.

Citing his first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s TheGreatGatsbyas a favorite (and not offered for sale), Idle says he prefers to read books in their first edition because “you get a sense of history…somebody once read this for the first time at that time.”

The Idle collection can be found at stand A10 at the book fair, which returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City April 27-30, 2023, for its 63rd Edition.

Based in Covina, California, johnson rare books & archives were also agents for the sale of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s library. Additional books from Idle’s library will be offered for sale on their website in the coming months.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-eric-idles-library

Highlights from the private library of revered British actor Eric Idle, founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, will be on offer at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) by johnson rare books & archives. British history, literature, rock and roll, along with humor, comedy and musical theater are just a few of the subjects covered in Idle’s library, accumulated over the nearly three decades he lived in Los Angeles.

“I’m never happier than when reading a book. I read a lot of books. I find books endlessly inspiring,” Idle says, pointing to a shelf of British history he referenced for sketch ideas. Among the books for sale are first editions of Winston Churchill’s four volume A History of the English-Speaking People(1956-58) and Gilbert Abbott à Beckett’s The Comic History of England(1847-48).

As for the new owners of the books, Idle’s advice is: “Enjoy them. I think books are there to be enjoyed. Read them with pleasure and share your pleasure with other people.” The collection includes books signed by several rock musicians, who Idle counted among his friends, such as George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-eric-idles-library

APRIL 1 7 , 202 3

The best things to do in NYC this week

The

best things to do in NYC this week

If you’re looking for the best things to do in NYC this week, or even for today, there are tons of fun options, including a boozy cocktail class, swing dancing lessons, the Antiquarian Book Fair, a beautiful tulip festival, a free night on The Intrepid and awesome free events in NYC! For more ideas, scroll down to see this week's best things to do in NYC.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/things-to-do-in-new-york-this-week

5.

Now in its 63rd year, this festival for book collectors convenes at Park Avenue Armory for a full weekend of first editions, maps, manuscripts and other treasures from literary epochs past from nearly 200 exhibitors. It's considered the world's finest antiquarian book fair.

Exhibitors this year hail from around the world including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more.

Prices for the items range from $50 to millions. You can buy tickets for just one day or for the whole show, which runs from April 27-30.

Read more Buy ticket

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/things-to-do-in-new-york-this-week

APRIL 23 , 202 3

LEONARD GREENE: Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’ still resonates 60 years later

Sixty years ago, a Baptist minister sat in a southern jail cell and penned the most important written statement of the civil rights movement.

Months before the March on Washington, where he delivered his spellbinding “I Have a Dream” speech, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., jailed with about 50 other peaceful protesters, wrote a response to local clergy members who had chastised him for upsetting Alabama’s status quo.

Without a light or even a mattress on the bedsprings, King wrote what would become the classic “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” an intellectual and philosophical treatise that challenged white moderates for decades to come.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-greene-martin-luther-king-birmingham-jail-letter20230423-y33aafyeanehbbc646tsfdqp6a-story.html

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice,” King wrote.

“So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?”

ThedraftwillbefeaturedattheTheNewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookatManhattan’sParkAvenueArmoryfromApril27 throughApril30.(TheNewYorkInternationalAntiq)

King, who was isolated from the rest of the protesters, wrote the original manuscript in the margins of a newspaper, on pieces of toilet paper on small scraps of paper smuggled from the jail by King’s lawyers.

Those early notes were destroyed. But one of the earliest drafts of the letter, which fell into the possession of King’s literary agent, Joan Daves, was recently discovered, and will be exhibited this week at a New York book fair.

It is also being offered for sale for $225,000.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-greene-martin-luther-king-birmingham-jail-letter20230423-y33aafyeanehbbc646tsfdqp6a-story.html

ThedraftwillbefeaturedattheTheNewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookatManhattan’sParkAvenueArmoryfromApril27 throughApril30.(TheNewYorkInternationalAntiq)

The draft will be featured at the The New York International Antiquarian Book at Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory from April 27 through April 30.

It’s hard to put a price on such an important piece of history.

On April 12, 1963, Good Friday, King marched with his supporters from the steps of the Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Baptist Church toward City Hall and the Birmingham central business district in direct violation of an injunction prohibiting the protest

King was arrested along with his top lieutenant, Ralph Abernathy, and about 50 other African American protesters for parading without a permit.

King was taken to Birmingham jail and separated from his supporters. He refused to post bail, instead drawing the media’s attention on the injustices of segregation.

The day after his arrest, eight prominent white clergymen published a statement in the Birmingham News urging protesters to stop, and chastising outside agitators for stirring up trouble.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-greene-martin-luther-king-birmingham-jail-letter20230423-y33aafyeanehbbc646tsfdqp6a-story.html

“We are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders,” the statement said. “We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”

Despite his surroundings or maybe because of them King felt compelled to respond.

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people,” King wrote.

“For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”

Those who criticize the Black Lives Matter movement or criticized Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee during the national anthem would benefit from reading King’s letter

And if you have read it before, it’s worth reading again, particularly in these times of trouble and racial division.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-greene-martin-luther-king-birmingham-jail-letter20230423-y33aafyeanehbbc646tsfdqp6a-story.html

It’s poetry and protest all at once with a message that’s timeless.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-greene-martin-luther-king-birmingham-jail-letter20230423-y33aafyeanehbbc646tsfdqp6a-story.html

APRIL 23 , 202 3

You r Sunday US Briefing: Biden vs Trump 2.0; Tech, Banking Earnings

ABidenreelectionannouncementwouldsetupthe80-year-oldpresidentforarematchof2020withDonaldTrump,currentlytheRepublican frontrunner.Photographer:JimBourg/AFP/GettyImages

Hello. The last week of April brings a slew of economic data and earnings reports, as well as a heavy sense of deja vu. Here's a handy guide to help you get ready.

The big stat: It’s shaping up to be a busy week for economic reports, with figures on US GDP, wages and inflation due over the next five days. They are some of the final marquee reports the Fed will have in hand before its May policy meeting and could very well shape the central bank’s next move.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-23/bloomberg-sunday-briefing-biden-vs-trumpmicrosoft-meta-earnings#xj4y7vzkg

The big earnings: It’s still early in the season, but results from the companies that have reported so far have been stronger than expected. That’s prompting some analysts on Wall Street to question if they’ve been too pessimistic about Corporate America. Still, the week ahead could be challenging, as embattled regional banks including First Republic Bank and PacWest Bancorp are due to present results. Big Tech will also take its turn in the spotlight, including Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta, possibly offering investors a dose of reality after this year’s hype over artificial intelligence.

The big market thought: That hype along with expectations of a pause in Fed rate-hikes has helped the tech sector to a flying start to the year. Last month alone, a gauge of IT stocks beat the S&P 500 Index by the most in two decades, prompting some analysts to warn that the euphoria may have gone too far.

The big bankruptcy: Bed Bath & Beyond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey with plans to shut down, putting thousands of jobs on the line. The US housewares retailer will use the court process to begin liquidating its 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby shops, while also searching for a buyer for some or all of its assets.

The big announcement: After months of signaling he plans on running for a second term, President Joe Biden could finally make it official this week. The reelection announcement possibly due Tuesday sets up the 80year-old president for a rematch of 2020 with Donald Trump, currently the Republican frontrunner.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-23/bloomberg-sunday-briefing-biden-vs-trumpmicrosoft-meta-earnings#xj4y7vzkg

The big trial: Speaking of Trump, the former president goes to trial next week in a lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll accusing him of sexual assault. The landmark trial was filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act, a new state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases even if they are decades old, and is being backed by at least one Democratic billionaire donor.

ICYM our Big Take: Ahead of First Republic’s earnings this week, read the story about how the San Franciscobased lender drew legions of wealth clients with rock-bottom interest rates on mortgages, and how it’s now all looking like a colossal mistake

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-23/bloomberg-sunday-briefing-biden-vs-trumpmicrosoft-meta-earnings#xj4y7vzkg

Tobeornottobepartedwith$10.5million?Source:PeterHarringtonLondon

And finally , a collection of five very rare editions of William Shakespeare’s works will be offered at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair this week, with an overall asking price of $10.5 million if purchased as a group.

Have a good week. See you on the other side.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-23/bloomberg-sunday-briefing-biden-vs-trumpmicrosoft-meta-earnings#xj4y7vzkg

APRIL 23 , 202 3

LEONARD GREENE: Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’ still resonates 60 years later

Sixty years ago, a Baptist minister sat in a southern jail cell and penned the most important written statement of the civil rights movement.

Months before the March on Washington, where he delivered his spellbinding “I Have a Dream” speech, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., jailed with about 50 other peaceful protesters, wrote a response to local clergy members who had chastised him for upsetting Alabama’s status quo.

Without a light or even a mattress on the bedsprings, King wrote what would become the classic “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” an intellectual and philosophical treatise that challenged white moderates for decades to come.

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice,” King wrote.

“So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?”

King, who was isolated from the rest of the protesters, wrote the original manuscript in the margins of a newspaper, on pieces of toilet paper on small scraps of paper smuggled from the jail by King’s lawyers.

Those early notes were destroyed. But one of the earliest drafts of the letter, which fell into the possession of King’s literary agent, Joan Daves, was recently discovered, and will be exhibited this week at a New York book fair.

It is also being offered for sale for $225,000.

The draft will be featured at the The New York International Antiquarian Book at Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory from April 27 through April 30.

It’s hard to put a price on such an important piece of history.

On April 12, 1963, Good Friday, King marched with his supporters from the steps of the Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Baptist Church toward City Hall and the Birmingham central business district in direct violation of an injunction prohibiting the protest

King was arrested along with his top lieutenant, Ralph Abernathy, and about 50 other African American protesters for parading without a permit.

King was taken to Birmingham jail and separated from his supporters. He refused to post bail, instead drawing the media’s attention on the injustices of segregation.

The day after his arrest, eight prominent white clergymen published a statement in the Birmingham News urging protesters to stop, and chastising outside agitators for stirring up trouble.

https://news.yahoo.com/leonard-greene-martin-luther-king-120000056.html

“We are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders,” the statement said. “We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”

Despite his surroundings or maybe because of them King felt compelled to respond.

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people,” King wrote.

“For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”

Those who criticize the Black Lives Matter movement or criticized Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee during the national anthem would benefit from reading King’s letter

And if you have read it before, it’s worth reading again, particularly in these times of trouble and racial division.

It’s poetry and protest all at once with a message that’s timeless.

https://news.yahoo.com/leonard-greene-martin-luther-king-120000056.html

Try dishes from five Indigenous chefs, check out an exhibit on 100 years of restaurant menus and more.

TheRedhawkDancersatNewYorkCityEATSSin2022.Credit...BrettMatthewsGallery,viatheAmericanIndianCollegeFund

Traditional and inventive dishes will be prepared by five Indigenous chefs for New York City Eatss, a benefit and tasting to support the American Indian College Fund, on May 2. The chefs are Ben Jacobs (Osage Nation), Andrea Murdoch (Andes region, from Venezuela), Bradley Dry (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), Sherry Pocknett (Mashpee Wampanoag Nation), and Loretta Barrett Oden (Citizen Potawatomi Nation). Dancers from the Redhawk Native American Arts Council, a nonprofit, will perform during the event. The American Indian College Fund, founded in 1989, provides scholarships for Indigenous students and supports tribal colleges.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/dining/food-tasting-benefit-indian-college-fund.html

New York City Eatss, May 2, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., $150 per person and up, The Lighthouse at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers, at West 21 Street, collegefund.org.

An Early Photobook All About Bread

At this year’s International Antiquarian Book Fair, a rare deluxe edition of “The Book of Bread” by Owen Simmons, published in London in 1903 by Maclaren & Sons, is expected to fetch $10,000. The book, bound in leather, is considered to be one of the earliest photobooks published. It was intended as a commercial baker’s manual and shows loaves and slices, actual size with instructions, among other details. (It notes that the best bread is made from freshly milled flour, a practice newly followed by artisan bakers 120 years later.) The author was a founder of the National Bakery School in England in 1894. This book will be on display at the fair alongside a number of other culinary treasures, including “The American Distiller,” from 1804 and dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, said to be the first American book on distilling.

ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, April 27 through 30, Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue (66th Street), nyantiquarianbookfair.com.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/dining/food-tasting-benefit-indian-college-fund.html

APRIL 2 4 , 202 3

TUES - THUR S, 4/25 - 27: RENT THE RUNWAY SAMPLE SALE, YOU WILL FIND YOUR PEOPLE, REELABILITIES, AND MORE

T hursday

thurs thru 5/3: reelabilities film festival : the largest festival in the u.s. dedicated to promoting awareness of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with disabilities returns for a 15th year. various locations and prices (several events are free). >>

thurs thru sun: 63rd annual new york international antiquarian book fair : 200 exhibitors from 17 countries take over the park avenue armory for four days with rare books, ephemera, art, maps, posters, and more. got your own vintage book you’d like to know more about? bring it to ‘discovery day’ (sun 1-3pm) to have it examined and appraised by an expert. park avenue armory (ues), $32 general/$10 students. >>

thurs thru sun: 13th annual westfest dance festiva l : 25 artists present new works in a traditional theater setting as well as throughout the historic westbeth artists’ residence (west village). free-$20.

thurs 5-9pm: sva mfa fin e arts open studios : meet arts students from around the world at the school of visual arts’s spring 2023 open studios. sva (flatiron), free (rsvp). >>

sponsored : thurs 6:30pm: ‘war/art balance: deimperializing the soviet avant - garde at the time of russia’s war on ukraine, its culture, and people’ : a free panel in the cooper union’s historic great hall brings together a range of voices to speak on the complexities surrounding the histories of the ukrainian, russian, and soviet avant-garde movements. the panel will delve into the ways that history and culture can be instrumentalized, particularly in light of the russian invasion and ongoing war in ukraine. moderated by oleh kotsyuba of harvard university’s ukrainian research institute. the cooper union’s great hall (east village), free admission (rsvp required). >>

thurs 7pm: fenton bailey + ronan farrow: screenage: production company wold of wonder co-founder fenton bailey launches his new book, screenage:howtvshapedourreality,fromtammyfayetorupaul’sdragrace , in a conversation with journalist ronan farrow at the rare book room at strand bookstore (union square). $10 admission, $39.95 ticket includes a signed copy of the book. >>

thurs 7:30pm: lilith magazine: franklyfeminist : a panel of editors and contributors of lilith magazine will read and discuss their new anthology, franklyfeminist:shortstoriesbyjewishwomenfromlilithmagazine , at p+t knitwear bookstore (les). free admission (signed books will be available for purchase). >>

https://www.theskint.com/tues-thurs-4-25-27-rent-the-runway-sample-sale-you-will-find-your-peoplereelabilities-and-more/

thurs 8pm (weekly): laf dance saloon : jeffrey emerson and jill weiner save the best for laughs at the laf dance saloon comedy show, returning with an evening of standup by jeff scheen (laughs), dave ross (comedy central), brian kim (sirius xm), abby washuta (buzzfeed), amy cardinale, and danny suggs. the backyard of ba’sik (williamsburg), free admission. >>

thurs 9:30pm: risk!podcast live : hear guests tell true stories they never thought they’d share in public at kevin allison’s show. tonight, calvin cato, nate runkel, vicky kuperman, and t bernacé spill the beans at caveat (les). $18 adv, $20 door. >>

https://www.theskint.com/tues-thurs-4-25-27-rent-the-runway-sample-sale-you-will-find-your-peoplereelabilities-and-more/

APRIL 2 4 , 202 3

People Round - Up, Mid - April 2023

EVENTS

April 19-23

Texas Library Association Conference

Austin, TX

April 21-23

Livre Paris

Paris, France

April 21-24

Unbound Book Festival

Columbia, MO

April 22

The Self - Publishing Conference

Leicester, UK

April 22-23

L.A. Times Festival of Books

Los Angeles, CA

April 27-May 15

Buenos Aires Book Fair

Buenos Aires, Argentina

April 27-30

Calgary Expo

Calgary, AB

April 27-30

Leipzig Book Fair

Leipzig, Germany

April 27-30

New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

New York, NY

https://www.publishingtrends.com/2023/04/people-round-up-mid-april-2023/

April 28-30

Malice Domestic

Bethesda, MD

April 28-30

Newburyport Literary Festival

Newburyport, MA

April 29

YALLWEST

Santa Monica, CA

May 3-14

Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival

Sharjah, UAE

May 4-6

IBPA Publishing University

San Diego, CA

May 6

Hudson Children’s Book Festival

Hudson, NY

May 6-7

Bay Area Book Festival

San Francisco Bay Area

May 22-25

U.S Boo k Show

New York, NY

https://www.publishingtrends.com/2023/04/people-round-up-mid-april-2023/

On

The Critic’s Notebook

Theodore Dalrymple, Etruscan and Roman statues, Paul Resika, Sibelius, rare books & more from the world of culture.

This week: Theodore Dalrymple, Etruscan and Roman statues, Paul Resika, Sibelius, rare books & more.

Other:

The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, at the Park Avenue Armory (April 27–30): Starting this Friday, the Park Avenue Armory will host the sixty-third annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, where almost two hundred vendors from sixteen countries will exhibit and sell selections of the world’s rare books, prints, illustrations, historical documents, and other literary items. Among the most coveted offerings will be a collection of Shakespeare’s four Folios, alongside a first edition of his collected poems. Gathered together for sale for the first time in over twenty years, the First through Fourth Folios (the former printed in 1623, the latter in 1685) and the poetry edition will be listed for an eye-watering $10.5 million. Other treasures include original photos taken from the moon by the Apollo 8 astronauts, the only copy of WestSideStory(Random House, first edition) to be signed by all four creators, and a first edition of Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium(OntheRevolutionsoftheHeavenlySpheres , 1543), which posited his heliocentric theory. But even window-shoppers without endless funds will still find much pleasure in perusing the selections brought to the Armory by top-tier booksellers such as Jonkers Rare Books, which will be selling a first edition of Orwell’s NineteenEighty-Four . Single-day tickets to this annual rare-book bonanza are available for $32. JW

What to do this week: A rare book fair and a sex workshop

The Daybook is WSN’s weekly column listing in-person and online events at NYU and across New York City. This week: April 24-30.

https://nyunews.com/news/2023/04/24/daybook-april-24-to-april-30/

Transport yourself to the past at an antiquarian book fair

Noon

Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave.

Calling all book lovers! Peruse rare books, maps, historical documents, photographs and more from almost 200 exhibitors from around the globe at this antiquarian book fair. The event will be hosted by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Single-day tickets are $32 for the general public, but student tickets are $10 at the door with valid ID.

https://nyunews.com/news/2023/04/24/daybook-april-24-to-april-30/

Only the bold believe themselves free from the old gambling adage ‘the house always wins’ and Marcel Duchamp was one such individual: never short of self-confidence and always eager to subvert the system.

While idling among the gaming halls of the French Riviera in 1924, Duchamp was unmoved by the spirit of zealous gambling that surrounded him and struck instead by a conviction that he could beat the casinos with logic. The idea was in keeping with Duchamp’s drift in the 1910s away from the art world and towards chess, a sport he covered in weekly newspaper columns and played competitively.

Soon, Duchamp had concocted a scheme to crack roulette, one of seemingly endless dice rolls that produced exceedingly attritional gains. He was winning, only extremely slowly. What he needed was hefty financial backing.

So began Duchamp’s Monte Carlo Bond, a work that is at once a continuation of his readymade practice, an irreverent critique of finance and gambling, and a bona fide legal document. Publicly at least, Duchamp may have quit painting, but he’d certainly retained an eye for art.

Duchamp planned to issue 30 bonds for his venture at 500 francs each (roughly $10,000 today) with shares repayable over three years at 20 percent interest, well above French bond rates at the time. It was, in essence, a crowdfunding endeavor aimed at art-minded members of the bourgeoisie and number 29 is now up for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, courtesy of London’s Sims Reed Gallery.

“The whole is a beautiful conception. The format of the bond itself, the color elements,” Rupert Halliwell, Senior Bibliographer and Cataloguer at Sims Reed, told Artnet News. “As with so much of Duchamp’s work, it is prophetic and totemic, not to mention anticipating and subverting any interpretation.”

https://news.artnet.com/market/marcel-duchamp-readymade-man-ray-antiquarian-book-fair-new-york2290691

The bond’s design is dominated by a portrait of Duchamp, taken by friend and fellow provocateur Man Ray, which looms over the green felt of a roulette table. His face is plastered in shaving foam with his hair raised and parted dramatically, is he posing as the devil or Mercury the god of money? You decide.

Further interpretation is demanded by the bond’s recurring background text, which reads “moustiques domestiques demi-stock,” a seemingly nonsensical pun that means “domestic mosquitoes half-stock.” In place of the standard articles of association listing the signee and location, Duchamp inserted “The French Law of July 29 1881,” which was the foundation of France’s freedom of speech laws.

Despite this playfulness, Duchamp intended for the bond to be legitimate. His father was a notary and he knew well how to validate a document; the bond is signed by himself and Chairperson of the Board of Directors Rrose Sélavy, his female alter ego. Additional validation came in the form of a 50-cent stamp, which he affixed to the bonds he issued eight, possibly fewer.

The Sims Reed Gallery’s version is missing this stamp. Does this dampen the legitimacy of the bond? Halliwell doesn’t think so. “Does the stamp authenticate an inauthentic pastiche that is also a work of art? There is a danger of some Duchampian circularity of thought here.”

https://news.artnet.com/market/marcel-duchamp-readymade-man-ray-antiquarian-book-fair-new-york-

Such circularity applies to Monte Carlo Bond on the whole, a work that despite failing to defeat the house, succeeded over the long term in holding its value. Sims Reed Gallery will be asking $575,000 for it at the book fair.

https://news.artnet.com/market/marcel-duchamp-readymade-man-ray-antiquarian-book-fair-new-york2290691

The Artful Life: 7 Things Galerie Editors Love This Week

3. The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair Returns to the Park Avenue Armory

The annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair is always an exciting time for collectors of historical tomes, maps, manuscripts, illustrations, and other printed ephemera. This year’s event, the 63rd edition, will occupy the soaring drill hall of the Park Avenue Armory from April 27 to 30 with more than 200 exhibitors from 16 countries, including 11 booths from new participating dealers such as Capitol Hill Books, Edition Altera, and Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber, among others. Prices for items range from $50 to millions, and this year’s highlights include rare woodblock prints by Sol LeWitt, an artist book by John Cage, and illustrations by Queen Victoria. Another treasure, brought by Barry Lawrence Ruderman, is the first edition of one the most sought-after celestial atlases, Harmonia Macrocosmica, issued by Andreas Cellarius in Amsterdam in 1661. Geoffrey Montes

https://galeriemagazine.com/artful-life-april-24-2023/

Colorful Stories for Children, With the Darkest History as Backdrop

Whimsical children’s books signed El Pintor were a success in the Netherlands during World War II. Behind the pseudonym was a Jewish couple who used the proceeds to help the resistance.

ThebooksbyElPintorstoodoutfromotherchildren’sbooksofthetimewiththeirvarietyandtheirwhimsy.Credit...HugoYuforThe NewYorkTimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/el-pintor-childrens-books-antiquarian-bookfair.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

AMSTERDAM During World War II, a clutch of whimsical children’s books were published in the Netherlands under a pen name, El Pintor. One book shows children flying on the backs of sparrows. In another, they float, attached to balloons. There is a pop-up book with people and animals nestled in trees and an activity book with paper cutouts.

The books sold thousands of copies, and were popular not only in the Netherlands, which was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, but in Germany as well.

The books did more than entertain children during the grim days of war. Behind the pseudonym El Pintor was a Jewish couple, Galinka Ehrenfest and Jacob Kloot. They used the name El Pintor to obscure their heritage, and funneled the proceeds from their picture books to fund Dutch resistance efforts and to help Jews who were hiding from the Nazi regime.

They did so at great risk, said Linda Horn, who wrote a book published in the Netherlands about Ehrenfest’s life.

“Secrecy was very important, people couldn’t write down what they were doing,” said Horn of those who worked in the Dutch resistance. “There are barely any sources.”

El Pintor, which also included the work of other artists and writers who collaborated with Ehrenfest and Kloot, produced about two dozen children’s books and games in the early 1940s. Now, 23 of the books including

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/el-pintor-childrens-books-antiquarian-book-

fair.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

copies of all titles published in Dutch, one published only German and several translations will be presented for sale this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

Peter Kraus, the owner of Ursus Rare Books, who is selling the collection, said a Dutch collector acquired it, bit by bit, over the course of 30 years.

JacobKlootandGalinkaEhrenfestpublishedbooksunderthepenname.Theymarriedin1941.

Kloot came from a large, blue collar Jewish family in Amsterdam, while Ehrenfest was born in what is now Estonia. Her father, Paul Ehrenfest, moved the family to Leiden, in the Netherlands, in 1912. A prominent physicist, he was friends with Albert Einstein. According to an article that ran on the front page of The New York Times in 1923, Paul hosted Einstein when he fled from Berlin to Leiden, planning to stay “until general conditions improve and the anti-Semitism hatred subsides in Berlin.”

Ehrenfest spent a few years in the United States in the early 1930s, when she attended art school in California and started drawing regularly. She then returned to the Netherlands and enrolled in the New Art School in Amsterdam, which was founded by an artist who had fled Germany. The school was later forced to close by the Nazi regime, who remained in parts of the Netherlands until the German surrender in 1945.

It was at the New Art School that she met Kloot. They moved in together in 1936 and were married five years later.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/el-pintor-childrens-books-antiquarian-book-

fair.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

In 1940, Kloot founded a small publisher in Amsterdam called Corunda, through which El Pintor started publishing children’s books. Ehrenfest became the creative powerhouse, drawing and writing stories, while Kloot managed the business.

Publishing books was difficult during the Nazi occupation. Paper was scarce and expensive, and printing books required official permission. Approved books got a serial number which allowed their publication, their sale at bookstores and, in El Pintor’s case, their export to Germany.

In 1941, the Nazi regime forced Jewish businesses to be given over to non-Jews. Kloot did so, handing it over to someone he knew, but stayed involved in the operations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/el-pintor-childrens-books-antiquarian-book-

fair.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Printingthebooksbecameincreasinglydifficultduringthewar.Paperwasscarce,andprintingrequiredofficialpermission.Credit...Hugo YuforTheNewYorkTimes

Kraus, who is selling the El Pintor collection, said part of what makes the books unique aside from the powerful story behind them is their variety. There are picture books, activity books and early chapter books. Some of them are roughly the size of an adult’s hand, while others are much larger, like a thin coffee table book. Horn said they were all meant to make children think and play differently than other, more traditional books of the time.

“The books encourage kids to make a mess, to draw on white walls, those sorts of funny things,” Horn said. Though thousands of copies were printed, Kraus said very few remain perhaps because they are books for children. “Children’s books tend to be rare,” he said, “because children ruin them.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/el-pintor-childrens-books-antiquarian-book-

fair.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/el-pintor-childrens-books-antiquarian-book-

Klootdidnotsurvivethewar.HewasdetainedanddiedatSobibor.Ehrenfestlosttheirchild,butlived.Credit...HugoYuforTheNew YorkTimes

As the war continued, Kloot and Ehrenfest became deeply involved with the resistance and helped people escape Nazi persecution. Kloot often traveled around the country, helping those in danger find places to hide.

In 1943, Nazi officers arrested Kloot and his business partner in Leiden. They let the partner go, but Kloot, who was 26, was deported and sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the Netherlands, and from there to Sobibor, an extermination camp, where he was murdered.

At the time of Kloot’s arrest, Ehrenfest was pregnant with their first child. Shortly after, she gave birth to a stillborn baby. She tried to continue producing books as El Pintor, Horn said, but ultimately, it proved too difficult without Kloot and with the growing dangers and challenges of the war years.

Ehrenfest survived, and published one last book as El Pintor after the war ended. She stayed in the Netherlands, where she died in 1979. She was 69 years old.

“It’s a ghastly moment in history, and it’s a paradox that this horrible thing would have such an aesthetic memorial,” Kraus said, gazing at El Pintor’s books, the colors still vibrant after 80 years. “At least this man, this couple, is remembered.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/books/el-pintor-childrens-books-antiquarian-book-

fair.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

T O SAMPLE

Native American Chefs

Offer a Benefit Tasting

Traditional and inventive dishes will be prepared by five Indigenous chefs for New York City

Eatss, a benefit and tasting to support the American Indian College Fund, on May 2. The chefs are Ben Jacobs (Osage Nation), Andrea Murdoch (Andes region, from Venezuela), Bradley Dry (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), Sherry Pocknett (Mashpee Wampanoag Nation) and Loretta Barrett Oden (Citizen Potawatomi Nation). Dancers from the Redhawk Native American Arts Council (right), a nonprofit, will perform during the event. The American Indian College Fund, founded in 1989, provides scholarships for Indigenous students and supports tribal colleges: New York City Eatss, May 2, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., $150 per person and up, the Lighthouse at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers, at West 21 Street, collegefund.org.

T O SEASON

Fresh, Aromatic Spices

Directly From India

Vahdam India, a company specializing in organic teas, has added spices that come directly from Indian farms, like the teas, to its inventory. A set of nine single origin spices, called

Front Burner

Kitchen Essentials, come packed in metal tins (most 70 grams, or 2.47 ounces) and are notably fresh. I’m no fan of onion and garlic powders, but the aromas of those in the set changed my mind. Most of the spices are organic and can be purchased individually from a collection of 25, including some, like moringa powder and whole black cumin seeds, that are not in the basic set. The celebrity Indian chef Vikas Khanna is a spokesman for the new spice line: Vahdam India Kitchen Essentials, $79.99 (sale price, discounted from $100), individual tins, $11.99 each, vahdam.com.

The First 100 Years Of American Menus

A century of American dining, from 1841 to 1941, is represented by more than 220 menus going on display Wednesday at the Grolier Club, a bibliophile and graphic arts society. Included are menus from Mississippi riverboats, Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural ball and Taylor’s Saloon (1861-62), a restaurant that admitted women unaccompanied by a man, rare at its time. They are from the Henry Voigt Collection of American Menus; according to Mr. Voigt, a member of the Grolier Club who curated the exhibition, printed menus first came into general use in the 1840s as hotels and restaurants began to proliferate, hence the start date for the exhibition: “A Century of

Classic Korean Dish, Easy Spring Dinner

Bulgogi is meat marinated in the salty, sweet and zingy.

JUST AS THERE is no one right way to simmer up a marinara sauce, nor a single “correct” apple pie, there are myriad recipes for making bulgogi.

A classic Korean dish of beef marinated in some combination of soy sauce, sugar, garlic and ginger, the meat is then grilled until the sauce caramelizes and condenses, turning salty and sweet, zingy and umami-rich.

It’s those heady flavors mixed with the char that give the dish its deep appeal, making it one of the most beloved preparations of Korean cuisine — and one of the most adaptable.

As my colleague Eric Kim put it a few years ago in a fascinating deep dive, versatility is one of bulgogi’s virtues.

“If you grew up in a Korean household,” he wrote, “then the dish wasn’t just occasional barbecue; it was dinner on the regular, a quick pan-fry on the stovetop.”

This weeknight recipe embodies that easygoing spirit. Its foundation is the marinade, which can be quickly whisked together with pantry staples. (If your pantry doesn’t already include gochujang, the Korean fermented soybean and chile paste, you can rectify that by buying some at an Asian market, at a large supermarket or online.)

Here, I’ve paired the marinade with thinly sliced pork (as you’d find in a traditional jeyuk bokkeum, but with less chile) and loads of vegetables. But think of this recipe as the kind of template that you can — and should — make your own.

Substitute other proteins, such as chicken, turkey, tofu or, more traditionally, beef, for the pork. Any quick-cooking vegetables — broccoli, asparagus, hakurei turnips, green beans, bell peppers and zucchini — will all work in place of the sugar snap peas and radishes, depending on the season. But if you like mushrooms, it’s worth keeping them in the mix for their earthy, meaty character.

In grilled bulgogi recipes, the char is essential — in fact, the term bulgogi means “fire meat” — yet, in this stovetop version, the pork might not even brown. Instead, the goal here is to sear the meat long enough to cook it through, while the sauce thickens

and intensifies. Just take care not to overcook the pork, so it doesn’t toughen, and the flavor remains deep and wonderful.

To serve, spoon the heady mixture over rice, or fold it into lettuce leaves — or do both. There are so many great options when it comes to bulgogi.

Dining Out: The American Story in Menus, 1841-1941,” Wednesday through July 29, free admission, Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, grolierclub.org.

T O INDULGE

Nothing Says Spring Like Floral Cupcakes

Beautiful bouquets of buttercream can adorn a Mother’s Day table for dessert, or provide an Instagram finale for a springtime tea, luncheon or dinner. Fingerlicking pastel flowers decorate new chocolate and vanilla cupcakes by Mackenzie Limited, a mail-order high-end prepared foods company in Owings Mills, Md. They come frozen — in clusters of eight, four of each flavor — and wrapped in florist paper, to thaw in just an hour or so: Cupcakes in Bloom, $84.95 for eight, mackenzielimited.com.

O SERVE

A Stylish Way To Dish Out Salads

Up your springtime salad game with leafy servers and bowls by Nima Oberoi, a San Franciscobased designer and founder of the Lunares collections. The pieces in

her new Verdura line were inspired by her garden. Salad spoon and fork servers, in two sizes, have enameled handles that resemble leaves. Bowls with a silvery finish on the outside and swirling green interiors come in three sizes, at 6.25-, 12- and 15inch diameters. The metal is aluminum and food-safe, but not dishwasher-safe: Verdura salad servers are $85 to $95 per set; bowls are $49, $169 and $259 each; lunareshome.com.

Baking Is the Focus In an Early Photobook

At this year’s International Antiquarian Book Fair, a rare deluxe edition of “The Book of Bread” by Owen Simmons, published in London in 1903 by Maclaren & Sons, is expected to fetch $10,000. The book, bound in leather, is considered to be one of the earliest photobooks published. It was intended as a commercial baker’s manual and shows loaves and slices, actual size with instructions, among other details. (It notes that the best bread is made from freshly milled flour, a practice newly followed by artisan bakers 120 years later.) The author was a founder of the National Bakery School in England in 1894. This book will be on display at the fair alongside other culinary treasures, including “The American Distiller,” from 1804 and dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, said to be the first American book on distilling: ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, Thursday through Sunday, Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue (66th Street), nyantiquarianbookfair.com.

T IME: 50 MINUTES Y IELD: 4 SERVINGS

For the Marinade and Sauce:

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup gochujang

¼ cup light brown sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds, plus more for serving

2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as grapeseed, avocado or sunflower

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, finely grated or minced

1 (2-inch) piece ginger, finely grated or minced

2 scallions, thinly sliced

For the Pork and Vegetables:

1 pound

1. Make the marinade: Add marinade ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk until combined. In a small bowl, reserve half the marinade at room temperature for serving.

2. Add pork to the marinade in the medium bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

3. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add neutral oil. Once the oil is hot, add mushrooms. Let sear, stirring once or twice, until just tender and caramelized, 4 to 7 minutes.

4. Raise heat to high. Add pork along with its marinade, radishes, snow peas and all but 2

tablespoons of the scallions (reserve for garnish) to pan. Let cook, stirring often, until the pork is just cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes. (Take care not to overcook it; it won’t brown, and it may still look slightly pink inside).

5. Garnish with reserved scallions and sesame seeds, and serve hot over rice with reserved marinade for drizzling.

Rare

APRIL 2 5 , 202 3

Shakespeare first edition on sale for $7.5 million

Four hundred years after it was first printed, Shakespeare's First Folio is up for sale for $7.5 million. The book contains a near-complete collection of the bard's plays.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Four hundred years ago, what may be the most significant book in the English language first appeared in print.

EMMA SMITH: If we didn't have this book, you know, just - the implications of that are really substantial.

CHANG: That's Emma Smith of the University of Oxford. She's talking about William Shakespeare's "First Folio," a near-complete collection of 36 of the Bard's plays published seven years after his death.

SMITH: If we didn't have this book, we wouldn't care about Shakespeare at all. Half of the plays would have just been lost. We wouldn't have "Julius Caesar." We wouldn't have "The Tempest." We wouldn't have "Macbeth." And we wouldn't have all the kind of cultural significance that they have got.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

To commemorate the book's anniversary, a rare books dealer in London has collected a copy of the First Folio, along with the second, third and fourth editions of the book. Smith got a preview.

SMITH: I'd never seen all those four 17th century books open in the same place at the same time.

BLOCK: And that's saying something. She's a Shakespeare scholar.

CHANG: The bookseller Pom Harrington also tracked down a first edition of Shakespeare's poems, and he put the whole lot of five books up for sale at $10.5 million. The "First Folio" is the priciest at $7.5 million.

POM HARRINGTON: It's this very fresh and sort of vibrant copy. It's very authentic. It sort of - it crackles as you open the paper.

BLOCK: And he says that fresh condition is rare, especially for popular titles like Shakespeare's.

HARRINGTON: Because it was read to death in a lot of cases. And they didn't have lighting. They used candles and candle wax strips on these books. And so damage can happen.

BLOCK: But don't even think about giving these books the white glove treatment.

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/1172005590/shakespeare-first-editions-on-sale-for-7-5-million

HARRINGTON: We do not use white gloves. They are nasty and evil and harm books. So we wash our hands, and they're dry. And if you have clean, dry hands, you can handle these books.

CHANG: Now, if the mere thought of Shakespeare has you thinking, no, thanks; I'd rather not relive ninth grade English, the Bard's friends who assembled the "First Folio" left some advice in the book's preface. Here's Emma Smith again.

SMITH: They say, read him, therefore, again and again. And then if you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger not to understand him - so kind of saying you can't not like this stuff. You can only not get it. That's the only way.

BLOCK: The "Fourth Folio" has already sold for $235,000, the poems for 750,000. But the first three folios should be on display later this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair if you want to catch a glimpse.

(SOUNDBITE OF NIKI SONG, "BEFORE")

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/1172005590/shakespeare-first-editions-on-sale-for-7-5-million

APRIL 2 5 , 202 3

Rare Shakespeare first edition on sale for $7.5 million

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Four hundred years ago, what may be the most significant book in the English language first appeared in print.

EMMA SMITH: If we didn't have this book, you know, just - the implications of that are really substantial.

CHANG: That's Emma Smith of the University of Oxford. She's talking about William Shakespeare's "First Folio," a near-complete collection of 36 of the Bard's plays published seven years after his death.

SMITH: If we didn't have this book, we wouldn't care about Shakespeare at all. Half of the plays would have just been lost. We wouldn't have "Julius Caesar." We wouldn't have "The Tempest." We wouldn't have "Macbeth." And we wouldn't have all the kind of cultural significance that they have got.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

To commemorate the book's anniversary, a rare books dealer in London has collected a copy of the First Folio, along with the second, third and fourth editions of the book. Smith got a preview.

SMITH: I'd never seen all those four 17th century books open in the same place at the same time.

BLOCK: And that's saying something. She's a Shakespeare scholar.

CHANG: The bookseller Pom Harrington also tracked down a first edition of Shakespeare's poems, and he put the whole lot of five books up for sale at $10.5 million. The "First Folio" is the priciest at $7.5 million.

POM HARRINGTON: It's this very fresh and sort of vibrant copy. It's very authentic. It sort of - it crackles as you open the paper.

BLOCK: And he says that fresh condition is rare, especially for popular titles like Shakespeare's.

HARRINGTON: Because it was read to death in a lot of cases. And they didn't have lighting. They used candles and candle wax strips on these books. And so damage can happen.

BLOCK: But don't even think about giving these books the white glove treatment.

HARRINGTON: We do not use white gloves. They are nasty and evil and harm books. So we wash our hands, and they're dry. And if you have clean, dry hands, you can handle these books.

https://www.wamc.org/2023-04-25/rare-shakespeare-first-edition-on-sale-for-7-5-million

CHANG: Now, if the mere thought of Shakespeare has you thinking, no, thanks; I'd rather not relive ninth grade English, the Bard's friends who assembled the "First Folio" left some advice in the book's preface. Here's Emma Smith again.

SMITH: They say, read him, therefore, again and again. And then if you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger not to understand him - so kind of saying you can't not like this stuff. You can only not get it. That's the only way.

BLOCK: The "Fourth Folio" has already sold for $235,000, the poems for 750,000. But the first three folios should be on display later this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair if you want to catch a glimpse.

(SOUNDBITE OF NIKI SONG, "BEFORE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

https://www.wamc.org/2023-04-25/rare-shakespeare-first-edition-on-sale-for-7-5-million

APRIL 2 5 , 202 3

Rare Shakespeare first edition on sale for $7.5 million

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Four hundred years ago, what may be the most significant book in the English language first appeared in print.

EMMA SMITH: If we didn't have this book, you know, just - the implications of that are really substantial.

CHANG: That's Emma Smith of the University of Oxford. She's talking about William Shakespeare's "First Folio," a near-complete collection of 36 of the Bard's plays published seven years after his death.

SMITH: If we didn't have this book, we wouldn't care about Shakespeare at all. Half of the plays would have just been lost. We wouldn't have "Julius Caesar." We wouldn't have "The Tempest." We wouldn't have "Macbeth." And we wouldn't have all the kind of cultural significance that they have got.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

To commemorate the book's anniversary, a rare books dealer in London has collected a copy of the First Folio, along with the second, third and fourth editions of the book. Smith got a preview.

SMITH: I'd never seen all those four 17th century books open in the same place at the same time.

BLOCK: And that's saying something. She's a Shakespeare scholar.

CHANG: The bookseller Pom Harrington also tracked down a first edition of Shakespeare's poems, and he put the whole lot of five books up for sale at $10.5 million. The "First Folio" is the priciest at $7.5 million.

POM HARRINGTON: It's this very fresh and sort of vibrant copy. It's very authentic. It sort of - it crackles as you open the paper.

BLOCK: And he says that fresh condition is rare, especially for popular titles like Shakespeare's.

HARRINGTON: Because it was read to death in a lot of cases. And they didn't have lighting. They used candles and candle wax strips on these books. And so damage can happen.

BLOCK: But don't even think about giving these books the white glove treatment.

HARRINGTON: We do not use white gloves. They are nasty and evil and harm books. So we wash our hands, and they're dry. And if you have clean, dry hands, you can handle these books.

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/2023-04-25/rare-shakespeare-first-edition-on-sale-for-7-5-million

CHANG: Now, if the mere thought of Shakespeare has you thinking, no, thanks; I'd rather not relive ninth grade English, the Bard's friends who assembled the "First Folio" left some advice in the book's preface. Here's Emma Smith again.

SMITH: They say, read him, therefore, again and again. And then if you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger not to understand him - so kind of saying you can't not like this stuff. You can only not get it. That's the only way.

BLOCK: The "Fourth Folio" has already sold for $235,000, the poems for 750,000. But the first three folios should be on display later this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair if you want to catch a glimpse.

(SOUNDBITE OF NIKI SONG, "BEFORE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/2023-04-25/rare-shakespeare-first-edition-on-sale-for-7-5-million

APRIL 2 6 , 202 3

Early copy of MLK’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ up for sale

AnearlymanuscriptoftheRev.Dr.MartinLutherKing’s“LetterfromBirminghamJail”isupforsaleatabookfairinNewYorkCity thisweek.(PhotocourtesyofJamesCumminsBookseller)

An early manuscript of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is up for sale at a book fair in New York City this week.

The typed manuscript copy that belonged to King’s literary agent, Joan Daves, will be on display from April 2730 at The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. The book fair, in its 63rd year, will be held at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City.

The antiquarian book fair features about 200 exhibitors.

James Cummins Bookseller will exhibit the newly rediscovered draft of King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

https://www.al.com/life/2023/04/early-copy-of-mlks-letter-from-birmingham-jail-up-for-sale.html

On April 16, 1963, after King was arrested for leading protests against segregation, he began writing the letter in his Birmingham Jail cell. The original document was handwritten on the margins of newspaper pages, on small scraps of paper and even on pieces of toilet paper, none of which have survived. The scraps of paper were given to King’s attorneys, who took them to the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, one of King’s lieutenants with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Walker and his secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey, compiled, edited and typed up the manuscript, which King was later able to finish using a legal pad furnished by his lawyers.

The pre-publication copy owned by his literary agent is one of the earliest obtainable copies in existence. It will be offered for sale for $225,000.

The letter is considered the foundational document of the civil rights movement.

King addressed the letter to eight clergy who had written a letter the day King was arrested, April 12, 1963, asking him to delay demonstrations in Birmingham.

The eight clergy were moderate religious leaders who worried that moving too fast on integration would unleash violence in the city. They wanted King to wait until newly elected Mayor Albert Boutwell had a chance to make changes. Boutwell had called King an “outside agitator,” which King refuted in his letter by noting that he was invited by local leaders.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he wrote. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly…

“Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

King’s letter eloquently stated the case for racial equality and the immediate need for social justice. “I had hoped,” King wrote at one point, “that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in non-violent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.”

There would be no waiting for justice, King wrote. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

King began writing his letter in the Birmingham jail, but it was finished and published later, with excerpts published in May and full texts appearing in magazines in June 1963, and in King’s 1964 book, “Why We Can’t Wait.”

https://www.al.com/life/2023/04/early-copy-of-mlks-letter-from-birmingham-jail-up-for-sale.html

AnearlymanuscriptoftheRev.Dr.MartinLutherKing’s“LetterfromBirminghamJail”isupforsaleatabookfairinNewYorkCity thisweek.(PhotocourtesyofJamesCumminsBookseller)

https://www.al.com/life/2023/04/early-copy-of-mlks-letter-from-birmingham-jail-up-for-sale.html

APRIL 2 6 , 202 3

How a Bob Dylan Drawing From ‘Basement Tapes’ Era Ended Up for Sale at an Antiquarian Book Fair

While Bob Dylan has painted a handful of album covers and released several books of drawings over the years, the singer-songwriter’s fervent fans have had few chances to see original art pieces from his hand up close and personal.

But lo and behold! Fans in the New York City area will soon have an opportunity for a close encounter with some odds and ends drawings done by Dylan circa the 1967 recording sessions for the legendary The Basement Tapes album (released in 1975). And if you have a spare $60,000, you could be the one bringing it all back home.

Somewhat improbably, these captioned drawings – done on the blank side of a brown paper bag when Dylan was recording at Big Pink in Saugerties, N.Y. – will be on hand at the 63rd annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, which returns to the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan from April 27-30.

The drawings, like the artist himself, are unusual. One depicts a man with a guitar waving and shouting a variation on a Basement Tapes lyric “Long Distance Operator, This call is Not For Fun!”; another shows what the seller

https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/bob-dylan-drawing-basement-tapes-book-fair-1235315384/amp/

describes as “robot guitar machines”; and yet another features a visage not unlike the one that Dylan painted for the cover of 1970’s Self Portrait.

The story of how the drawings ended up at a book fair is just as unusual as the artwork – though significantly less mysterious. In 2022, Gabe Boyers, a dealer in antiquarian music manuscripts, art and books, was contacted by a man whose late sister maintained a friendship with Levon Helm of The Band during the heady Basement Tapes days. “[She was] in the middle of things with The Band, Eric Clapton and Dylan,” explains Boyers. After inspecting the materials, Boyers – whose gallery Schubertiade Music & Arts (at “B” Dry Goods) is selling the drawings – says he was struck by the way these pieces provided “an incredible impression of this moment and time.” Some of the materials he viewed included “calendars where she meticulously records which drugs they were taking on which day.”

The drawings, on the other hand, are a bit less meticulous. “Like Dylan and his lyrics – they’re difficult to pin down,” he says.

One thing that wasn’t difficult to establish, however, was the validity of the connection to Dylan. The previously seller’s late sister, who died tragically young, had an established history with The Band and Dylan during the period.

“There’s an incredibly deep provenance history that puts her in this room in a well-documented way,” he says. Not only that, but her brother had previously sold some of her personal items from that period via Sotheby’s, meaning the venerable auction company had already vetted items from her collection. Even so, Boyers – who has been doing authentication services for universities and libraries for nearly two decades – made a point to show the drawings to several major Dylan archivists, who confirmed the authorship. “You can tell instantly it’s the same hand, the same quirky confidence.”

You can gawk firsthand at that quirky confidence starting April 27, when the piece will be “very much on display” at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair. “The fair is an incredible opportunity for people to come see things that are normally in museums,” says Boyers, who is also selling a Beethoven manuscript with Ludwig van’s first thoughts on Symphony No. 9.

Elsewhere at the four-day event, music history lovers can see the design archive of Alex Steinweiss, the man who essentially invented album cover art in the 1930s as Columbia Records’ first art director (that collection is being sold by James Cummins Bookseller). Boyers notes that while not everyone has tens of thousands of dollars to drop, the fair offers plenty of items that go for hundreds of dollars.

That price point doesn’t, of course, include the 60k Dylan drawing – but that isn’t just any item. “There’s a lot of fake stuff on the market,” Boyers says. “The opportunity to get things that are undeniably from a certain time and have a strong provenance…. It’s not just a rare item. We know exactly when this was created, who it was made for, and who the other person’s handwriting is on it she was in that room. It’s a special piece.”

https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/bob-dylan-drawing-basement-tapes-book-fair-1235315384/amp/

APRIL 2 6 , 202 3

Collection of rare Shakespeare folios on sale for $10.5 million at New York book fair

A set of incredibly rare William Shakespeare folios will be up for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair this weekend at a staggering price of $10.5 million.

According to the dealer Pete Harrington in London, the folios are believed to be some of the last remaining copies available.

The most expensive folio in the collection is Shakespeare’s First Folio, which was published in 1623 – seven years after the playwright’s death.

The folio was published by John Heminges and Henry Condell – two of Shakespeare’s closest friends and fellow actors from the King’s Men acting company. It is a compilation of 36 out of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, and without it, half of the plays may have been otherwise lost forever, according to the dealer. The standalone price for this folio is $7.5 million.

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-on-sale-for-10-5-million-at-newyork-book-fair

"It’s the most desirable book in the English language," owner Pom Harrington said in a video promoting the folios. The 17th-century folios are being promoted as a package but can also be sold individually. They are said to be in excellent condition.

LEFT:FirstFolioeditionofWilliamShakespeare'splays(Credit:JOHNDMCHUGH/AFPviaGettyImages).

Once a year, exhibitors from across the world convene at New York City's historic Park Avenue Armory for the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. The fair presents a trove of materials including rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, photographs, prints and memorabilia.

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-on-sale-for-10-5-million-at-newyork-book-fair

According to its website, the fair’s specialties encompass art, design, popular culture, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, music and philosophy.

The 63rd annual book fair kicks off on April 27 and runs through April 30. ThisstorywasreportedfromLosAngeles.

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-on-sale-for-10-5-million-at-newyork-book-fair

APRIL 2 4 , 202 3

The 63rd New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

NewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookFair2020 - VIPPreviewNight.Imagecourtesyofj-NoviaFlickr.

Bibliophilesandrarebookcollectors,markyourcalendars!TheAntiquarianBooksellers’AssociationofAmerica’s (ABAA)NewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookFair(NYIABF)isreturningtotheParkAvenueArmoryinNew YorkCitythisweek – fromApril27thtoApril30th,2023.

Since its first edition, the NYIABF has been widely referred to as the world’s finest antiquarian book fair. This year, nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world will be showcasing their collections. The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design, book collectors and generally curious enthusiasts, both seasoned and entry-level. In recent years, the fair has also been capturing the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to hundreds of thousands, and offerings encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books, and much more.

https://www.invaluable.com/blog/the-63rd-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

The NYIABF has been a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy Spring season. The fair has a long history, with several exhibitors having participated every year since it began, attesting to its longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. The fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming over 10 new exhibitors this year, including Capitol Hill Books, Editio Altera, Kate Mitas, Bookseller, Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber, Langdon Manor Books, LLC, Librairie Paul Jammes, Librairie PierreAdrien YVINEC, Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera, Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller, Thorn Books, and W.C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera.

Discovery Day, a tradition at the NYIABF, will take place on April 30th from 1-3 pm. During this time, ticketed visitors can bring their own rare books, manuscripts, maps, and other materials (up to 5 items) for exhibitors to offer expert advice and free appraisals.

The NYIABF has a rich history, and rare books collectors, literary enthusiasts, and those interested in history and culture will find much to appreciate at this year’s fair. If you’re looking for rare treasures or hoping to connect with like-minded collectors, the NYIABF is the place to be.

https://www.invaluable.com/blog/the-63rd-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

Visitor Information

If you’re interested in attending the NYIABF, it is essential to know the details. The fair will take place at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 27th to April 30th, 2023. The fair’s opening hours are from 12 pm to 8 pm on April 27th, from 12 pm to 7 pm on April 28th and April 29th, and from 12 pm to 5 pm on April 30th. The admission fee for a full run of the fair is $60, but tickets for Friday through Sunday are $30 each. Students with a valid ID can purchase a ticket for $10. Buy tickets here.

https://www.invaluable.com/blog/the-63rd-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

How these Dutch Jewish artists aided the resistance with children’s books

While hiding from the Nazis, a husband and wife published dozens of children’s books anonymously. Now, you can see them at a New York book fair

A flying horseman. A zoo crawling with giraffes and crocodiles. A sailboat approaching a desert island swarming with strange plants and animals.

All of these sights must have been nearly unimaginable to children living under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. But a Jewish author and illustrator duo brought them to life through elaborate picture books they published anonymously under the pen name El Pintor. Distributed across the Netherlands and even sold in Germany, the books did more than just entertain young readers: They funded clandestine resistance efforts and supported Jews in hiding. Today, the few surviving copies are just beginning to garner the attention that collectors and rare book enthusiasts believe they deserve.

https://forward.com/culture/544772/jewish-childrens-books-dutch-resistance-netherlands/

“You can’t look at these books and not say, ‘These are unbelievable,’” said Peter Kraus, owner of the rare bookseller Ursus Books, who is displaying a collection of 23 El Pintor books at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair this weekend.

Thisbookfeaturesdetachablecutoutsrepresentingdifferentflowers,whichchildrencould“plant”inthevariouspots.CourtesyofUrsus Books

Behind the pseudonym El Pintor were Jacob Kloot and Anna Galinka Ehrenfest, artists from the Netherlands and Estonia, respectively, who met while attending art school in the 1930s and became a couple shortly after. In 1940, Kloot founded a small publishing house called Corunda, which began publishing picture books that Galinka Ehrenfest conceptualized and illustrated. Blending old-fashioned whimsy with contemporary design (one picture book features a Bauhaus-style apartment building with a flourishing roof garden), El Pintor’s exuberantly colorful oeuvre includes titles like Animal Paradise, The Living Goat, and The Adventures of Kobus Nibble. (Kobus Nibble being an intrepid bunny in lederhosen.)

That same year Kloot founded Corunda, Germany invaded the Netherlands. In 1941, when the Nazi regime demanded that Jews surrender their businesses to non-Jews, Kloot entrusted Corunda to an acquaintance, continuing to use it as a publisher for El Pintor and devoting the profits to resistance activities. Proving popular within the Netherlands, some of the couple’s titles were even translated into German and sold within the Third Reich itself.

After years of evading capture and deportation, Kloot fell victim to the Nazis in 1943. When he and Galinka Ehrenfest attempted to buy a house, the Gestapo arrested him and sent him to Sobibor, where he was killed. Only a quarter of the Netherlands prewar Jewish population survived the Holocaust. Among them was Galinka Ehrenfest, who spent the rest of her life in the Netherlands. She never made another El Pintor book after her husband’s death.

https://forward.com/culture/544772/jewish-childrens-books-dutch-resistance-netherlands/

In the decades since the Holocaust, little has been written about Kloot or Galinka Ehrenfest. Their books are remarkably rare given their relatively recent origins. In over 50 years as a rare bookseller, Kraus had encountered just a few El Pintor titles. “I knew from bitter experience that the books just aren’t around,” he said.

The rarity of El Pintor books is somewhat of a literary mystery. Their wartime origins, Kraus said, don’t justify the dearth of copies today since the authorities apparently did not know that the artists behind El Pintor were Jewish, there was no reason for them to destroy the books. More likely, he said, the majority of El Pintor books met the usual fate of children’s books: destruction by enthusiastic children.

When a Dutch collector presented Kraus with 23 El Pintor books he’d spent 30 years acquiring, Kraus knew he was handling something important. Besides the unusual and tragic story behind their creation, Kraus said, the books stand out as artistic objects. While most children’s books series come in a unified size and format, the El Pintor books vary widely in their design, and no central character connects them. The collection includes pop-up books and a “flower market” book, in which small cards representing different plants can be nestled into different pots within the book. One book provides a basic explanation of color theory. Kloot and Galinka Ehrenfest seem to have wanted children to treat the books like toys and handle them as much as possible.

https://forward.com/culture/544772/jewish-childrens-books-dutch-resistance-netherlands/

23ElPintorbookswillappearatthisweek’sNewYorkInternationalAntiquarianBookFair.CourtesyofUrsusBooks

Kraus, who is selling the El Pintor titles on behalf of the Dutch collector, said that buyers often pass over children’s books. “They don’t yell, ‘Oh my god, I’m worth a ton of money,’” he said. But in recent years, institutions like Princeton and Yale have invested in children’s literature, and Kraus hoped the collection would land in a place where the public can access it.

Besides that, he hopes for a revival of interest in the story of El Pintor. “It would make a wonderful documentary or movie, because there’s an actual story there,” he said.

https://forward.com/culture/544772/jewish-childrens-books-dutch-resistance-netherlands/

APRIL 2 6 , 202 3

Colorful Stories for Children, With the Darkest History as Backdrop

ThebooksbyElPintorstoodoutfromotherchildren’sbooksofthetimewiththeirvarietyandtheirwhimsy.Credit...HugoYuforThe NewYorkTimes

AMSTERDAM During World War II, a clutch of whimsical children’s books were published in the Netherlands under a pen name, El Pintor. One book shows children flying on the backs of sparrows. In another, they float, attached to balloons. There is a pop-up book with people and animals nestled in trees and an activity book with paper cutouts.

The books sold thousands of copies, and were popular not only in the Netherlands, which was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, but in Germany as well.

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/colorful-stories-for-children-with-the-darkest-history-asbackdrop/?amp=1

The books did more than entertain children during the grim days of war. Behind the pseudonym El Pintor was a Jewish couple, Galinka Ehrenfest and Jacob Kloot. They used the name El Pintor to obscure their heritage, and funneled the proceeds from their picture books to fund Dutch resistance efforts and to help Jews who were hiding from the Nazi regime.

They did so at great risk, said Linda Horn, who wrote a book published in the Netherlands about Ehrenfest’s life.

“Secrecy was very important, people couldn’t write down what they were doing,” said Horn of those who worked in the Dutch resistance. “There are barely any sources.”

El Pintor, which also included the work of other artists and writers who collaborated with Ehrenfest and Kloot, produced about two dozen children’s books and games in the early 1940s. Now, 23 of the books including copies of all titles published in Dutch, one published only German and several translations will be presented for sale this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

Peter Kraus, the owner of Ursus Rare Books, who is selling the collection, said a Dutch collector acquired it, bit by bit, over the course of 30 years.

Kloot came from a large, blue collar Jewish family in Amsterdam, while Ehrenfest was born in what is now Estonia. Her father, Paul Ehrenfest, moved the family to Leiden, in the Netherlands, in 1912. A prominent physicist, he was friends with Albert Einstein. According to an article that ran on the front page of The New York Times in 1923, Paul hosted Einstein when he fled from Berlin to Leiden, planning to stay “until general conditions improve and the anti-Semitism hatred subsides in Berlin.”

Ehrenfest spent a few years in the United States in the early 1930s, when she attended art school in California and started drawing regularly. She then returned to the Netherlands and enrolled in the New Art School in Amsterdam, which was founded by an artist who had fled Germany. The school was later forced to close by the Nazi regime, who remained in parts of the Netherlands until the German surrender in 1945.

It was at the New Art School that she met Kloot. They moved in together in 1936 and were married five years later.

In 1940, Kloot founded a small publisher in Amsterdam called Corunda, through which El Pintor started publishing children’s books. Ehrenfest became the creative powerhouse, drawing and writing stories, while Kloot managed the business.

Publishing books was difficult during the Nazi occupation. Paper was scarce and expensive, and printing books required official permission. Approved books got a serial number which allowed their publication, their sale at bookstores and, in El Pintor’s case, their export to Germany.

In 1941, the Nazi regime forced Jewish businesses to be given over to non-Jews. Kloot did so, handing it over to someone he knew, but stayed involved in the operations.

Kraus, who is selling the El Pintor collection, said part of what makes the books unique aside from the powerful story behind them is their variety. There are picture books, activity books and early chapter books. Some of them are roughly the size of an adult’s hand, while others are much larger, like a thin coffee table book. Horn said they were all meant to make children think and play differently than other, more traditional books of the time.

“The books encourage kids to make a mess, to draw on white walls, those sorts of funny things,” Horn said.

Though thousands of copies were printed, Kraus said very few remain perhaps because they are books for children. “Children’s books tend to be rare,” he said, “because children ruin them.”

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/colorful-stories-for-children-with-the-darkest-history-asbackdrop/?amp=1

As the war continued, Kloot and Ehrenfest became deeply involved with the resistance and helped people escape Nazi persecution. Kloot often traveled around the country, helping those in danger find places to hide.

In 1943, Nazi officers arrested Kloot and his business partner in Leiden. They let the partner go, but Kloot, who was 26, was deported and sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the Netherlands, and from there to Sobibor, an extermination camp, where he was murdered.

At the time of Kloot’s arrest, Ehrenfest was pregnant with their first child. Shortly after, she gave birth to a stillborn baby. She tried to continue producing books as El Pintor, Horn said, but ultimately, it proved too difficult without Kloot and with the growing dangers and challenges of the war years.

Ehrenfest survived, and published one last book as El Pintor after the war ended. She stayed in the Netherlands, where she died in 1979. She was 69 years old.

“It’s a ghastly moment in history, and it’s a paradox that this horrible thing would have such an aesthetic memorial,” Kraus said, gazing at El Pintor’s books, the colors still vibrant after 80 years. “At least this man, this couple, is remembered.”

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/colorful-stories-for-children-with-the-darkest-history-asbackdrop/?amp=1

APRIL 2 7 , 202 3

Rare Bob Dylan drawings going on display in New York City

DAVEJHOGAN/GETTYIMAGESFORABA

Some unique and original drawings by Bob Dylan will be on display in New York this week. Billboard reports that the drawings, which Dylan made during the 1967 recording sessions for The Basement Tapes, will be on display at the 63rd annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, taking place April 27 to 30 at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.

The three captioned drawings all appear on the side of a Columbia Records Handelok record bag. One drawing depicts a man waving with a guitar and saying a line similar to a lyric from the tune “Long Distance Operator.” Another shows a figure ready to strike a person who’s telling them to shut up. The third picture looks like an object with guitar strings and features captions identifying the “swift key,” “gas lock,” “tune-up supporter” and more.

And Dylan fans with some money to spare have a chance to own the rare piece of memorabilia. It’s up for sale at the Schubertiade Music & Arts gallery for $60,000.

https://www.kshe95.com/real-rock-news/rare-bob-dylan-drawings-going-on-display-in-new-york-city/

“There’s a lot of fake stuff on the market,” the gallery’s owner, Gabe Boyers, tells Billboard. “It’s not just a rare item. We know exactly when this was created, who it was made for, and who the other person’s handwriting is on it. It’s a special piece.”

https://www.kshe95.com/real-rock-news/rare-bob-dylan-drawings-going-on-display-in-new-york-city/

APRIL 2 6 , 202 3

Collection of rare Shakespeare folios on sale for $10.5 million at New York book fair

A set of incredibly rare William Shakespeare folios will be up for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair this weekend at a staggering price of $10.5 million.

According to the dealer Pete Harrington in London, the folios are believed to be some of the last remaining copies available.

The most expensive folio in the collection is Shakespeare’s First Folio, which was published in 1623 – seven years after the playwright’s death.

The folio was published by John Heminges and Henry Condell – two of Shakespeare’s closest friends and fellow actors from the King’s Men acting company. It is a compilation of 36 out of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, and without it, half of the plays may have been otherwise lost forever, according to the dealer. The standalone price for this folio is $7.5 million.

"It’s the most desirable book in the English language," owner Pom Harrington said in a video promoting the folios.

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-on-sale-for-10-5-million-atnew-york-book-fair.amp

The 17th-century folios are being promoted as a package but can also be sold individually. They are said to be in excellent condition.

LEFT:FirstFolioeditionofWilliamShakespeare'splays(Credit:JOHNDMCHUGH/AFPviaGettyImages).

Once a year, exhibitors from across the world convene at New York City's historic Park Avenue Armory for the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. The fair presents a trove of materials including rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, photographs, prints and memorabilia.

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-on-sale-for-10-5-million-atnew-york-book-fair.amp

According to its website, the fair’s specialties encompass art, design, popular culture, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, music and philosophy.

The 63rd annual book fair kicks off on April 27 and runs through April 30. ThisstorywasreportedfromLosAngeles.

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/collection-of-rare-shakespeare-folios-on-sale-for-10-5-million-atnew-york-book-fair.amp

APRIL 2 7 , 202 3

Precious Publications: Five Rare Shakespeare Books Will Be Sold For $10.5 Million

AvaluablecollectionofShakespeare’sfolios/PhotofromPeterHarrington’sofficialwebsite

Allpublishedinthe17thcentury,thehighlycovetedcollectionincludesacopyofthewriter’sFirstFolio,as wellasararebookofhispoems.

William Shakespeare’s works have been a permanent fixture in the world of English literature for centuries. His legendary plays like Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Midsummer Night’s Dream continue to be taught in educational institutions and adapted into countless forms of media.

https://lifestyleasia.onemega.com/precious-editions-five-rare-shakespeare-books-will-be-sold-for-10-5million/

What’s more, his influence on the English language is immense, as scholars claim that he coined roughly 2,000 words and idioms through his written works many of which are still used today.

It’s been 400 years since the first publication of his works, and to celebrate the occasion, five of his most valuable books will be sold by rare London book dealer, Peter Harrington. The editions are priced individually, but will also be offered as a set for an impressive $10.5 million.

Interested buyers can expect to find the precious collection in this year’s New York International Antiquarian Book Fair from April 27 to 30. The annual event will bring together exhibitors from around the world, each one offering an assortment of rare books, illuminated manuscripts, historical documents, maps, and the like.

This will be the first time in 20 years where all five of Shakespeare’s seminal volumes will be sold together since they were last offered by an auction house.

The Influential Five

The highest priced book in the collection is the First Folio, which sells for $7.5 million. Its original print run produced 750 copies, with 232 copies of the book in existence since 2012.

Published in 1623, the First Folio is considered to be one of the most important works of English literature next to the King James Bible. It contains almost all of the writer’s plays, with 36 dramatic works in total (37 being the complete number).

Next in the line-up of books is a copy of Shakespeare’s Second Folio, with a standalone price of $550,000. The Third Folio, which is also included in the collection of five, is supposed to be the rarest of the editions. Only two other copies of the folio are in private hands, as a majority of its prints were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1966. As such, it’s selling for $1.5 million at the book fair. Meanwhile, the Fourth Folio published in 1685 will be selling for $225,000.

https://lifestyleasia.onemega.com/precious-editions-five-rare-shakespeare-books-will-be-sold-for-10-5million/

ApictureoftheThirdFoliofromPeterHarrington’sofficiallisting/PhotofromPeterHarrington’sofficialwebsite

https://lifestyleasia.onemega.com/precious-editions-five-rare-shakespeare-books-will-be-sold-for-10-5million/

AlookinsideShakespeare’sThirdFolio/PhotofromPeterHarrington’sofficialwebsite

The fifth book is not one of Shakespeare’s Folios, but a collection containing 154 of his sonnets, as well as written pieces from other authors like John Milton and Francis Beaumont. Referred to as Poems, the edition was published in 1640 and is priced at $750,000. It is said that the book is actually harder to come by than the First Folio, as there are only 64 copies of it in existence (with just five in private collections).

https://lifestyleasia.onemega.com/precious-editions-five-rare-shakespeare-books-will-be-sold-for-10-5million/

Therare“Poems”whichcontains154ofthepoet’ssonnets/PhotofromPeterHarrington’sofficialwebsite

All five books are described to be in excellent condition. “There are a few marks left by early readers, but the French linen paper still has a wonderful crisp texture, unlike so many copies that were washed and pressed flat in the 19th century,” shared Pom Harrington, the owner of Peter Harrington, in a press statement. “Together with the Poems, possessing any of the four Folios would be the greatest prize for any significant rare book collector.”

Banner Photo from Peter Harrington’s official website.

https://lifestyleasia.onemega.com/precious-editions-five-rare-shakespeare-books-will-be-sold-for-10-5million/

APRIL 2 7 , 202 3

Rare Bob Dylan drawings going on display in New York City

Some unique and original drawings by Bob Dylan will be on display in New York this week. Billboard reports that the drawings, which Dylan made during the 1967 recording sessions for The Basement Tapes, will be on display at the 63rd annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, taking place April 27 to 30 at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.

The three captioned drawings all appear on the side of a Columbia Records Handelok record bag. One drawing depicts a man waving with a guitar and saying a line similar to a lyric from the tune “Long Distance Operator.” Another shows a figure ready to strike a person who’s telling them to shut up. The third picture looks like an object with guitar strings and features captions identifying the “swift key,” “gas lock,” “tune-up supporter” and more.

https://www.willmarradio.com/the_train/music_news/rare-bob-dylan-drawings-going-on-display-in-newyork-city/article_dc730e26-48c7-5919-8438-52e0e67c18ee.html

And Dylan fans with some money to spare have a chance to own the rare piece of memorabilia. It's up for sale at the Schubertiade Music & Arts gallery for $60,000.

“There’s a lot of fake stuff on the market,” the gallery's owner, Gabe Boyers, tells Billboard. “It’s not just a rare item. We know exactly when this was created, who it was made for, and who the other person’s handwriting is on it. It’s a special piece.”

https://www.willmarradio.com/the_train/music_news/rare-bob-dylan-drawings-going-on-display-in-newyork-city/article_dc730e26-48c7-5919-8438-52e0e67c18ee.html

ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to New York for its 63rd Edition

NEW YORK, NY - The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) - officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) and produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith + Associates - returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 27th-30th, 2023 for its 63rd Edition.

The NYIABF is a cultural pillar of New York and returns as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy Spring season. Universally referred to as the world’s finest antiquarian book fair, NYIABF is excited to reveal nearly 200 exhibitors this year from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair. The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design and book enthusiasts and collectors both seasoned and entry level. In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to millions.

https://artdaily.com/news/156636/ABAA-New-York-International-Antiquarian-Book-Fair-returns-to-

This year, the fair welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries including Argentina, Austria, Bel- gium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. An impressive number of US exhibitors also high- light the incredible wealth of material available stateside. Exhibitors will present a vast treasure trove of items: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical docu- ments, prints and print ephemera.

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual - to the bedrock of secular culture, finance, politics - the fair boasts offerings in every conceiv- able genre and subject.

Several of the 2023 exhibitors have participated in the NYIABF since its inception, attesting to the fair’s longevity and relevance to its dealers and audiences. However, the fair continues to attract new antiquarian booksellers as it evolves, welcoming 11 new exhibitors this year including: Capitol Hill Books; Editio Altera; Kate Mitas, Bookseller; Kunsthandel Mitmannsgruber; Langdon Manor Books, LLC; Librairie Paul Jammes; Librairie Pierre-Adrien YVINEC; Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera; Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller; Thorn Books and W.C. Baker Rare Books and Ephemera.

Exhibitors

In its 63rd Edition, NYIABF continues to endorse the finest tradition of material culled from American and international antiquarian booksellers. In addition to 106 U.S. booksellers, NYIABF enjoys strong interna- tional participation with booksellers hailing from the United Kingdom (30), France (17), Italy (4), Germany (4), Netherlands (5), Austria (5), Denmark (2), Spain (2), Switzerland (2), Argentina (1), Canada (1), Swe- den (1), Belgium (1), Hungary (1), Japan (1) and Czech Republic (1). The vast list of exhibitors includes booksellers from 3 countries that will participate in the fair for the first time.

The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America was founded in 1949 to promote interest in rare and antiquarian books and book collecting, and to foster collegial relations. We strive to maintain the highest standards in the trade. All members agree to abide by the ABAA's Code of Ethics. While our members sell, buy, and appraise books and printed matter, our staff can assist you with finding a bookseller and with other trade-related matters.

Established in 1949, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) is a global network of 22 national antiquarian booksellers' associations, representing over 1600 affiliated rare booksellers based in 37 countries worldwide. ILAB affiliated businesses share a worldwide reputation for high quality, knowledge, expertise, and experience and adhere to ILAB's Code of Usages and Customs. All exhibitors at an ILAB-sanctioned fair are affiliated to the League. ILAB strives to uphold and improve professional standards in the trade, to promote honorable conduct in business, and to contribute in various ways to a broader appreciation of the history and art of the book. ILAB, whose official languages are English and French, is a registered Company Limited by Guarantee in the United Kingdom.

https://artdaily.com/news/156636/ABAA-New-York-International-Antiquarian-Book-Fair-returns-toNew-York-for-its-63rd-Edition#.ZEqEt-zMLDI

Martin Luther King's 'Letter From Birmingham Jail' still resonates 60 years later

Sixty years ago, a Baptist minister sat in a southern jail cell and penned the most important written statement of the civil rights movement.

Months before the March on Washington, where he delivered his spellbinding "I Have a Dream" speech, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., jailed with about 50 other peaceful protesters, wrote a response to local clergy members who had chastised him for upsetting Alabama's status quo.

Without a light or even a mattress on the bedsprings, King wrote what would become the classic "Letter From Birmingham Jail," an intellectual and philosophical treatise that challenged white moderates for decades to come.

"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice," King wrote.

"So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

King, who was isolated from the rest of the protesters, wrote the original manuscript in the margins of a newspaper, on pieces of toilet paper on small scraps of paper smuggled from the jail by King's lawyers.

Those early notes were destroyed. But one of the earliest drafts of the letter, which fell into the possession of King's literary agent, Joan Daves, was recently discovered, and will be exhibited this week at a New York book fair.

It is also being offered for sale for $225,000.

The draft will be featured at the The New York International Antiquarian Book at Manhattan's Park Avenue Armory from April 27 through April 30.

It's hard to put a price on such an important piece of history.

On April 12, 1963, Good Friday, King marched with his supporters from the steps of the Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Baptist Church toward City Hall and the Birmingham central business district in direct violation of an injunction prohibiting the protest

King was arrested along with his top lieutenant, Ralph Abernathy, and about 50 other African American protesters for parading without a permit.

King was taken to Birmingham jail and separated from his supporters. He refused to post bail, instead drawing the media's attention on the injustices of segregation.

The day after his arrest, eight prominent white clergymen published a statement in the Birmingham News urging protesters to stop, and chastising outside agitators for stirring up trouble.

"We are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders," the statement said. "We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely."

Despite his surroundings or maybe because of them King felt compelled to respond.

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people," King wrote.

"For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'"

Those who criticize the Black Lives Matter movement or criticized Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee during the national anthem would benefit from reading King's letter.

And if you have read it before, it's worth reading again, particularly in these times of trouble and racial division.

It's poetry and protest all at once with a message that's timeless.

ThisarticlewaspublishedintheNewYorkDailyNewsanddistributedbyTribuneContentAgency.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/04/137_349829.html

BREVES

Flushing Town Hall presenta CARIBE, una celebración de la música y la danza latinoamericana

POLÍTICA

Biden se presentará a la reelección en los comicios de 2024

INMIGRACIÓN

Piden ampliar TPS a El Salvador y Honduras

SALUD

Salud Mental: Tips para padres de niños autistas

POLICIAL

Departamento Correccional busca reformas radicales en cárceles con cinco nuevos comisarios adjuntos

DEPORTES

Póker de Castellanos… Ídolo del NYCFC “vacuna” al Real Madrid

LOCAL

Políticos impulsan legislación para regular pilas de iones de litio en medio de una oleada de incendios

regional mexicano con nuevo tema Dobel

Flushing Town Hall presenta CARIBE, una celebración de la música y la danza latinoamericana

El sábado 29 de abril, Flushing Town Hall presentará El Barrio Project – CARIBE , una actuación familiar para audiencias de todas las edades a cargo de la Orquesta de Folklore Urbano.

Dirigida por el pianista, compositor y director artístico colombiano Pablo Mayor , la actuación de la Orquesta de Folklore Urbano contará con un espectáculo de música y danza que celebra las raíces y tradiciones de América Latina. El espectáculo cruzará continentes y culturas, mezclando sonidos y movimientos de África occidental, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Cuba y la ciudad de Nueva

York, ¡con autenticidad y estilo!

El público puede esperar una presentación llena de energía de la Orquesta

CIUDAD DE NUEVA YORK

Nuevas estadísticas muestran mejoras en el aire

El Departamento de Salud publicó el último informe de la Encuesta sobre el aire en la comunidad de la ciudad de Nueva York (por sus siglas en inglés, NYCCAS) que describe las mejoras continuas en el aire en toda la ciudad. El informe resume trece años de datos del programa de control de aire urbano en curso más grande de cualquier ciudad de los EE. UU. También describe las tendencias estacionales en los niveles de contaminación del aire desde el invierno de 2008-2009 hasta el otoño de 2021, y remarca las fuentes que contribuyen a los altos niveles de contaminantes en los vecindarios de la ciudad de Nueva York. El análisis y la recolección de datos de NYCCAS proporciona información sobre qué políticas de la ciudad llevarían al mayor bene cio para la salud pública. También están disponibles en línea los mapas que muestran los niveles de contaminación del aire del vecindario por año.

MANHATTAN

La ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) regresa a Park Avenue Armory en la ciudad de Nueva York del 27 al 30 de abril de 2023 para su 63ª edición. Universalmente conocida como la mejor

de Folklore Urbano, que reúne a los vocalistas nuyoricanos Jainardo Batista y Deborah Resto , el percusionista puertorriqueño/

cubano Oreste Abrantes y el maestro colombiano Néstor Gómez en la percusión con instrumentistas de élite del jazz y el jazz de

Nueva York. la escena de la música latina, incluido el violinista/trombonista venezolano Eddie Venegas, a quienes se unen el

bailarín colombiano y de salsa moderna de renombre mundial Daniel Fetecua y su pareja.

Antes del concierto de las 2:15 PM, el público puede asistir a un taller a la 1PM en el que Daniel Fetecua y su compañero dirigirán una clase de baile que presentará ritmos colombianos como la cumbia y el currulao , los pasos divertidos de la salsa de la ciudad de Nueva York y la relación entre el tambor y el bailarín.

Los boletos para la función tienen un costo de entrada general de $15 ($10 para miembros, personas mayores y estudiantes con identi cación).

Para obtener más detalles, visite www. ushingtownhall.org.

feria de libros antiguos del mundo, la NYIABF presenta casi 200 expositores. La librería James Cummins traerá una colección de más de 400 obras -manuscritos, libros rmados, efímeros, etc.- de Jorge Luis Borges, cuentista, ensayista, poeta y traductor argentino, además de ser una gura clave de la Lengua y literatura internacional en español. Algunos aspectos destacados de la colección incluyen una copia inscrita de su obra maestra, El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan, inscrita para una amiga cercana, la artista Amanda Molina Vedia, conocida como Mandie; también el contrato de uno de sus libros clave; la portada del catálogo es un libro de la biblioteca de Borges rmado por él a los 11, 24, 31 y 42 años.

NUEVA YORK

Gobernadora anuncia $15 millones

en asistencia de refrigeración para neoyorquinos vulnerables

La Gobernadora Kathy Hochul anunció que $15 millones están disponibles a través del Programa de Asistencia de Energía para el Hogar para ayudar a los neoyorquinos vulnerables y de bajos ingresos sin aire acondicionado a mantenerse frescos durante el calor del verano. Supervisado por la O cina de Asistencia Temporal y Asistencia para Incapacitados del estado, el programa puede proporcionar un acondicionador de aire a hogares elegibles que incluyen a alguien que tiene una condición médica documentada exacerbada por el calor extremo, o hogares con niños pequeños o adultos mayores. El programa cubre el costo de una unidad de aire acondicionado y la instalación. Se espera atender

hasta 18,500 hogares en todo el estado. Las solicitudes de asistencia para refrigeración se aceptarán a partir del lunes 1 de mayo hasta el 31 de agosto o hasta que se agoten los fondos. La asistencia se proporciona por orden de llegada. Los residentes de la ciudad de Nueva York pueden presentar su solicitud en persona en un Centro de Acceso a Bene cios HRA local, por teléfono o en línea en access.nyc.gov.

QUEENS

Obra premiada, Ocho cuentos de Pedro

Del viernes 28 de abril al domingo 7 de mayo, Queens eatre destaca las voces de los inmigrantes con la presentación de Eight Tales of Pedro (Ocho cuentos de Pedro), una obra con música de Woodside, el dramaturgo de Queens Mark-Eugene Garcia (ENCORE!, ABC) y Música de Luis D’Elías. La obra original con música está ambientada tanto en el México del siglo XVII, cuando Pedro y sus compañeros viajan desde un pequeño pueblo portuario de Oaxaca hasta la legendaria Veracruz, como en el México actual, cuando una camioneta llena de inmigrantes cruza la frontera. En esta historia de aventuras, los dos narradores lo arriesgan todo, ¡mientras sus vidas y tramas se entrelazan! Los boletos para Eight Tales of Pedro cuestan $20 o 4 por $75 con el código 4FOR75. La presentación del 30 de abril tendrá subtítulos en inglés, la presentación del 5 de mayo tendrá subtítulos en español y la presentación del 7 de mayo será descrita en audio. Para obtener más información y horarios, visite:https://queenstheatre.org/event/ eight-tales-of-pedro/.

APRIL 2 7 , 202 3

Agenda de eventos: un fin de semana con muchas opciones

El gran artista dominicano, Juan Luis Guerra, se presenta este jueves en el Madison Square Garden

Feria internacional de libros antiguos

La ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) regresa al Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Avenue), del 27 al 30 de abril, para su 63ª edición. Universalmente conocida como la mejor feria de libros antiguos del mundo, la NYIABF presenta casi 200 expositores. Entre el material exhibido destaca el de la librería James Cummins, que traerá una colección de más de 400 obras -manuscritos, libros firmados, efímeros, etc.- de Jorge Luis Borges, cuentista, ensayista, poeta y traductor argentino, además de una figura clave del español. Algunos aspectos de la colección incluyen una copia de su obra maestra, El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan , inscrita a una amiga cercana, la artista Amanda Molina Vedia, conocida como Mandie; también el contrato de uno de sus libros clave; la portada del catálogo es un libro de la biblioteca de Borges firmado por él a los 11, 24, 31 y 42 años. Parainformacióndelaferia,visite:https://www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com/ .

https://eldiariony.com/2023/04/27/agenda-de-eventos-un-fin-de-semana-con-muchas-opciones/

The Antiquarian Book Fair: From 1750s True Crime to Warhol’s Cats

Nearly 200 dealers from 17 countries will bring plenty of acknowledged treasures and quirky surprises to the Park Avenue Armory this weekend.

ApagefromAndyWarhol’s1954artist’sbook“25CatsNameSamandOneBluePussy,”onviewattheNewYorkAntiquarianBook Fair.Credit...TheAndyWarholFoundationfortheVisualArts,Inc./LicensedbyArtistsRightsSociety(ARS),NewYork;viaHoney& Wax

One of New York’s best window-shopping weekends is back, as the four-day New York International Antiquarian Book Fair returns on Thursday to the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

Far from an old-fashioned aristocratic cabinet of curiosities, “the fair,” as regulars call it, can feel like an overwhelming explosion of history, beauty, charm and surprise. Prices range from the sticker-shocking to the eminently affordable. Hardened bibliomaniacs and casual browsers are welcome.

Nearly 200 dealers from 17 countries will bring plenty of acknowledged treasures, like a copy of Shakespeare’s Third Folio (rarer, as it happens, than the First Folio, since many are believed to have been lost in the London Fire of 1666) and at least a dozen rare editions of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

But there are also pulp novels, letters, documents, posters, pamphlets, menus, children’s games and other items, many bearing the traces of famous hands, like a hand-colored 1954 book about cats by a not-yet-famous Andy Warhol, from the library of George Balanchine and Tanaquil LeClerc ($75,000). Or famous feet: A pair of tap shoes worn by Donald O’Connor in “Singin’ in the Rain” is listed at $3,500.

Each item on view, whether immaculately preserved or intriguingly weathered, tells its own story. Here are some highlights.

Civil Rights History

TheopeningpageofatypescriptoftheRev.Dr.MartinLutherKingJr.’s1963“LetterfromaBirminghamJail,”foundinthefilesofhis literaryagent.Credit...viaJamesCumminsBookseller

In April 1963, while jailed in Birmingham, Ala., the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to eight white clergymen who had urged him to seek justice in the courts, not the streets. Dr. King’s original draft, written on

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

scraps of paper and pieces of toilet paper and smuggled out of the jail by his lawyers, was lost. The dealer James Cummins is offering an early typed draft that was recovered from the files of Dr. King’s literary agent, Joan Daves. Today, there are eight known draft versions of the letter, according to scholars. But this one earlier than the others, the dealer argues is the only one “obtainable” at market. “Clearly, the ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ was the most important written document of the civil rights era,” the scholar S. Jonathan Bass wrote in 2001.

Music of the Spheres

Issuedin1661inAmsterdambyAndreasCellarius,“HarmoniaMacrocosmica”isdescribedbyitsdealeras“themostsought-afterofall celestialatlases.”Credit...viaBarryLawrenceRudermanAntiqueMaps

The dealer Bernard Quaritch Ltd. will bring what it describes as one of the last manuscript copies of Marco Polo’s “Travels” in private hands, priced at above $1 million. And at Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, you’ll find the even more gawkable (and, at $395,000, slightly more affordable) “Harmonia Macrocosmica,” described by the dealer as “the most sought-after of all celestial atlases” and the only one produced during the golden age of Dutch cartography. Issued in 1661 in Amsterdam by Andreas Cellarius, the atlas features 29 spectacular hand-colored, doubled-page plates illustrating competing theories about the motions of the sun, earth and stars at a time when there was significant debate. In the frontispiece, Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and two figures wearing turbans (possibly including the astronomer Abu Abdallah al-Battani) are clustered near Urania, the muse of astronomy, some of them pointing as if to say, “Hey, I told you so!”

True Crime, 18th - Century Style

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

Before there was Adnan Syed and “Serial,” there was Elizabeth Canning. On New Year’s Day in 1753, Canning, an 18-year-old London maidservant, disappeared without a trace, then stumbled back to her mother’s home a month later, claiming to have been assaulted, kidnapped and imprisoned in a brothel by two woman, including Mary Squires, whom she identified as “a gypsy.” Honey & Wax is offering a dossier of letters, pamphlets, clippings and books relating to the case ($22,500), which it describes as one of the first “unsolved mysteries” to captivate the public, with a strong whiff of the themes of race, gender and sexual violence surrounding many true-crime stories today. At the time, interest was so intense that the public divided according to whether a person believed Canning’s story or that of Squires (who was sentenced to death and later pardoned). As one newspaper put it, “The first question in the morning was, ‘What news of Canning?’”

A Table for 21

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

Booksfromthemembers’libraryatthe“21”Club,thelegendaryManhattanspeakeasy-turned-restaurant.AttopisabookbyLudwig Bemelmans,thecreatorof“Madeline.”Credit...viaTypePunchMatrix

Several dealers are offering whole collections assembled by notable figures, including a sampling of 4,000 books from the private library of Eric Idle, one of the founders of Monty Python, from Johnson Rare Books and Archives. (They are being sold individually, from $75 to $8,500 each.) Type Punch Matrix is bringing 100 personally inscribed volumes from the members’ library at the “21” Club ($25,000), the legendary speakeasy-turnedrestaurant in Manhattan. Highlights include a vocal score for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!,” inscribed by Richard Rodgers, and a copy of “How to Travel Incognito,” by Ludwig Bemelmans (the creator of “Madeline”), with a Bemelmans doodle of an arm raising a martini glass.

Currency With Tragic Origins

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

CurrencynotesfromTheresienstadt,the“model”campcreatedbytheNazisinCzechoslovakia,toclaimthatdeportedJewswerebeing “resettledintheEast.”Credit...viaEricChaimKlineBookseller

In 1941, the Nazis established the notorious camp at Theresienstadt, in Czechoslovakia, which was used to further claims that Jews were simply being “resettled in the East.” German propaganda presented it as a “spa town,” where residents practiced various trades, organized cultural activities and to some degree governed themselves. As part of the deception, the Nazis allowed the creation of a Bank of Jewish Self-Administration, which issued paper currency depicting Moses holding the Ten Commandments. Eric Chaim Kline Bookseller is offering a complete set of seven notes ($1,250), designed by Peter Kien, a Czech artist and poet who died in Auschwitz in 1944. On arriving at Theresienstadt, Jews were forced to exchange their assets for this currency, which had no real value beyond paying certain “taxes.” The goods in the camp’s “shop windows” most of which had been seized from inmates were not for sale.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

Afirsteditionofthe1949book“GiantBrains:Or,MachinesThatThink”isonofferaspartofacollectionofbooks,documentsand artifactscalled“A.I.:TheHiddenHistory.”Credit...viaChristianWhiteRareBooks

Today, the specter of artificial intelligence may rouse anxiety in the minds of the bookish sorts who pack the fair. But in his 1949 book “Giant Brains: Or, Machines That Think,” the American computer scientist Edmund Callis Berkeley struck a more upbeat note. “It seems to me,” he wrote, “that they will take a load off men’s minds as great as the load that printing took off men’s writing: a great burden lifted.” A first edition of Berkeley’s book is among the dozens of items included in “A.I.: The Hidden History,” a collection of books, documents and artifacts offered by Christian White Rare Books ($125,000). The collection includes material from leading figures like the mathematician Claude Shannon (known as the father of information theory) and the philosopher David Lewis, as well as from (ahem) women who were active in the field.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

APRIL

One of the Last Remaining Manuscripts of ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’ Is on Sale for Over $1 Million

The copy was produced in 1530 and is believed to be first owned by one of Henry VIII’s chaplains.

By Abby Montanez

Marco Polo wasn’t just an explorer; he was also a renowned storyteller. Now, you can own a rare piece of his literary legacy.

One of the last manuscripts of Polo’s Travels to remain in private hands has popped onto the market, and the ultra-rare title is selling for upwards of $1 million. According to antiquarian book dealer, Bernard Quaritch, it’s one of only two other surviving manuscripts to be offered up in nearly a century.

OneofthelastremainingmanuscriptsofMarcoPolo’sTravelsisonsaleformorethan$1million

Dating back to 1298, the text wasn’t actually written by the adventurer. It’s believed to be originally penned by Rustichello da Pisa in a Franco-Italian hybrid language. (Pisa is best known for co-authoring Polo’s autobiography.) This copy, entitled De conditionibus et consuetudinibus orientalium regionum, was translated into Latin by friar Francesco Pipino of Bologna sometime between 1310 and 1324 and is considered the most popular version of the manuscript in medieval Europe.

“Marco Polo’s Travels is arguably the most famous travel book of all time,” says Bernard Quaritch. Produced in 1530 at Westminster, England, the manuscript was made by a scribe working at the court of Henry VIII and appears to be first owned by one of the former king’s chaplains. Both the script and decoration sport a late Gothic style. Overall, the dealer considers the 13th-century text to be in “excellent condition” despite some light soiling, minor stains, and ink smudges.

ThemanuscriptisbeingofferedupbyantiquarianbooksellerBernardQuaritch

Other than a manuscript sold at Sotheby’s in 1930, there has only been one other known Polo text to appear at auction. That was the 14th-century Courtenay Compendium, which featured a collection of historical texts including The Travels of Marco Polo, composed by the Italian merchant and his pal, Pisa, while they were in prison together in Genoa. Polo is said to have dictated his journey East to the Arthurian romance writer, who was in charge of putting the tales on paper. The manuscript will be for sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair which runs from April 27 to April 30.

https://robbreport.com/shelter/art-collectibles/marco-polo-travels-manuscript-1234835524/

Sunny Children’s Books, Made in Dark Times

A playful series popular in the Netherlands and Germany in the early 1940s was the work of a Jewish couple who aided the resistance.

AMSTERDAM — During World War II, a clutch of whimsical children’s books were published in the Netherlands under a pen name, El Pintor. One book shows children flying on the backs of sparrows. In another, they float, attached to balloons. There is a pop-up book with people and animals nestled in trees and an activity book with paper cutouts.

The books sold thousands of copies, and were popular not only in the Netherlands, which was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, but in Germany as well.

The books did more than entertain children during the grim days of war. Behind the pseudonym El Pintor was a Jewish couple, Galinka Ehrenfest and Jacob Kloot.

They used the name El Pintor to obscure their heritage, and funneled the proceeds from their picture books to fund Dutch resistance efforts and to help Jews who were hiding from the Nazi regime.

They did so at great risk, said Linda Horn, who wrote a book published in the Netherlands about Ehrenfest’s life.

“Secrecy was very important, people couldn’t write down what they were doing,” said Horn of those who worked in the Dutch resistance. “There are barely any sources.”

El Pintor, which also included the work of other artists and writers who collaborated with Ehrenfest and Kloot, produced about two dozen children’s books and games in the early 1940s. Now, 23 of the books — including copies of all titles published in Dutch, one published only in German and several translations — will be for sale this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

Peter Kraus, the owner of Ursus Rare Books, who is selling the collection, said a Dutch collector acquired it, bit by bit, over 30 years.

Kloot came from a large, blue-collar Jewish family in Amsterdam, while Ehrenfest was born in what is now Estonia. Her father, Paul Ehrenfest, moved the family to Leiden, in the Netherlands, in 1912. A prominent physicist, he was friends with Albert Einstein. According to an article on the front page of The New York Times in 1923, Paul hosted Einstein when he fled from Berlin to Leiden, planning to stay “until general conditions improve and the anti-Semitic hatred subsides in Berlin.”

Ehrenfest spent a few years in the United States in the early 1930s, when she attended art school in California and started drawing regularly. She then returned to the Netherlands and enrolled in the New Art School in Amsterdam, which was founded by an artist who had fled Germany. The school was later forced to close by the Nazi regime, who remained in parts of the Netherlands until the German surrender in 1945.

It was at the New Art School that she met Kloot. They moved in together in 1936 and were married five years later.

In 1940, Kloot founded a small publisher in Amsterdam called Corunda, through

which El Pintor started publishing children’s books. Ehrenfest became the creative powerhouse, drawing and writing stories, while Kloot managed the business. Publishing books was difficult during the Nazi occupation. Paper was scarce and expensive, and printing books required official permission. Approved books got a serial number which allowed their publication, their sale at bookstores and, in El Pintor’s case, their export to Germany.

In 1941, the Nazi regime forced Jewish businesses to be given over to non-Jews. Kloot did so, handing Corunda over to someone he knew, but stayed involved in the operations.

Kraus, who is selling the El Pintor collection, said part of what makes the books unique — aside from the powerful story behind them — is their variety. There are picture books, activity books and early chapter books. Some of them are roughly the size of

the Big Apple, Without Much of a Bite

Thompson with Sharon Washington. They are musicians and singers, strivers and dreamers. And sadly, none make much of an impression, mired as they are in a muck of good sentiments and civic cheerleading.

As the various story lines move toward their inevitable intersection, any sign of wrinkle or kink has been smoothed out. The most prominent victims are the reimagined Jimmy and Francine, who have been flattened into cardboard figures. The film’s Jimmy, portrayed by Robert De Niro, was an obnoxious, abusive, narcissistic jerk of a sax player who fell for Liza Minnelli’s Francine, a passionate singer who worked her way up from canary in big bands to solo star; their volatile relationship would not pass the smell test with 2023 audiences.

The new Jimmy is merely a minor irritant who has graduated from good saxophonist to brilliant multi-instrumentalist equally at ease playing jazz with the African American trumpeter Jesse (John Clay III) and Latin grooves with the Cuban percussionist Mateo (Angel Sigala), whose own stories are delineated in broad strokes. That Jimmy ends up as a human bridge between the musical styles of Harlem and Spanish Harlem is quite a feat for a white-bread Irish kid. (A Jewish violinist played by Oliver Prose mostly exists on the sideline.)

Meanwhile, Francine comes across as a spunky, empowered free spirit plugged into

a 21st-century outlet. A Black woman, she overcomes the treacherous waters of the music scene with relative ease, and setbacks seem to glide off her.

Ryan (“Girl From the North Country,”

Connor in the film of “Dear Evan Hansen”) and Uzele (“Once on This Island,” Catherine Parr in “Six”) are technically fine, but they don’t fill characters drawn as sketches. They never find the ache that drives both Francine and Jimmy, nor the sexual attraction between them. This creates a central void that further restrains the overly polished book — friction feeds fiction. And if anybody knows that, it’s John Kander. An effective mix of louche syncopation, unabashed romanticism and biting sarcasm long set Kander and Ebb apart on Broadway, from “Cabaret” to “Chicago” to their earlier collaboration with Stroman, “The Scottsboro Boys.”

The score for “New York, New York” juxtaposes new songs Kander wrote with LinManuel Miranda, like the propulsive “Music, Money, Love,” with older ones set to lyrics by Ebb. Of those, the best known (you-know-what and “But the World Goes ’Round”) were pulled from the Scorsese movie, while others were repurposed, such as “A Quiet Thing” from the 1965 show “Flora the Red Menace,” and “Marry Me” from “The Rink” (1984).

But no matter when or who they were written with, too many of the songs lack

an adult’s hand, while others are much larger, like a thin coffee table book. Horn said they were all meant to make children think and play differently than other, more traditional books of the time.

“The books encourage kids to make a mess, to draw on white walls, those sorts of funny things,” Horn said.

Though thousands of copies were printed, Kraus said very few remain — perhaps because they are books for children.

“Children’s books tend to be rare,” he said, “because children ruin them.”

As the war continued, Kloot and Ehrenfest became deeply involved with the resistance and helped people escape Nazi persecution. Kloot often traveled around the country, helping those in danger find places to hide.

In 1943, Nazi officers arrested Kloot and his business partner in Leiden. They let the partner go, but Kloot, who was 26, was de-

ported and sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the Netherlands, and from there to Sobibor, an extermination camp, where he was murdered. At the time of Kloot’s arrest, Ehrenfest was pregnant with their first child. Shortly after, she gave birth to a stillborn baby. She tried to continue producing books as El Pintor, Horn said, but ultimately, it proved too difficult without Kloot and with the growing dangers and challenges of the war years.

Ehrenfest survived, and published one last book as El Pintor after the war ended. She stayed in the Netherlands, where she died in 1979. She was 69 years old.

“It’s a ghastly moment in history, and it’s a paradox that this horrible thing would have such an aesthetic memorial,” Kraus said, gazing at El Pintor’s books, the colors still vibrant after 80 years. “At least this man, this couple, is remembered.”

BY

Jacob Kloot and Galinka Ehrenfest, far left, who published storybooks in the Netherlands during World War II under the pen name El Pintor. Several of them will be for sale this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

The books’ variety and whimsy set them apart from others of the time.

Kander and Ebb’s signature serrated edge. Partly this has to do with Sam Davis’s arrangements and music direction, which have a deficit of oomph, and thus further reinforce the show’s sexlessness — there is no pulse when there is no swing. (Kander and Ebb were capable of that more than most Broadway creators: Just listen to, say, the fantastically driving “Gimme Love” from “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”)

The new show’s rah-rah tone eventually becomes numbing. This is all the more frustrating because ambivalence is baked into the title song, which alludes to the city’s mercurial temperament. “If I can make it there/I’d make it anywhere” — we’re in a tough town — is followed by “It’s up to you/

New York, New York,” which deprives the singer of agency. But the show follows the triumphant template set by Frank Sinatra rather than the more ambiguous one imparted by Minnelli. In this rose-colored vision, trials are temporary, everybody gets along, and nobody runs up against New York’s bad side.

Stroman has a rare affinity for classic Broadway showmanship, as illustrated by her work on “Crazy for You” and “The Producers,” but she can also veer into radical stylization, as in “The Scottsboro Boys.”

Here, the flashes of inspiration are few and far between. A highlight is a tap number staged on high beams, with a couple inscribed with “JK 3181927” and “FE 481928” — Kander and Ebb’s birth dates, and two of the Easter eggs lurking in Beowulf Boritt’s vibrant set, dominated by towering fire escapes. The magical moment known as Manhattanhenge is evoked with a terrific assist from the lighting designer Ken Billington. And there is the thrill of watching a big band rise up to the stage, when Jimmy’s combo kicks off the title song at the end.

It is not much to remember from a show that clocks in at nearly three hours and had such formidable potential. “You can be anyone here,” Jesse says at one point, “do anything here.”

If only “New York, New York” had interpreted that line not as a reassurance, but as a challenge to dare.

APRIL 2 7 , 202 3

Earliest Known Copy of “Harry Potter” for Sale at New York International Ant iquarian Book Fair

Harry Potter fans and bibliophiles everywhere have some astonishing news coming their way from the world of publishing. What was found to be the earliest known copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is going up for sale at the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America’s (ABAA) New York International Antiquarian Book Fair this weekend.

Source:ManhattanRareBookCompany

https://www.mugglenet.com/2023/04/the-earliest-ever-known-copy-of-harry-potter-for-sale-at-newyork-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

What could be considered the very beginning of the historic fantasy franchise, this collection of uncorrected galley sheets holds stories of its own. The Manhattan Rare Book Company, the seller of this rarity, delves further into the background of this incredible piece of Potter history.

In February 1997, literary critic Fiona Waters received this very set of galley sheets to read, which she did “during a long train journey to Scotland.” By all odds, it was quite a happy coincidence that Waters read the earliest version of Harry Potter in a very Potter-like fashion, and we have to take a moment to appreciate this small but funny twist of fate.

Source:ManhattanRareBookCompany

In any other circumstance, galley sheets would have been discarded by Waters. However, she made the decision to hold onto this galley copy after having a feeling that the story within its pages was special. The critic sent her feedback to Rosamund Walker at Bloomsbury Publishing, who was the children’s marketing manager, and with high praises stated “There is something about Harry Potter that reminds me of Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The comparison would later be quoted on the back of first-edition copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

IhavejustreturnedfrommygreattrainjourneytoScotlandsoHarryPotterhasbeenread!Ijustlovedthebook,it isfullofpaceandinterestandsoveryfunny.[…]AndpleasemayIhaveafinishedcopy,Iwouldliketotelllotsof peopleaboutit.

The Manhattan Rare Book Company adds that these galley sheets have historical significance due to the knowledge that they are “the only known set of advance galley sheets to have survived.” This version predates the famed first-edition copies that were later released to the world as well as other 200-bound proof copies that have also gone up for sale. While a series of copies of these galley sheets were distributed to other literary reviewers, they, and other earlier versions of the prints, are likely lost to history.

https://www.mugglenet.com/2023/04/the-earliest-ever-known-copy-of-harry-potter-for-sale-at-newyork-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

Accompanying this unique galley copy is an equally astonishing price of $275,000.

Preview day for the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, located at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, is Thursday, April 27 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. EST. The fair will continue through the weekend and will be open on Friday, April 28 from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 29 from 12:00 to 7:00 p.m.; and Sunday, April 29 from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. EST. Tickets are on sale now starting at $65 for preview day and $62 for access to the fair for the remaining three days.

https://www.mugglenet.com/2023/04/the-earliest-ever-known-copy-of-harry-potter-for-sale-at-newyork-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

SEARCHING BEYOND THE BOOKS AT THE NEW YORK ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR

It would be safe to say that the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair boasts some of the finest bookish treasures one can find. Entering into the Upper East Side’s Park Avenue Armory for the annual event, now in its 63rd edition and running through April 30, bibliophiles will find booths upon booths (over 200, to be more exact) filled with treasures any library would dream of having.

Carefully propped up in cradles, clear strips of plastic or brass “hands” magically holding pages open, books with magnitudes of rarity hard to comprehend line the Armory’s 55,000-square-foot drill hall. You could get lost for hours staring at brilliant illuminated transcripts, or be charmed by a first edition of your favorite novel, or blown over by intricate bindings in materials such as mother of pearl and, of course, fine leather. And while books (gigantic and miniature alike) are the rightful focal point of the popular event, we challenge you to look beyond the pages to the rare non-bound objects tucked away in the booths.

https://www.allarts.org/2023/04/new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

What might you find? To start, there’s no shortage of maps, atlases, rare card decks, illustrations, paintings, broadsides and photos including a snapshot of Picasso at Librairie le Feu Follet; a crystal-clear image of “Earthrise,” captured by Apollo 8 Lunar Module Pilot William Anders at Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.; and original art by Edward Gorey for “The Little Black Dress and Other Signs of Status” at W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera. You’ll also see scores of diaries, journals and sketchbooks which count as books, of course, but are a delightful and sometimes unexpected sight amongst their formally printed booth-mates.

Then there are the letters that would make your head spin (like an “apparently lost” note from Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey at Riverrun Books & Manuscripts; an unpublished letter from Édouard Manet to the wife of friend Jules Guillemet, complete with small watercolor illustrations of bags in Paris for her to choose from, at Antiquariat Inlibris; and letters from Kurt Vonnegut to fellow Hoosier Robert Poindexter Pace that feature the author’s selfportrait at Lucius Books). And there are book objects, such as the latrine-hiding “Thunderbook” at Lux Mentis, that will make you question what’s concealed behind the binding of every book you see in the future.

If you further wiggle your way inside of the booths to linger over the cases, you may also find a three-meter-length roll of exquisite 18th-century English wallpaper at Simon Beattie, delicate-looking brisé fans, drums, a variety of measurement devices (think: rulers and beyond) and, of course, hair. You’ll see a cardboard pedagogical jigsaw for learning geometry circa 1860 that satisfyingly fits into one rectangle box but breaks into three-dimensional triangles and other shapes at Le Zograscope, and a Victorian cookie with marzipan at Eclectibles.

https://www.allarts.org/2023/04/new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

Those whose heart beats to “5, 6, 7, 8” would do well to swoop down outside of the Schubertiade Music & Arts booth to see Donald O’Connor’s tap shoes worn in the 1952 film “Singin’ in the Rain,” safely stowed away behind plexi-glass. (They are Capezio, for anyone wondering.) Swing to the booth’s front display case to spot a small, green glass tube meant for holding a posy. Unassuming and petite, the posy holder is inscribed to Oscar Wilde from Alfred Douglas, “To Oscar Love Bosie.”

And all of this is to just name a few instances of what you might find. More information about special events and hours can be found on the fair’s website. Happy browsing!

https://www.allarts.org/2023/04/new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair/

APRIL 2 8 , 202 3

60 years on, King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ relevant as ever, say faith leaders

King’s response to white clergy critics endures as a ‘road map’ for those working on justice and equal rights.

(RNS) It’s been more than half a century since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on scraps of paper, but faith leaders say his response to white clergy critics endures as a “road map” for those working on justice and equal rights.

https://religionnews.com/2023/04/28/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-eversay-faith-leaders/

Recent events and exhibitions tied to its anniversary have revealed the ongoing interest in and relevance of King’s letter, in which the civil rights leader proclaimed: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice held a virtual event on Wednesday (April 26) to mark 60 years since King penned the letter on April 16, 1963, after being jailed for his organization of a nonviolent demonstration on Good Friday that year in the Alabama city. The letter was released publicly the next month and was included in his 1964 book “Why We Can’t Wait.”

The Rev. Jim Wallis, the center’s director, noted how King wrote that the greatest “stumbling block” for freedom-seeking Black Americans was rather than a Ku Klux Klan member the “white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

Wallis pointed to the current debate in some school districts over what books children can and can’t read as an example of why the letter continues to be relevant.

“We know that it is impossible to build a truly multiracial democracy if we do not wrestle honestly and directly with its legacy and current manifestations of white supremacy,’’ he said. “At the moment when some are trying to erase our history, especially our racial history, remembering and learning from the past is now more important than ever.”

King’s letter was addressed to eight clergymen, whom he called “my Christian and Jewish brothers,” after they questioned the need for and the urgency of the Birmingham campaign he had led as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the interim president of the National Council of Churches, shared at the event how King’s letter guided her family’s prayers for her older brother’s safety as he traveled that year by bus to the South to aid the movement.

https://religionnews.com/2023/04/28/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-eversay-faith-leaders/

“It was a fearful time, a fearful time when something had to be done,” she said. “The African diaspora is calling you to do it. And King gives us a road map on how to begin that process of change.”

TheRev.OtisMossIIIparticipatesinavirtualeventonApril26,2023,tomark60yearssincetheRev.MartinLutherKingJr.penned the“LetterfromBirminghamJail.”Videoscreengrab

The Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, called the letter part of the “extracanonical material” his family thought necessary to read beyond the Bible.

“What’s so important about it today is you still have people who have ecclesiastical positions but have no moral authority and who are trying to claim moral authority,” said Moss, who, like McKenzie, was required to read the letter at the historically Black college he attended. “He was talking to the Christian nationalists of his day and setting them straight and saying, ‘You have no moral authority.’”

The 60th anniversary of the letter has been marked with talks at churches, a parade in Oklahoma City and exhibits of related artwork at the New Jersey State Museum, as well as the display of an early draft at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

Faith leaders at the Georgetown event and in interviews commented on King’s stated concerns in his letter, which included that the church could “be dismissed as an irrelevant social club” and that he has daily met “young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.”

https://religionnews.com/2023/04/28/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-eversay-faith-leaders/

In an interview, Randal Maurice Jelks, author of the 2022 book “Letters to Martin: Meditations on Democracy in Black America,” said the letter deeply resonated with a churchgoing public of the 1960s but remains relevant in teaching people of a range of faith perspectives today.

What the letter, which was more than 6,000 words long, “continues to point out is that people do have to take a side in the struggle for justice, whatever those justice struggles are, and you can’t be, as King would say in that letter, lukewarm about that.”

https://religionnews.com/2023/04/28/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-eversay-faith-leaders/

TheRev.MelechE.M.Thomas.PhotobyJayDeLoatch

The Rev. Melech E.M. Thomas, a millennial pastor of an African Methodist Episcopal Church, said in an interview that he thinks King’s “masterful” letter should be heard in U.S. history classes and in seminaries rather than just a mention of his name or his legacy.

“In every pulpit, this year, there should be some type of reading, public reading of excerpts of the letter from the Birmingham jail, just to remind us of why we are the church and what God has called us to do,” said Thomas, pastor of Bethel AME in Selma, North Carolina. “The mission didn’t stop with the man. We have an obligation to continue what he called us to do and I hope that myself and my generation, as we are coming into leadership, will continue to do the same.”

In an interview, Sojourners President Adam Russell Taylor said King’s letter offers a theologically and civically grounded challenge to not be silent that still applies to churches today. Taylor noted the fallout from clergy he thinks were not courageous enough to speak amid false statements that the last presidential election was stolen.

Taylor pointed to a recent Brookings Institution and Public Religion Research Institute survey that found that 29% of Americans qualify as Christian nationalists but, by a ratio of 2-to-1, Americans reject a Christian nationalist view.

https://religionnews.com/2023/04/28/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-eversay-faith-leaders/

“If the people in the middle were really willing to stand up and speak out more, I think we could reach a tipping point,” Taylor said. “Which way we tip is really up to all of us, but I think it’s that middle that we really need to activate and inspire to be much more outspoken and much more courageous.”

A questioner at the Georgetown event inquired about how predominantly white faith communities can join with racially diverse groups on racial justice issues.

Moss responded by citing an anti-violence event in downtown Chicago the previous Saturday featuring hundreds of men, most of them Black. The gathering represented new efforts by his congregation and others that were supported by a range of houses of worship, from Pentecostal congregations to synagogues. He called it an opportunity to “change the narrative” about how the city’s youth are viewed and affirmed.

“We did a walk downtown, not against our children, but to say that we love them,” he said, adding that his is one of several churches planning to offer some 750 jobs to youth this summer. “They were saying that we’re in this together. This is our city. These are our children.”

https://religionnews.com/2023/04/28/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-eversay-faith-leaders/

APRIL 2 7 , 202 3

Rare Bob Dylan drawings going on display in New York City

DaveJHogan/GettyImagesforABA

Some unique and original drawings by Bob Dylan will be on display in New York this week. Billboard reports that the drawings, which Dylan made during the 1967 recording sessions for The Basement Tapes, will be on display at the 63rd annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, taking place April 27 to 30 at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.

The three captioned drawings all appear on the side of a Columbia Records Handelok record bag. One drawing depicts a man waving with a guitar and saying a line similar to a lyric from the tune “Long Distance Operator.” Another shows a figure ready to strike a person who’s telling them to shut up. The third picture looks like an object with guitar strings and features captions identifying the “swift key,” “gas lock,” “tune-up supporter” and more.

And Dylan fans with some money to spare have a chance to own the rare piece of memorabilia. It’s up for sale at the Schubertiade Music & Arts gallery for $60,000.

“There’s a lot of fake stuff on the market,” the gallery’s owner, Gabe Boyers, tells Billboard. “It’s not just a rare item. We know exactly when this was created, who it was made for, and who the other person’s handwriting is on it. It’s a special piece.”

https://ruralradio.com/rrn/abc_news/rare-bob-dylan-drawings-going-on-display-in-new-york-cityabcid9b91bba2/

APRIL 2 8 , 202 3

10 rare and fascinating things to see at NYC's Antiquarian Book Fair

The world's finest antiquarian book fair runs all weekend in Manhattan.

Historic books, precious first editions, massive maps and stunning drawings are packed into the Park Avenue Armory this weekend for the 63rd annual Antiquarian Book Fair.

This festival for book collectors is known as the world's finest antiquarian book fair, and this year's showing doesn't disappoint. We got a preview of the festival and found these 10 highlights to share, just a few of the dazzling relics at every turn.

Nearly 200 exhibitors comprise this year's show, making up a labyrinth of booths that winds through the Upper East Side Armory. Exhibitors hail from around the world including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

Prices for the items range from $50 to millions. You can buy tickets for just one day or for the whole show, which runs through Sunday, April 30. Single-day admission costs $32.

Highlights from the 2023 Antiquarian Book Fair

A Denmark-based bookseller called Sophia Rare Books (booth E24) is displaying a collection of letters Charles Darwin wrote to Professor Henslow. This incredibly rare book contains excerpts from 10 letters Darwin wrote during a five-year voyage. But the famed scientist wasn't happy about the letters being shared, saying he was "a good deal horrified" at the professor making public "what had been written without care or accuracy." The collection retails for $450,000.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

In an era where we can easily access detailed digital maps at the touch of a button, it's hard to imagine a world where maps were revolutionary. But seeing Jaillot's Atlas Nouveau dating back to the late 1600s whisks viewers back to this moment. In stunning jewel tones and pastels, this massive atlas was published in Amsterdam by Pieter Mortier around 1692-1696.

It's priced at $165,000 but you can gawk at this work for just the price of admission. See it at Daniel Crouch Rare Books (booth E17).

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

3.

See this rare, 122-year-old document at Földvári Books' booth (E15). The bookseller describes it as an "exceedingly rare first edition of the first version of the Cuban Constitution as an independent state." It's inscribed by 31 signatories of the Constitution for José de Jesús Monteagudo Consuegra. The book is listed for $132,000.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

4. Original Karl Lagerfeld drawings

Admire designer Karl Lagerfeld's drawings at the French bookseller Autographes des Siècles' booth (C18). Three drawings depict Lagerfeld's drawings for Maison Chloé. A skirt-and-top combo is rendered in black and white with a red fabric swatch pinned to the page, while the other two include pink and purple hues in the drawings. Prices range from $2,500-$3,500 for these pieces.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

This text dating back to 1506 provides the first depiction of a C-section. A drawing in the book shows a woman who's given birth surrounded by more than a half-dozen attendants, one holding up a knife or sword. While the origins of the C-section itself are murky, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, their records do include the exact image you can see in this book at the book fair. In the era depicted, C-sections were only performed when the mother was dead or dying, as a way to save the child in a time when the state wanted to increase population, the library said.

Find the book at the James Gray Bookseller booth (D29).

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

6. A bill of lading from an early book transaction in America

In the infancy of American bookselling, Henry Knox's bookstore received a shipment of books from London. Confirming the purchase, this bill of lading, a receipt of sorts, is signed by Knox and shows his monogram. Knox was a founding father of the United States and this sepia-toned document dating back to 1772 reveals the ties between Knox, Thomas Longman, John Hancock and Captain John Scott (a witness to the Boston Tea Party).

You can see this fascinating piece of early American ephemera at booth E6 belonging to Antipodean Books, Maps & Prints.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

The California-based Walter Reuben, Inc. sells vintage movie posters, original movie scripts and photographs. Some of the posters include advertisements for AndyWarhol'sFleshand TheGodfather , which you can see in booth B22.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

Shapero Rare Books (booth E5) is displaying what they describe as an "extremely rare Ashkenazic Passover Haggadah," which was printed in 1770 by William Tooke in London. It's priced at $15,500.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

9. Early botanical drawings

Rendered in vivid greens and bright yellows, these colorful drawings from the mid 1700s have maintained their brilliance over the years. They're included in a thick book that's the first edition of one of the greatest 18th-century botanical color plate books. Marvel at these drawings from the collection of Riverrun Books & Manuscripts (E10) and if you want to take the book home, be sure you've got $60,000 in your bank account.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

10. Some more contemporary marvels

See some more recent classics, like special editions of Ulysses, Catch-22 and To Kill a Mockingbird at the booth belonging to Oregon-based Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts (E1).

The 1927 edition of Ulysses is inscribed by James Joyce when first meeting H.G. Wells, who was key to establishing the author's reputation. It's listed at $85,000. As for the copy of Catch-22, this 1961 first edition is signed by author Joseph Heller and listed for $11,000. Finally, a rare 1960 pre-publication copy of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird contains a bookplate signed by Lee. The cover reads "This first novel has hit the jackpot!" quite an understatement. It sells for at $16,000.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/10-rare-and-fascinating-things-to-see-at-nycs-antiquarianbook-fair-042823

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair.html

There’s No People Like Show People

Good afternoon, this is W42ST Lifestyle Editor Sarah Beling with “Make Way For The Weekend” your curated guide to the best of New York events in one convenient newsletter!

As we approach this year’s Tony Award nominations, here’s an ode to theater people (and frankly, creatives of all kinds!). This city can be a cruel mistress of a place to try and make art and your rent on time. I, for one, will never forget the time a lovely, innocent child asked me a person who had spent the better part of a decade at that point trying desperately to be employed as an actor: “If you couldn’t be a babysitter, what would you be?”

And yet last week one of my friends turned 30, and his only wish was to put on a staged reading of Wicked (and play Elphaba). Friends of the birthday boy but (many of us) strangers to each other, we gathered in a humid rehearsal studio on Saturday night and gave it our Stephen Schwartz best, umbrella-as-flying-broom moments abounding. There were no casting directors, no jobs on the line, no stakes. We laughed, we cried, it was better than Cats.

Here’s to a season of celebrating all the work on (and Off! And Off-Off! And Off-Off-Off!) Broadway, and to anyone out there making their art and their rent. Here’s to us! Who’s like us? Damn few.

whenyoucanonlythinkasfaraheadasMonday!

! old tomes

Rounding out our book trilogy is the 63rd annual Antiquarian Book Fair April 27 - 30 at the Park Avenue Armory join over 200 exhibitors of rare and out-of-print books, including treasures like a signed Babe Ruth biography once owned by Alfred Sloan.

https://w42st.com/post/newsletter/theres-no-people-like-show-people/

APRIL 2 8 , 202 3

Colorful stories for children, with the darkest history as backdrop

AMSTERDAM.- During World War II, a clutch of whimsical children’s books were published in the Netherlands under a pen name, El Pintor. One book shows children flying on the backs of sparrows. In another, they float, attached to balloons. There is a pop-up book with people and animals nestled in trees and an activity book with paper cutouts.

The books sold thousands of copies, and were popular not only in the Netherlands, which was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, but in Germany as well.

The books did more than entertain children during the grim days of war. Behind the pseudonym El Pintor was a Jewish couple, Galinka Ehrenfest and Jacob Kloot. They used the name El Pintor to obscure their heritage, and

https://artdaily.cc/news/156765/Colorful-stories-for-children with-the-darkest-history-asbackdrop#.ZEw5F-zMLDJ

funneled the proceeds from their picture books to fund Dutch resistance efforts and to help Jews who were hiding from the Nazi regime.

They did so at great risk, said Linda Horn, who wrote a book published in the Netherlands about Ehrenfest’s life.

“Secrecy was very important, people couldn’t write down what they were doing,” said Horn of those who worked in the Dutch resistance. “There are barely any sources.”

El Pintor, which also included the work of other artists and writers who collaborated with Ehrenfest and Kloot, produced about two dozen children’s books and games in the early 1940s. Now, 23 of the books including copies of all titles published in Dutch, one published only in German and several translations will be presented for sale this week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

Peter Kraus, the owner of Ursus Rare Books, who is selling the collection, said a Dutch collector acquired it, bit by bit, over the course of 30 years.

Kloot came from a large, blue-collar Jewish family in Amsterdam, while Ehrenfest was born in what is now Estonia. Her father, Paul Ehrenfest, moved the family to Leiden, in the Netherlands, in 1912. A prominent physicist, he was friends with Albert Einstein. According to an article that ran on the front page of The New York Times in 1923, Paul hosted Einstein when he fled from Berlin to Leiden, planning to stay “until general conditions improve and the antisemitic hatred subsides in Berlin.”

Ehrenfest spent a few years in the United States in the early 1930s, when she attended art school in California and started drawing regularly. She then returned to the Netherlands and enrolled in the New Art School in Amsterdam, which was founded by an artist who had fled Germany. The school was later forced to close by the Nazi regime, who remained in parts of the Netherlands until the German surrender in 1945.

It was at the New Art School that she met Kloot. They moved in together in 1936 and were married five years later.

In 1940, Kloot founded a small publisher in Amsterdam called Corunda, through which El Pintor started publishing children’s books. Ehrenfest became the creative powerhouse, drawing and writing stories, while Kloot managed the business.

Publishing books was difficult during the Nazi occupation. Paper was scarce and expensive, and printing books required official permission. Approved books got a serial number which allowed their publication, their sale at bookstores and, in El Pintor’s case, their export to Germany.

In 1941, the Nazi regime forced Jewish businesses to be given over to non-Jews. Kloot did so, handing it over to someone he knew, but stayed involved in the operations.

Kraus, who is selling the El Pintor collection, said part of what makes the books unique aside from the powerful story behind them is their variety. There are picture books, activity books and early chapter books. Some of them are roughly the size of an adult’s hand, while others are much larger, like a thin coffee table book. Horn said they were all meant to make children think and play differently than other, more traditional books of the time.

“The books encourage kids to make a mess, to draw on white walls, those sorts of funny things,” Horn said.

Though thousands of copies were printed, Kraus said very few remain perhaps because they are books for children. “Children’s books tend to be rare,” he said, “because children ruin them.”

https://artdaily.cc/news/156765/Colorful-stories-for-children with-the-darkest-history-asbackdrop#.ZEw5F-zMLDJ

As the war continued, Kloot and Ehrenfest became deeply involved with the resistance and helped people escape Nazi persecution. Kloot often traveled around the country, helping those in danger find places to hide.

In 1943, Nazi officers arrested Kloot and his business partner in Leiden. They let the partner go, but Kloot, who was 26, was deported and sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the Netherlands, and from there to Sobibor, an extermination camp, where he was murdered.

At the time of Kloot’s arrest, Ehrenfest was pregnant with their first child. Shortly after, she gave birth to a stillborn baby. She tried to continue producing books as El Pintor, Horn said, but ultimately, it proved too difficult without Kloot and with the growing dangers and challenges of the war years.

Ehrenfest survived, and published one last book as El Pintor after the war ended. She stayed in the Netherlands, where she died in 1979. She was 69 years old.

“It’s a ghastly moment in history, and it’s a paradox that this horrible thing would have such an aesthetic memorial,” Kraus said, gazing at El Pintor’s books, the colors still vibrant after 80 years. “At least this man, this couple, is remembered.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

https://artdaily.cc/news/156765/Colorful-stories-for-children with-the-darkest-history-asbackdrop#.ZEw5F-zMLDJ

NYC Weekend Events: What's On April 29 - 30

It is the last weekend of April and there is lots to do around New York City in the coming days. Here are some options.

NEW YORK, NY Rain may roll in this weekend, but also, potentially, the good times.

And New York City won't let a little precipitation foil a good celebration, which this weekend will include a Bono performance on the Upper West Side and a Flamenco festival in Queens.

But before you head out, make sure the MTA isn't messing with your commute. Don't try and check Twitter...that's not a thing anymore.

Okay, let's do this.

https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/nyc-weekend-events-whats-going-april-29-30

Sunday

Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair: Upper East Side, Manhattan

The 63rd Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair will take place on Saturday and Sunday this weekend at the Park Avenue Armory.

There will be nearly 200 exhibitors from 17 countries showcasing countless books in the 55,000 square-foot space.

You can find out more HERE.

https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/nyc-weekend-events-whats-going-april-29-30

APRIL 2 8 , 202 3

LEARNING FROM THE 2023 BOOK FAIR

This year's New York International Antiquarian Book Fair is my third, following the 2022 book fair and, just days before lockdown, the 2020 book fair. Three hardly makes me an expert, even in my specialization of architecture books, but it does help with gauging the value given to books on the subject and getting a sense of how architecture books are seen within the wider rare books market. Generally, "rare" equates with "old" first editions that have signatures and, in some cases, limited print runs. The last, in the realm of architecture, points to anything pre-capital-M-modern but also, ironically, architecture books in general, since they tend to have limited print runs compared to fiction compared to anything but artist books, really and usually just one printing. But the small print runs of architecture books do not equate to high asking prices, as could be grasped by the smattering of architecture books that I came across at the 2023 edition of the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory until Sunday. The ones on display are a narrow bunch, tending almost exclusively toward big-name architects from the 20th century (Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Venturi Scott Brown) and old Europeans (Alberti, Palladio, Vitrivius, Piranesi). Along these lines, below are some things I learned while browsing the booths at this year's book fair trying to find some architectural gems.

Lesson 1: Corbu is (still) king.

If one architect appeared more than any other in my quick scan of the booksellers' offerings yesterday afternoon, it was definitely Le Corbusier; he made roughly fifty books in his lifetime, so that's hardly a surprise. It also helps that it's been a half-century since his death and, even with a lot of criticism of his legacy in recent years, he seems more popular than ever in rare book circles. A few of the Corbu books I came across:

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

Johnson Rare Books & Archives has a first edition of Des Canons, Des Munitions? Merci! Des Logis... S.V.P. from 1937, complete with a typed signed letter by Corbu. It is going for $7,500.

Ursus Books is selling an "incredibly rare first edition of Le Corbusier's legendary Farbenklaviatur [Color Keyboards ...] the first of the two collections of colors which he designed for the Salubra wallpaper company" in 1931. Birkhäuser did a reproduction about 25 years ago that can be found for a few hundred dollars, but a first edition at Ursus will put you back $22,500.

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

Lesson 2: Old + European = Rare + Valuable.

While walking the aisles of the fair, it felt at times that "architecture" was limited to old treatises, pattern books, etchings, and the like, all coming from Europe centuries ago. Large folios opened to drawings were in many glass cases, standing out as skilled and (once) influential creations but also anachronistic images of what many people think buildings should be: classical. Traditionally, architecture libraries be they institutional, professional, or private have been practical: providing guidance and inspiration for architects. Outside of a few architectural historians, that's not the case with books like these, which are prized for their age, scarcity, and beauty, not their practicality to architects. And even if architects still used them, such as those at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, they'd probably use reprints rather than valuable 500-year-old originals.

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

Ursus Books makes another appearance here, this time with a portfolio (ca. 1810) of 24 plates by Antoine Joseph Gaitte of Claude Nicholas Ledoux's 18th-century toll-gates in Paris. Price: $8,500.

Books or, more accurately, scrolls of Vitruvius's foundational text on architecture, De architectura, don't exist, so later Renaissance versions of it are prized, such as this one edited by Fra Giovanni Tacuino in 1511. Erasmushaus is selling it for $65,000. (The Basel-based bookseller also has a first edition of Palladio's Quattro Libri for $66,000.)

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

Lesson 3: Architects love certain artists and designers.

Audience is always important when it comes to book sales. If we lump architects together as one audience, I'd argue that they purchase books outside of architecture as often as they amass books on architecture. Books on art and design are high among the former, with very particular artists and designers ones with shared affinities for form, space, texture, etc. standing out over others. A couple are below, plus one surprise (to me).

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

In his lifetime Massimo Vignelli designed many architecture books, though in NYC he is known for his redesign of the MTA subway map in the 1970s. Never widely implemented, the Vignelli Map made a comeback this century for the MTA's Weekender website, and in recent years I've seen it popping up in stations. Still, seeing an original map from 1978 at Geographicus Rare Antique Maps made me stop in my tracks (no pun intended). How much? $7,500.

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

Architects love artists who trained as architects, and right up top is Gordon Matta-Clark, who sliced and cut open buildings, documenting the transient (de)constructions in photographs. A book of his I'd heard about but hadn't seen in person is Walls Paper, which the artist made from photographs of partially demolished buildings in the Bronx in the early 1970s (he died in 1978 at just 35 years old). He colored the b/w photos and then cut the pages in the middle so juxtapositions are created as one flips through it. Two copies were on display at the fair: at Sims Reed Ltd. ($5,000) and Jeff Hirsch Books ($3,000).

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

Who is this Utopian architectural designer that Vivien Greene supposedly called the "Edgar Allan Poe of Architecture"? I'd never heard of Albert Trachsel before coming across this signed copy of Les Fêtes réelles, an "architectural poem" he made in 1897. Martyan Lan is selling it for $9,500.

Lesson 4: LearningfromLasVegasis the architect's "one book."

If there is one book today that every architect should have, it's not Le Corbusier's Versunearchitectureor Koolhaas and company's S,M,L,XLor even Christopher Alexander's APatternLanguage . It's LearningfromLas Vegasby Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. (No explanation needed on its importance and influence, I hope, but here's something I wrote about it five years ago.) Heck, most architects already have the book, but I'm referring to the 1972 first edition, not the 1977 paperback. It's big, expensive (even the facsimile edition put out by MIT Press in 2017 is $100), and rare.

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

I'm lucky enough to have a first edition, but mine is lacking the glassine jacket that Johnson Rare Books & Archives has on display next to Corbusier's Munitions. That's not an original box at right, but inside the book are the authors' signatures, which brings the price to $3,000.

https://archidose.blogspot.com/2023/04/learning-from-2023-book-fair.html

APRIL 2 8 , 202 3 Five

Rare Books for Collectors: New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

WHITMORERAREBOOKS

CollectiondocumentingKerouac’scorrespondencewithascholartryingtopositionhisworkintheAmericancanon

Highlights from the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair including:

* Collection documenting Kerouac’s correspondence with a scholar trying to position his work in the American canon

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-new-yorkinternational-antiquarian-book-fair

Collection of three pieces documenting Jack Kerouac’s engagement with one of the earliest academics to publish on his work. Includes a 2 page Typed Letter Signed and dated April 13, 1961, a 13 page carbon typescript of Granville Jones’ draft of Jack Kerouac andthe American Conscience with Kerouac’s handwritten notes and corrections on four pages, and the transmittal envelope with the author’s Northport,NY address. Unfolding only four years after Kerouac’s novel On the Road, this interaction provides scholars with unique opportunities for considering how and at what rate Kerouac’s views on writing, politics, identity, and culture shifted, how the academy perceived Kerouac and the Beats in theirown time, and the extent to which Kerouac valued scholarly discussion regarding his literary career and creations.

From Whitmore Rare Books

* Manuscript Omer counter in a silver binding

A unique miniature manuscript on vellum containing the blessings recited on each of the 49 days beginning on the second day of Passover up until the day before Shavuot. The Counting of the Omer represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for Shavuot, which celebrates the Israelites' reception of the Torah at Sinai after their escape from Egypt. "Omer" itself refers to the measure of barley offered by the temple priest. It was common practice for Jewish homes to have "omer calendars," either in the form of books or movable mechanisms, so that no one would lose track of the days over the requisite seven-week period. In the present volume, the entries under each day get progressively larger, as the count likewise increases. The days themselves are numerated in Arabic digits, while the count is in Hebrew. Bound in boards covered in pink silk and entirely cased in silver with silver wire decorations reminiscent of the work of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem; their techniques came out of a long tradition of silversmithing in North Africa and Europe, and graduates of the school have gone on to proliferate their own styles and methods of silver work since its founding in 1906. Accented with silver wire hinges and gold endpapers. Both covers display hamsa motifs; one cover shows an overflowing pitcher within one palm, and the other shows two hands.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-new-yorkinternational-antiquarian-book-fair

Highlights from the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair including:

* Collection documenting Kerouac’s correspondence with a scholar trying to position his work in the American canon

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-new-yorkinternational-antiquarian-book-fair

Collection of three pieces documenting Jack Kerouac’s engagement with one of the earliest academics to publish on his work. Includes a 2 page Typed Letter Signed and dated April 13, 1961, a 13 page carbon typescript of Granville Jones’ draft of Jack Kerouac andthe American Conscience with Kerouac’s handwritten notes and corrections on four pages, and the transmittal envelope with the author’s Northport,NY address. Unfolding only four years after Kerouac’s novel On the Road, this interaction provides scholars with unique opportunities for considering how and at what rate Kerouac’s views on writing, politics, identity, and culture shifted, how the academy perceived Kerouac and the Beats in theirown time, and the extent to which Kerouac valued scholarly discussion regarding his literary career and creations.

From Whitmore Rare Books

* Manuscript Omer counter in a silver binding

A unique miniature manuscript on vellum containing the blessings recited on each of the 49 days beginning on the second day of Passover up until the day before Shavuot. The Counting of the Omer represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for Shavuot, which celebrates the Israelites' reception of the Torah at Sinai after their escape from Egypt. "Omer" itself refers to the measure of barley offered by the temple priest. It was common practice for Jewish homes to have "omer calendars," either in the form of books or movable mechanisms, so that no one would lose track of the days over the requisite seven-week period. In the present volume, the entries under each day get progressively larger, as the count likewise increases. The days themselves are numerated in Arabic digits, while the count is in Hebrew. Bound in boards covered in pink silk and entirely cased in silver with silver wire decorations reminiscent of the work of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem; their techniques came out of a long tradition of silversmithing in North Africa and Europe, and graduates of the school have gone on to proliferate their own styles and methods of silver work since its founding in 1906. Accented with silver wire hinges and gold endpapers. Both covers display hamsa motifs; one cover shows an overflowing pitcher within one palm, and the other shows two hands.

* Divine Horsemen: Living Gods of Haiti by Maya Deren

Inscribed by author, a giant in the history of avant-garde film in America: “For Herb Simply, Maya.” Herbert Passin was a scholar on contemporary Japan and advisor to two Japanese ministers. First edition, London/New York: Thames & Hudson, (1953).

* A Remarkable Japanese Manuscript Map of the World

Striking double-hemisphere manuscript map of the world with toponyms written in Russian. The chart also includes the tracks of Captain James' Cook's three voyages. This example is believed to have been copied from a manuscript world map drawn by a shipwrecked Japanese sailor during his captivity in Russia, which came into the hands of the Japanese when the Finnish-Swedish Lieutenant Adam Laxman, acting as an agent of Imperial Russia, visited Japan in Kansei 4 (1792). Laxman was facilitating the homecoming of the shipwrecked Japanese sailor Daikokuya Kōdayū and, in return, demanded a trade treaty between Japan and Russia.

Kōdayū managed to bring a world map with him. This map was likely based on a Russian mother map which in turn was the base map for several Japanese copies known to have been in circulation in the first half of the 19th century. The geographical content of the map suggests that the mother map was likely the work of renowned Russian cartographer Alexander Wilbrecht and made in circa 1788-1790. This example is one of the earliest of

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-new-yorkinternational-antiquarian-book-fair

these Japanese reproductions, most likely made by the innovative political economical thinker Honda Toshiaki. Toshiaki produced a practically identical map in 1813.

* Autograph Letter, signed ("Elizabeth Barrett Browning"), with Autograph Song May's Love Florence: c. 1848-1861. 2 leaves. Faded, the poem annotated with the number 96 and the letter with "No 200" in a contemporary hand. Browning writes, sending a poem at that point unpublished: "Sir, You ask me for a short unpublished poem, and I send you a very short one – a song. I hope it may not be unsuitable to your purpose, while wishing it were worthier; and I have the honor to remain / Sir, Your obedient servant / Eliizabeth Barrett Browning / Casa Guidi, Florence / June 12" On the verso of one leaf the letter is translated into French, and it's accompanied by another leaf with the poem "May's Love", three quintains, published posthumously in Last Poems (1962).

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/five-rare-books-collectors-new-yorkinternational-antiquarian-book-fair

The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair Returns For Its 63rd Edition

The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) returns this month, as a much-anticipated highlight of the busy Spring season. Universally referred to as the world’s finest antiquarian book fair, the fair includes nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world this year, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair. The fair has attracted a diverse audience of literary luminaries, influencers, celebrities, art, design and book enthusiasts and collectors. In recent years, NYIABF has increasingly captured the attention of young collectors seeking one-of-a-kind offerings at more accessible price points. Prices range from $50 to millions.

https://aspiremetro.com/abaa-new-york-international-book-fair-returns/

This year, the fair welcomes exhibitors from 16 different countries including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. An impressive number of US exhibitors also highlight the wealth of material available stateside. Exhibitors will present a vast treasure trove of items: rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, prints and print ephemera.

Fair highlights encompass art, science, medicine, literature, history, gastronomy, fashion, first editions, Americana, philosophy, children’s books and much more. From the historic and academic, the religious and spiritual – to the bedrock of secular culture, finance, politics – the fair boasts offerings in every conceivable genre and subject.

https://aspiremetro.com/abaa-new-york-international-book-fair-returns/

Acollectionof18rareworksbyElPintor,whichwasthepennameofJacobKlootofAmsterdamandAnnaGalinkaEhrenfest,from Russia.Kloot,whowasJewish,andEhrenfestdesignedthebookstocheerupchildrenwhowereinhidingduringWorldWarII.The profitswereusedtosupportpeopleinhidingandtoofferworktoJewishandanti-Nazifriends.ThroughUrsusBooks,LTD.

The Book Fair takes place at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, through April 30. Tickets may be purchased at the door, and a full list of exhibitors can be found here.

https://aspiremetro.com/abaa-new-york-international-book-fair-returns/

Harry up as Potter’s first edition goes under hammer

A highlight of this year’s fair is the first edition of J.K. Rowling’s popular children’s novel. It’s on sale for USD 225,500, an ostensibly significant uptick from the sale price of GBP 10.99, or about USD 18 in 1997.

https://tvpworld.com/69514262/harry-up-as-potters-first-edition-goes-under-hammer

Sunday Steinkirchner, the owner of B&B Rare Books, and chair of the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, said the price jump was “about demand.”

“There were only 500 copies printed and 300 were sent to libraries, so really, it’s one of 200 copies,” she said. “The entire thing that happened with Harry Potter is a phenomenon. So, we’ve got the books, the movies, and everything else that goes along with it. It’s so relevant in pop culture today. So that keeps the demand very high. So, it’s a perfect storm, small print run, and huge demand.”

International Antiquarian Book Fair

This year, the fair brings together 190 dealers from 17 countries. Participation is “almost there to pre-COVID times,” Steinkirchner said. “Anything you’re interested in, you can find here,” she added.

Other antiques for sale include a USD 7.5 mln portolan chart, the “Rex Tholomeus”, from around 1360, and also the first edition of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” and one of the last manuscripts of Marco Polo’s travels.

The book fair runs from April 27 to 30 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City.

source: REUTERS

https://tvpworld.com/69514262/harry-up-as-potters-first-edition-goes-under-hammer

Nerding Out at New York’s Antiquarian Book Fair

The fair showcases thousands upon thousands of books, ephemera, and historic works on paper.

The 63rd annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair has taken over the Park Avenue Armory this weekend. It’s an overwhelming event, even compared to the more high-profile art fairs that visit New York City venues in the spring and fall. With the participation of almost 200 rare book dealers, the fair showcases thousands upon thousands of books, ephemera, and historic works on paper. While a dealer at a contemporary art fair might have

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

a ready-made sales pitch for their booth’s one or two artists, the booksellers at Park Avenue Armory hold a seemingly bottomless trove of knowledge, both artistically and historically, about every single item in their collection. Walking into the fair feels like trying to see the entire collection of The Met in a day impossible.

Faced with this infinity of offerings, I decided to focus my visit on a standout presentation. The stand of the Brooklyn-based shop Honey and Wax Booksellers, owner Heather O’Donnell featured a wide variety of books and paper objects, including a hand fan issued on Valentine’s Day in 1795.

“To plague and please all womankind; Here’s Gallants sure a plenty!; Chuse then a Beau to suit your mind, Or change ‘till one content ye,” reads an inscription on the fan. Cupid presents an assortment of unpalatable lovers: “Lover of Himself,” “The Carnal Lover,” and “Lover of the Cash” among them.

The1795Valentine’sDayfan(imagecourtesyHoney&WaxBooksellers)

The 18th-century object proves that dating, however romanticized in the past, has always been “very much a swipe-left kind of situation,” O’Donnell said. “It’s just a beautiful, really funny thing that makes you realize the frustrations that people feel today actually have been going on for quite some time.”

Another fascinating find at the Honey and Wax booth examines the roots of clickbait and celebrity obsession. A multi-part collection explores the Elizabeth Canning trial, one of the earliest true-crime fixations. It’s a telling example not only of the power of mass media, but of prevailing attitudes surrounding race and gender. In 1763, an 18-year-old English maid named Elizabeth Canning disappeared. When she resurfaced 28 days later, she claimed to have been kidnapped by two men and brought to a brothel, where an elderly Romani woman allegedly attempted to force her into prostitution. Canning said she refused and was subsequently locked in a small room and fed only bread crusts and water (she was reportedly very thin when she returned). After almost a month, Canning said she loosened a board and escaped.

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

She accused the brothel “Mother” Susannah Wells and Mary Squire, the Romani woman. Squire was sentenced to death, but 36 witnesses stated she was not at the scene and another 26 placed her in England. Canning was ultimately placed on trial for perjury. The case became impossible to decide and the English populace was divided as to Canning’s innocence. 18th-century media fanned the flames, feeding people a constant stream of salacious pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers. O’Donnell displays one such work: A 1754 magazine image which portrays Canning as a well-dressed young woman and Squire as a witch-like old woman, undoubtedly a depiction shrouded in the country’s attitude toward Romani people.

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

Cole,B.(engraver),“TheTruePicturesofElizabethCanningandMarySquires,”1754,London:NewUniversalMagazine,copper engraving,73/4x103/4inches(imagecourtesyHoney&WaxBooksellers)

A theory emerged that Canning had been pregnant and disappeared to either have an abortion or give birth in secret. Ultimately, Canning left the country, moved to Connecticut, married a Quaker man, and had four children.

O’Donnell exhibits an object from the Connecticut years: The only known letter by Canning. It was written in 1755 to a Mrs. Stokes, to whom the young woman expresses her gratitude. The letter was compiled in an 1888 volume about the case and O’Donnell explained that historians have considered it to be authentic ever since.

“That being said, I am not 100% prepared to say that that is Elizabeth Canning’s hand,” said O’Donnell, but pointed out that the possibility of it being fake is perhaps even more interesting. “That said, it is incredibly cool, and a weird thing to forge, honestly.”

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

TheCanningletter(photoElaineVelie/Hyperallergic)

Another of O’Donnell’s displays traces the development of bookbinding: Printers used to sell pages with blank covers and buyers would bring them to their own bookbinder. As time went on, publishers realized they could bind their own copies and use the covers to market their contents.

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

Elsewhere, other booths showcased less ephemeral items. Virginia-based Marnin Art displayed an assortment of collectors’ books; the artworks reproduced inside far surpass those in today’s familiar glossy coffee-table art books. A 75-edition poetry book from 1938 contains an original Joan Miró etching, signed and numbered. A later Miró book from 1957 includes a design by the artist on the leather cover and prints matted onto the pages of the book.

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

Theprintsaremattedontothepagesofthebook.(photoElaineVelie/Hyperallegic)

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

Other sellers presented even older snapshots of history, including 15th-century illuminated manuscripts at the booth of Switzerland-based Dr. Joern Guenther Rare Books. As these 800-year-old works lie in their temporary

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

display cases, they cemented the main takeaway from this quirky and knowledge-rich fair: There is an endless supply of interesting objects in the world, and apparently not enough space in museums to hold them.

https://hyperallergic.com/818631/nerding-out-at-new-york-antiquarian-book-fair/

See Highlights From the 2023 Antiquarian Book Fair, From a Rare Duchamp Catalogue to a Su rrealist Dancer’s Choreographic Drawings

The fair runs through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory.

Bibliophiles rejoice the Antiquarian Book Fair has returned. All this weekend, a wide assortment of historic books, manuscripts, first editions, maps, and even collectible menus are packed into Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory for the 63rd edition of the fair.

https://news.artnet.com/market/antiquarian-book-fair-2023-highlights-2292775

The annual event is widely considered the world’s finest book fair and anyone can attend, from serious book collectors to curious onlookers alike. This year, nearly 200 exhibitors from 17 countries make up a maze of booths winding through the armory, each bursting with paper-based treasures, from a copy of Shakespeare’s Third Folio to rare editions of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

A number of dealers have also brought exceptional items related to art and design. These include a book of handdrawn cats by Andy Warhol, prints by Norman Rockwell, a Salvador Dalí collection, an artist book by the musician John Cage, and drawings by Queen Victoria. As diverse as the items on offer, prices range from about $50 to the millions.

Here are some of the highlights.

“Le Surréalisme en 1947 ″ Catalogue by Marcel Duchamp

Ursus Rare Books

MarcelDuchamp’s“LeSurréalismeen1947″ exhibitioncatalogue.CourtesyofUrsusRareBooks.

Surrealism burst onto the scene with the exhibition “Le Surréalisme en 1947″ in Paris. The exhibition catalogue consisted of 24 original prints by participating artists, housed in a box containing a foam-rubber breast by Marcel Duchamp in collaboration with Enrico Donati. Very few catalogs from the show are known to exist, but Ursus Rare Books of New York has brought one to the fair and it’s in superb condition albeit slightly flattened over time. The foam rubber used in the breast was delicate and perishable; consequently, most of the copies that survive exhibit an “unappealing, deteriorated state,” according to the book dealer. This deluxe copy numbered 34 of 999 also differs from most other versions in that it comes with a cardboard slipcase wrapped in paper and decorated with haphazardly placed letters spelling out Pierre à feu, the publishing division of Galerie Maeght, where the exhibition took place.

Steve Wolfe, Untitled (Waiting for Godot) James Cummins Bookseller

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SteveWolfe,Untitled(WaitingforGodot)(2000).CourtesyofJamesCumminsBookseller.

As an homage to reading, artist Steve Wolfe whose works can be found in the collection of the Whitney, MoMA, SFMOMA, and the Dallas Museum of Art made realistic sculptures of his favorite books. In great detail, he painstakingly recreated his personal copies of the books that most moved him, by the likes of James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Marcel Proust, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, and J.D. Salinger. The American author Edmund White, writing about Wolfe’s sculptures, saw them in the tradition of Walter Benjamin’s writings, Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, and Marcel Duchamp’s objets trouvés. James Cummins Bookseller brings a reconstruction of Wolfe’s worn personal copy of the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. It’s unusual, to say the least all the more so in that this is one of the few first editions in Wolfe’s book collection. The asking price is $75,000.

https://news.artnet.com/market/antiquarian-book-fair-2023-highlights-2292775

French book dealer Librarie Le Fue Follet is selling a set of three gouaches by Loïs Hutton. The avant-garde artist and dancer started her career in the 1920s as part of London’s Chelsea art circle before settling in the French Riviera with her partner, the Surrealist dancer Hélène Vanel. It was there, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, that they shared their bohemian life with the artists, writers, and poets who visited them and attended their torchlit performances, including Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí. Around this time, Hutton and Vanel published a manifesto titled Rythme et Couleur, defining a new kind of rhythmic art. These three early gouaches inspired by Cubism and Vorticism feature dance choreographs from the couple’s performances.

Sol LeWitt Prints

https://news.artnet.com/market/antiquarian-book-fair-2023-highlights-2292775

GeometricwoodblockprintbySolLeWitt.CourtesyofJonathanA.HillBookseller.

Book dealer Jonathan Hill has gotten his hands on a rare suite of four woodblock prints bearing geometric figures by Sol LeWitt, each numbered and signed by the artist. The prints were executed on Echizen-Kizuki-Hosho paper by the Adachi Institute in an edition of 40 copies, 10 per print, to commemorate LeWitt’s 1980 exhibition at Galerie Watari in Tokyo. Printed in bold colors, the works feature a circle, square, triangle, and rhombus, roughly corresponding to the shapes made by the numbers 1, 9, 8, and 0. Another suite from this series belongs to the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Lily Hildebrandt Children’s Book

Pierre Coumans Rare Books

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German artist Lily Hildebrandt was the wife of art historian Hans Hildebrandt and the center of a group of artists who included Wassily Kandinsky, Walter Gropius, Hannah Höch, and Le Corbusier. She created an avant-garde children’s book in 1918 about her son titled Klein-Rainers Weltreise (Klein-Rainer’s Trip Around the World). There is only one known edition of the experimental picture book, which includes 14 original lithographed plates in vivid colors and abstract shapes, and book dealer Pierre Coumans has made it available.

https://news.artnet.com/market/antiquarian-book-fair-2023-highlights-2292775

https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1652082765616254976?s=42&t=ms8DE4XptYmXn1eahtbGeg

Rare books, photographs, maps and manuscripts from all around the world are up for sale at the 63rd New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/stories-that-made-us-smile-this-week-idOV858928042023RP1

APRIL

THE ABAA NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR 2023 DEBUTS WITH STRONG SALES & RECORD ATTENDANCE

By Ron Charles

The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) – officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers

(ILAB) and produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith + Associates – returned to the Park Avenue Armory for its 63rd edition in New York City .

Over 1,500 visitors flowed into the Park Avenue Armory throughout the evening to enjoy unparalleled offerings from nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair.

The fair organizers cited an 15% increase in attendance compared to 2022 numbers, making the 63rd edition of the NYIABF the most successful iteration of the fair in at least the past decade, both in terms of sales and attendance.

There was also a noted uptick in younger collectors and visitors.

The NYIABF cited major sales from various dealers during opening night:

• Ursus Books, Ltd. sold a whimsical children’s book signed El Pintor that was a success in the Netherlands during World War II, created by a Jewish couple who used the proceeds to help the resistance. The Dutch collector plans to donate the piece to the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.

• Peter Harrington Rare Books had strong sales so far, including the transaction of a six-figure item. There has also been interest in Williams Shakespeare’s Folios, in particular the 3rd Folio.

• James Gray Booksellers sold three pieces, including AlbertusMagnusSecretismulierumetViroru(m) , “one of the most influential documents in the history of medieval scientific attitudes toward women”.

• B&B Rare Books sold an original drawing by E.H. Shepard of Mr. Toadfrom The Wind in the Willowsand a first edition of MaryPoppinsOpenstheDoorby P.L. Travers.

• Honey & Wax Booksellers sold a copy of Andy Warhol’s 1962 artist book “25CatsNamedSamanda BluePussy,” from the library of George Balanchine. The collection sold to Peter Harrington, a dealer-todealer sale.

• Kate Mitas sold an archive of a civil rights activist who worked with CORE in Mississippi in the mid1960s, who then became involved in the women’s and gay liberation movements in San Francisco.

• Henry Sotheran, Ltd. sold about $9,000 to trade, $2,000 to private clients and received interest for the $67,000 set of Winnie The Pooh books.

• Autographes des Siècles sold an assortment of French literature letters and received strong interest in two offerings: a set of drawings by late designer Karl Lagerfeld and his letter of René Descartes, priced at $200.000.

• Adrian Harrington Rare Books sold several of their Agatha Christie collection of books.

• Imperial Fine Books sold items with prices ranging from $4,500-$20,000, including a signed and illustrated copy by Kay Nielsen of HanselAndGreteland a set of Nicholay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln Works and Benjamin Franklin’s work.

• Eric Chaim Kline, Ltd. received an order last night for Theresienstadt (concentration camp) currency.

• Tamino Autographs, Inc. sold around $72,000, including an original photo of John Lennon taken the day of his assassination.

• Schubertiade Music & Arts (At “B” Dry Goods”) sold an important musical manuscript from the library of Marie Antoinette and the double signed score from FiddlerontheRoof

• Fine Art & Rare Books sold Iliazd’s Poésiedesmotsinconnus , a rare Czech poster and a unique Soviet industrial product catalog, among other pieces.

• Walter Reuben, Inc. reported great fortune with interest in their offerings of Women in Film, Black film History and classic Hollywood.

Notable guests including Manhattan Borough Pre sident Mark D. Levine, John Derian, Gherardo Guarducci, Guillaume Kientz, David Hamond, Alexander Cunningham Cameron, Jill Krementz, Dalia Oberlander, Caroline Nation and Antonio Pio Saracino joined Sanford Smith , owner of Sanford L. Smith + Associates, for the exclusive preview on April 27th

https://thecitylife.org/2023/04/28/the-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-2023debuts-with-strong-sales-record-attendance/?amp

Bibliophiles everywhere are invited to continue the hunt for rare books and all manner of fine works on paper as the NYIABF continues April 28 – 30.

If interested in learning more about the NYIABF, please visit their website and follow the fair on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Location

Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065 www.armoryonpark.org

Preview: $65 (Includes one daily re-admission)

Single - Day Admission: $32

Students: $10 (with valid ID – at the door only)

Run of Show: $62

https://thecitylife.org/2023/04/28/the-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-2023debuts-with-strong-sales-record-attendance/?amp

APRIL 2 9 , 202 3

VIDEO: Cetakan Perdana Novel Harry Potter

Dijual Rp3 Miliar

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia Edisi pertama dari novel Harry Potter dan Philosopher Stone jadi bintang utama di acara New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. Novel yang saat dirilis perdana pada 1997 itu hanya dihargai Rp264 ribu kini dijual hingga Rp3,3 miliar.

Kenaikan signifikan itu terjadi lantaran permintaan tinggi dari pasar.

Sebagai catatan, edisi perdana dari seri pertama novel Harry Potter itu hanya dicetak sebanyak 500 eksemplar.

Dari jumlah itu, 300 buku dikirim ke perpustakaan dan hanya 200 yang dijual ke pasar. Dan dengan popularitas Harry Potter yang meledak, harga novel pun jadi ikut terangkat.

https://www.cnnindonesia.com/hiburan/20230429100935-245-943309/video-cetakan-perdana-novelharry-potter-dijual-rp3-miliar/amp

Extended version coming soon!

NY International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. April 27, 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTM797HmZI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTM797HmZI

APRIL 30 , 202 3

Martin Luther King’s Birmingham jail letter on sale for $225,000

MartinLutherKingwrotethelettertojustifycivildisobedienceafterhewasarrestedforprotestingagainstsegregation BETTMANNARCHIVE/GETTYIMAGES

A newly discovered draft of a letter Martin Luther King wrote to eight Alabama clergymen while in prison has gone on sale in New York for $225,000.

Jeremy Markowitz, a manuscript specialist for an antiquarian bookseller in New York, found the typed copy of King’s “Letter from Birmingham jail” among the papers of a literary agent, Joan Daves, after he bought them a few months ago.

Daves, the daughter of a Jewish banker who was killed at Auschwitz, was a refugee from Nazi Germany. She escaped to Britain in her late teens before moving to New York, where she founded a literary agency that went on to represent several winners of the Nobel prize for literature, including Hermann Hesse, and one Nobel peace prize winner

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/martin-luther-king-s-birmingham-jail-letter-on-sale-for-225-000fv5thl7q5

APRIL 30 , 202 3

The Mark of Dee: Some Beautiful Things from the Antiquarian Book Fair 2023

On Friday, April 28, I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours wandering through the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America's 63rd annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory. Many old and beautiful things caught my eye, including one with an extra-special connection to this Library's Special Collections. (Open any image in a new browser tab for a closer look.)

Schubertiade Music & Arts offered this handful of Oscar Wilde-connected items, including something not a book - a "posy holder" inscribed with love to Wilde from Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. I took a detailed look at a piece of Wildeana from the Library's collection in last summer's Books & People newsletter.

https://www.nysoclib.org/blog/mark-dee-some-beautiful-things-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

Manuscript materials and part of a rare edition of A L'Ombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleurs from Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, courtesy of Librarie Clavreuil. The Library hosted a major panel discussion last November for the centennial of Proust's death - catch up with the recording here.

London-based Sotheran's displays an early edition of Alessandro Manzoni's I promessi sposi (The Betrothed)THE canonical Italian epic novel, now newly readable by English-speakers in the Modern Library translation by Michael F. Moore. (I just finished it - it's SO GOOD.) We're pleased to start a two-part seminar with Nicholas Birns on this book, using the new translation, this week.

https://www.nysoclib.org/blog/mark-dee-some-beautiful-things-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

Our New York City neighbors Books of Wonder shared two first editions of books about Babar. Original Babar artwork by Laurent de Brunhoff hangs in our Children's Library.

https://www.nysoclib.org/blog/mark-dee-some-beautiful-things-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

Afirstedition,firstprintingofTheUncalledbyPaulLaurenceDunbar,shownbyThornBooks.Thisisnotoneofthebindings designedbyMargaretArmstrong,butweincludedseveralofthoseeditionsinour2021exhibition,includingWhenMalindySings.We enjoyedalecturebyDunbarbiographerGeneAndrewJarrettlastfall - watchithere.

Shortly before the Antiquarian Book Fair opened, the Library had a visit from two of its exhibitors - Kim Schwenk of Lux Mentis booksellers in Portland, Maine (that's a bit of their intriguing display in this article's sidebar) and Christian Westergaard from Sophia Rare Books of Copenhagen, Denmark! Special Collections Librarian Barbara Bieck and I showed our guests the Library and a few books from our own Winthrop Collection - because Mr. Westergaard brought to the fair another volume with the same history as ours. This copy of a mathematical treatise by Apollonius of Perga was owned by John Dee, advisor to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and was later part of the collection of John Winthrop Jr. Each eminent man left his mark on the books, including Dee's name just above Apolloius's, and Winthrop's name with an alchemical sigil, on this title page. You can read more about this volume and see more images on the website for Sophia Rare Books.

https://www.nysoclib.org/blog/mark-dee-some-beautiful-things-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

This is the title page of one of the Library's Winthrop books, Cheiragogia heliana de auro philosophico necdem cognito by Raphael Eglin. Learn more about our Winthrop Collection here.

https://www.nysoclib.org/blog/mark-dee-some-beautiful-things-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

It's not all solemn vellum at the Antiquarian Book Fair. This amusing item in the display from Editio Altera is an invitation disguised as a subpoena to a party thrown by Allan Carr at the Lincoln Heights Jail in 1975. This one went to guest of honor Truman Capote, a member of the Library for a number of years.

Thanks to Kim Schwenk and Christian Westergaard for the invitation to the fair, and congratulations to the ABAA for a beautiful weekend of history and books!

https://www.nysoclib.org/blog/mark-dee-some-beautiful-things-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

MAY 1 , 202 3

The 63rd ABAA New York International

Antiquarian Book Fair returned to New York Ci ty

Dealers made large profits at this highly-attended event.

On April 27, the 63rd ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) returned to the Park Avenue Armory. Over 1,500 visitors enjoyed authentic antique books from nearly 200 exhibitors from many different countries. Once again, the NYIABF lived up to its reputation as a highly-regarded international antique fair. The NYIABF invited book lovers everywhere to hunt for rare books.

The fair is officially sanctioned by Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). Sanford L. Smith + Associates managed and produced the fair. Fair

https://theknockturnal.com/the-63rd-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-returned-tonew-york-city/

organizers saw a 15% increase in attendance and noted the higher presence of younger visitors. On opening night, the NYIABF saw major sales from dealers.

Notable guests included Manhattan Borough President Mark D. Levine, Alexander Cunningham Cameron, and Jill Krementz. Sanford Smith, owner of Sanford L. Smith + Associates, attended April 27’s exclusive preview.

Imperial Fine Books sold a signed and illustrated copy of Hansel and Gretel by Kay Nielsen. Profits ranged from $4,500-$20,000. James Gray Booksellers sold three items, including a mint condition copy of Albertus Magnus Secretis Mulierum et Viroru(m). The dealers identified it as an influential medieval science document. Urus Books, Ltd. saw similar success.

The dealers sold a whimsical children’s book called ‘El Pintor’ to a Dutch collector. The picture book saw success in the Netherlands during World War II. A Jewish couple created the story and pictures. The authors donated the proceeds to resistance groups. The collector planned to donate the artifact to Amsterdam’s National Holocaust Museum. Eric Chaim Kline, Ltd. and Kate Mitas had artifacts as well.

On opening day, Eric Chaim Kline, Ltd. received an order for Theresienstadt (concentration camp) currency. Kate Mitas sold a civil rights activist’s archive. In the 1960s, the campaigner worked with Misissipii’s CORE. Then, the reformer became involved with San Francisco’s LGBTQIA+ liberation movements.

Honey & Wax Booksellers sold a copy of 25 Cats Named Sam and a Blue Pussy, by Andy Warhol. The 1962 artist book came from George Balanchine’s library. Another dealer named Peter Harrington bought the collection. The fair’s second day featured unique finds as well.

https://theknockturnal.com/the-63rd-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-returned-tonew-york-city/

Brooklyn’s Schubertiade Music and Arts sold mint condition sheet music and receipts relating to famous musicians. The dealers had a receipt for Billie Holiday’s Ritalin prescription and a beer tab signed ‘Lady Day.’ They had a typed letter restaging of an opera by Frederico Fellini. It contained the words, “The restricted space of a theatrical stage frightens me.”

Appledore Books exhibited a meticulously-crafted album of twenty-nine Yellowstone National Park photographs. Unknown photographers captured exquisite nature in 1887. Then fourteen years old, the park might have purchased some pictures. The dealer displayed a complete 1993 edition of ‘Six Rooms’ by John Baldessari. It contained six offset lithographs on sommelier bristol paper. Baldessari signed in pencil on the last page.

Tokyo’s Kagerou Bunko displayed early Chinese manga by Feng Zikai. In the display case, the book showed an elegant drawing of a woman with a black border. The dealers featured an early printing of the first Japanese book on mermaids and unicorns. In 1795, Gentaku Otsuki and Kenkado Kimura co-authored the book. Shiba Kokan provided simple, black-and-white illustrations.

Paris’s Rodolphe Chamonal featured an Alabama Claims’ first international court of justice document. The authors intended to address the Civil War consequences. In Washington in 1871, the book was sewn together. The dealers displayed a Winckler Company commercial catalog of arts and crafts. The drawings reflected 19th-century Japanese fashion.

Maine’s Sandra L. Hoekstra Bookseller featured a mint condition copy of A Story of the Virgin Islands by Sally Kelsey. It contained illustrations by her father, Luman Kelsey. “It was written by a young woman who was eleven years old at the time. It’s very unusual,” said owner Sandra Hoekstra.

The United Kingdom’s Voewood Rare Books exhibited eight telegrams to John Lennon by Curt Claudio. In the 1970s, Claudio experienced infatuation with Lennon. The pieces of paper were glued to high-quality poster board. The dealers featured “Photograph of Auguste” by Henry Manuel. The Paris 1910 document contained an inscription by Rodin to his model/lover Eve Fairfax.

https://theknockturnal.com/the-63rd-abaa-new-york-international-antiquarian-book-fair-returned-tonew-york-city/

One for the Books "Turn

DistilleryCats,Amaro,andBittersondisplayatBookLarderinSeattle.(Photo:BTP)

I always wanted to be a writer, and as a lifelong reader I now approach books not only through my perspective as an author, but also my history as a former bookseller and as someone who worked in the publishing industry for a number of years.

After graduating with dual Bachelor’s Degrees in English/Writing Arts and Theatre from SUNY-Oswego, I went on earn an MFA in Writing at Columbia University. But my proposed trajectory as a Young Novelist never took off as I still have yet to publish a word of fiction, and there would be an extended delay until I earned my first real byline. But during this period I remained surrounded by books.

First as a bookseller at the Borders in the Carousel Center Mall in Syracuse, New York. It was a low-point in my life as here I was, newly minted with an MFA, shelving books in a mall. But this led to an opportunity to transfer across the country to their downtown Seattle store where I was the Community Relations Coordinator (and where Peter Buck used to shop the new release CDs every Tuesday).

Not too long into that job I managed to land a position at Amazon headquarters in Seattle. It was 1999 and I was part of the newly launched “zShops” team, tasked with working with booksellers to have them list their used and collectible titles on Amazon. This third-party platform is now a seamless experience on Amazon, but in 1999 this was a controversial campaign within the company, where the influential editors on the Books team (where I aspired to actually belong) held sway over their site pages (which weren’t as heavily automated as they are now) and were, for the most part stand-offish (they never returned my calls or emails). I focused on books but there were other teams devoted to toys, Beanie Babies, musical instruments, DVDs, and other niche topics and when the major layoffs came that brought the end to zShops and Auctions (remember Amazon Auctions?), I was absorbed into the Books team as an Editor.

Among the original 25 or so Book Editors most had cashed out their stock options and moved on and I was part of the leaner, new-look Books editorial team. I focused on a handful of categories, including Literature and Fiction as well as Cooking, Food & Wine, where I wrote site copy, coordinated promotional mails, penned book reviews, interviewed authors, and met with publishers to identify the books we were most excited about. I spent 11 years there mostly good, some bad and when it was time for me to leave I was already longing to move back to New York.

I had sold my book Bitters to Ten Speed Press in 2009 and while I was working on the book and preparing to dive into the freelance writer life I was offered a job at Hachette Books as an Online Marketing Director and moved to Brooklyn in the spring of 2010 to start my new job and finish Bitters. I worked across imprints and genres and advised authors on their social media presence and partnered with publicity to develop online campaigns for our titles (after a re-org I was devoted exclusively to Grand Central Publishing titles).

Two years later a longtime friend and mentor who worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt recruited me to join the team as their Culinary Marketing Director. By then I was working on Amaro but the publisher was supportive of having an award-winning author (even if I was published by a different house) among their ranks, but that attitude shifted drastically with a new regime change. In spring 2017 I was among many who were let go in company-wide layoffs (by March 2021 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt would be no more, having been acquired by HarperCollins). Distillery Cats was coming out that fall so I decided to try going freelance full-time, and here we are, for better or worse, six years later.

When I was at Amazon and working in publishing I was reading multiple galleys a week to stay on top of what was coming out and while I was always a voracious readers, years of that practice and being on the sausage-making side of the book business managed to steal away the sense of pleasure, or escape, that reading used to offer. And as a writer and author, I’m constantly reading, but most of the time it’s for research or keeping up on new cookbooks and drinks books. But staring at my laptop all day has degraded my already poor vision and despite combinations of glasses, contacts, and readers (my “Foster Grants”) reading for long periods of time just isn’t as pleasant as it used to be for me. The last new novel I bought (from McNally Jackson) a couple months ago still sits on my nightstand with a bookmark jutting out halfway through.

https://bradthomasparsons.substack.com/p/one-for-the-books

All of this is a long way of sharing a passionate, though sometimes complicated, relationship with books (mostly the business of books). Working around, and now writing, books has been my livelihood for as long as I can remember. And even now, as I work away on my new book, I’m constantly reminded how lonely and difficult and mentally and physically taxing writing can be. But I know I’m lucky. Plus, it’s the only thing I can do, really.

Antiquarian Book Fair

OutsidetheParkAvenueArmory.(Photo:BTP)

Caught up (mostly) on deadlines, I spent Friday afternoon at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair held at the Park Avenue Armory, a nonprofit arts organization housed within an historic 1880 Gothic Revivalbuilding on the Upper East Side. The Book Fair was held in the 55,000-square foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, which was home to New York State’s Seventh Regiment of the National Guard during the Civil War. When I lived in Seattle I used to regularly attend the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair but the grand setting alone was worth attending the event. There were nearly 200 booksellers from 17 countries displaying and selling collectible books and ephemera across all disciplines including signed first-editions, galleys and manuscripts, rare folios, maps, posters, advertisements, photographs, letters and correspondence, and so much more.

Lizzy Young, a former Brooklyn neighbor of mine and proprietor of lizzyoung bookseller, is always kind enough to invite me to the Book Fair as her guest but this was the first time I was able to take her up on it. Lizzy attended culinary school and worked as a chef as well as at Gourmet magazine before opening her book business, which

https://bradthomasparsons.substack.com/p/one-for-the-books

focuses on cooking, cocktails, and culture (three of my favorite things!). She now lives in Newport, Rhode Island, and sells her books online as well as at her store, where you can visit and shop by appointment.

Lizzy was excited to show me a copy of El Arte Del Licorista, an 1883 Spanish book devoted to the making of liqueurs, spirits, syrups, and ice cream, which was listed at $1,250. I think my friend David Lebovitz would have liked the vintage copy of Petits Et Grands Verres: Choix de Meilleures Recettes de Cocktails she had on display. Lizzy had a number of other spirited tomes for sale as well as multiple editions of The Joy of Cooking and an advanced reader’s edition of the late Anthony Bourdain’s 2016 cookbook, Appetites. The bookseller set up next to her, Yesterday’s Gallery from East Woodstock, Connecticut, also had a wide selection of collectible cocktail books, including The Savoy Cocktail Book ($1,500), Café Royal Cocktail Book ($3,500, 1 of 25 copies), and an 1862 fourth-printing of Jerry Thomas’ Bartender’s Guide ($5,000).

https://bradthomasparsons.substack.com/p/one-for-the-books

Justafewofthemanyvintagecocktailbooksforsale.(Photos:BTP)

https://bradthomasparsons.substack.com/p/one-for-the-books

MAY 2 , 202 3

The arts on full display

LookingnorthonBowery.8:00PM.Photo:JH.

This past Thursday,the ABAA held its annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF), produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith.

More than 1500 visitors attended the evening at the Park Avenue Armory to see what the nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world had to offer. Interestingly, in a world where fewer and fewer individuals actually “read” much more than headlines and cell phone messages, this year’s fair had a 15% increased in attendance and was the mostsuccessfulfair in terms of sales and attendance in the last ten years!

https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/the-arts-on-full-display/

Major sales, and there were many, from various dealers during opening night included:

Ursus Books, Ltd. sold a whimsical children’s book signed El Pintor that was a success in the Netherlands during World War II. It was created by a Jewish couple who used the proceeds to help the resistance. The purchaser, a Dutch collector plans to donate the piece to the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.

B&B Rare Books sold an original drawing by E.H. Shepard of “Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows” and a first edition of “Mary Poppins Opens the Door” by P.L. Travers .

https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/the-arts-on-full-display/

Honey & Wax Booksellers sold a copy of Andy Warhol’s 1962 artist book “25 Cats Named Sam and a Blue Pussy,” from the library of George Balanchine . The collection sold to Peter Harrington, a dealer-to-dealer sale.

Kate Mitas sold an archive of a civil rights activist who worked with CORE in Mississippi in the mid-1960s, who then became involved in the women’s and gay liberation movements in San Francisco.

Henry Sotheran, Ltd. sold about $9,000 to trade, $2,000 to private clients and received interest for the $67,000 set of WinnieThePoohbooks.

https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/the-arts-on-full-display/

Autographes des Siècles sold an assortment of French literature letters and received strong interest in two offerings: a set of drawings by late designer Karl Lagerfeld and his letter of René Descartes , priced at $200.000.

Imperial Fine Books sold items with prices ranging from $4,500 – $20,000, including a signed and illustrated copy by Kay Nielsen of Hansel And Greteland a set of Nicholay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln Works and Benjamin Franklin’s work.

https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/the-arts-on-full-display/

https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/the-arts-on-full-display/

Schubertiade Music & Arts (At “B” Dry Goods”) sold an important musical manuscript from the library of Marie Antoinette and the double signed score from FiddlerontheRoof.

https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/the-arts-on-full-display/

APRIL 2 9 , 202 3

VIDEO: Ceta kan Perdana Novel Harry Potter Dijual Rp3 Miliar

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia

Edisi pertama dari novel Harry Potter dan Philosopher Stone jadi bintang utama di acara New York International

Antiquarian Book Fair.

Novel yang saat dirilis perdana pada 1997 itu hanya dihargai Rp264 ribu kini dijual hingga Rp3,3 miliar.

Kenaikan signifikan itu terjadi lantaran permintaan tinggi dari pasar.

Sebagai catatan, edisi perdana dari seri pertama novel Harry Potter itu hanya dicetak sebanyak 500 eksemplar.

Dari jumlah itu, 300 buku dikirim ke perpustakaan dan hanya 200 yang dijual ke pasar.

https://www.cnnindonesia.com/hiburan/20230429100935-245-943309/video-cetakan-perdana-novelharry-potter-dijual-rp3-miliar

MAY 3 , 202 3

A Garden of paper

On the sixty-third annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

This past weekend, the Park Avenue Armory hosted the sixty-third annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, a springtime celebration of all things on paper. Vendors from as far as Japan and Argentina flocked to the Armory this year, and bibliophiles and collectors rejoiced in this literary Garden of Eden.

Produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith & Associates, the fair ensures that the items on sale rare books, manuscripts, pamphlets, photographs, illustrations, autographs, maps, letters, relics, and more are bibliographically accurate and authentic. This is hardly a new concern. The fair’s big-ticket item this year was a complete collection of Shakespeare’s four Folios together with the first volume of his collected poems, priced at $10.5 million for the whole lot by Peter Harrington Rare Books (London). The First Folio was printed in 1623, seven years after the Bard’s death, under the title Mr.WilliamShakespeare’sComedies,Histories&Tragedies, PublishedaccordingtotheTrueOriginallCopies , by the booksellers Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard. The directors of the project, John Heminges and Henry Condell, both friends and colleagues of the playwright, sought to publish the book to set the record straight: bootleg versions of Shakespeare’s plays that the pair described as “stol’n and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by frauds and stealths of injurious impostors” were in steady circulation. The First Folio, however, presents the works “as he [Shakespeare] conceived them,” as Heminges and Condell advertise in its opening pages. It includes some of Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays, all previously unpublished, such as The Tempest(1611), As You Like It(1599), Macbeth(1606), The Winter’s Tale(1611), and JuliusCaesar(1599). Without the publication of the First Folio (listed individually at $7.5 million), the original texts may have been lost forever.

https://newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/a-garden-of-paper

The Second Folio, on sale for a cool $550,000 here, played a provocative role in the English culture wars of the 1630s. In 1632, William Prynne, a leading Puritan polemicist, published Histriomastix:ThePlayer’sScourge,or Actor’sTragedy , decrying the decadence of theater and the broad distribution of such enticements to sin in folio form, specifically citing Shakespeare’s Second Folio as a “playbook” that was “now more vendible than the choicest sermons.” Prynne also insinuated that Henrietta Maria, the Catholic queen of England who enjoyed performing on the stage, was a whore, and for that libel, King Charles I ordered Prynne’s ears cropped and sentenced him to life in prison (in fact this was only the first time Prynne was to suffer this kind of corporal punishment).

Each book in the Armory undoubtedly had a compelling story to tell, but one of the more interesting I encountered was that of a pocket-sized 1943 edition of the Georgian national epic TheKnightinthePanther’sSkin , listed by PY Rare Books, a vendor from London specializing in first editions from the Russian literary tradition. One would assume that the small book, luxuriously bound, was printed for a wealthy Georgian émigré or someone similar. It had, however, a darker history printed in Berlin for the Georgian Legion of the SS. As émigrés who opted to join the Nazis to fight the Soviets or as pows who were coerced, the Georgian SS soldiers were issued the pocket-sized epic as a way to remember home while on the frontlines. And indeed, the publication may have had an unintended consequence: such memories were likely among the reasons for the ill-fated mutiny of the legion’s Queen Tamar Battalion (named after the twelfth- to thirteenth-century Georgian monarch for whom the epic was written) against the Nazis in the waning days of the war on the Dutch island of Texel. With this and other offerings from a vast selection of Russian literature, from “pirate” editions printed for illegal circulation in the ussr of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich(London, 1962) and Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour(Frankfurt, 1957), to pre-twentieth-century works by Chekhov (a signed first edition of NovellasandStories , 1894) and Aleksandr Pushkin (a first edition of EugeneOnegin,ChapterVI , 1828), PY Rare Books proved a highlight of the fair.

The Antiquarian Book Fair hosted vendors specializing in a range of other items and ephemera as well. Among the eye-catching prints was a 1513 original of Dürer’s Knight,Death,andtheDevil , one of the artist’s meisterstiche , listed for $150,000 by Barry Lawrence Ruderman, based in San Diego. The knight poses as a defender of the Christian faith, trotting onwards after a successful hunt, undaunted by the temptation of the Devil and the impermanence of life, symbolized by the hour glass held by the rotting corpse of Death. In TheLifeandDeathof Albrecht Dürer(1945), the German-Jewish art historian Erwin Panofsky understood the print to represent the “active life” of sixteenth-century Christians, the lifestyle embodied by Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” The stark detail of the print, which Dürer achieved through masterly hatching and crosshatching techniques, serves as a prime example of the Renaissance’s devotion to anatomical realism.

The specialty of Barry Lawrence Ruderman, however, is cartography. The impressive booth display hosted a collection advertised as “The Most Impressive Dutch Wall Maps of the 17th Century,” featuring four such maps of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, each decorated with numerous intricate engravings showing scenes of local wildlife and naval conquest. Landscapes of each continent’s most famous urban centers populate the maps’ outer edges. Produced in Amsterdam in 1682 by Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702), the maps are not dedicated to a Dutch or Scandinavian ruler, but rather to King Charles II, praising his growing empire. Another map was more relatable to the average fair attendee: a 1775 print of the second plan of New York City, contained in Hugh Gaine’s almanac of that same year. In this we saw a mostly uninhabited Brooklyn, an early grid of what is today the Financial District, and the “Road to Boston” heading north, bisecting Manhattan (otherwise known as Broadway).

https://newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/a-garden-of-paper

For those more patriotic bibliophiles, William Reese Company, out of New Haven, offered a wide range of Americana from the Revolutionary and Civil War periods. Billed as the Continental Congress’s “crossing of the Rubicon,” a pamphlet written by the colonial legislature “Seting [sic] forth the Causes and Necessity of their taking up Arms” stood out as the precursor to the Declaration of Independence, published in July 1775 in Philadelphia to rally the colonies against the Crown in the wake of the battles at Lexington and Concord. From the Civil War, we saw an exceedingly rare pocket-sized volume of lithographs by Winslow Homer, titled LifeinCamp , depicting humorous daily scenes, such as “Hard Tack,” a caricature of a big-headed Union soldier failing to chew an absurdly large, dense biscuit. Even America’s enemies could find something worthwhile in this booth: a 1919 pamphlet by the Communist Party of America, entitled Call for a National Convention for the Purpose of Organizing the CommunistPartyofAmerica . Only two other copies survive, one held by Moscow’s Comintern Archive.

The popularity of this annual fair serves as a testament to the vitality of the book. If you missed this year’s, save up some spending money, mark down the end of April in 2024, and come to New York to witness what is one of the greatest gatherings of books in the world.

https://newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/a-garden-of-paper

MAY 6 , 202 3

International Museum Day invitations for all tastes and interests

MUSEUMOFManandNature.(photocredit:NADAVCOHEN)

Around the country, art and exhibit lovers are invited to enter a museum near them to enjoy International Museum Day.

Art News

NEW YORK – The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) returned to the Park Avenue Armory for its 63rd year. Among the gems included was a hand-colored Old Testament by Dirck Jansz van Santen from 1686 offered by Antiquariaat Forum and Asher Rare Books, a 1923 edition of a Hebrew book for children by Bialik (EnchantedBook ) and even a complete set of the currency used books at Theresienstadt (Eric Chaim Kline Bookseller).

https://www.jpost.com/must/article-742126

MAY 12 , 202 3

The

endless charm of the New York Antiquarian book fair

In the Park Avenue Armory, a buzzing hall of superfans are keeping the building blocks of our culture alive

BookdealersandbuyersontheopeningnightoftheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairlastmonth©MeredithNierman

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Walking through a book fair on a rainy afternoon, I looked through a case at familiar names: Mother Goose, Alice inWonderland.An old man sat behind the case, ignoring me. A young man sat beside him, eating potato salad. A stranger approached us. “Do you mind if I take a photo of you?” he asked the older man. “I’m a massive fan.”

I was at the New York Antiquarian book fair at the Park Avenue Armory, the most beloved of its kind in the world. The celebrity in question was a man named Justin Schiller, one of the foremost living specialists in collectible children’s books. Schiller started collecting old Wizard of Oz books as a kid. At age 12, he lent Columbia University’s library a rare Frank Baum he’d found in a shop downtown. That made him the youngest lender to that library in its history. It also launched his career, featured in a cult 2019 documentary called The Booksellers, which proclaimed the rare book scene “an assortment of obsessives, intellects, eccentrics and dreamers” that “play an underappreciated yet essential role in preserving history”. The documentary also enabled this scene, a subculture of superfans.

“ I opened the cover of a signed copy of Patt i Smith’s memoir Just Kids. ‘Patti’s here,’ a stranger told me. ‘She’s just walking around’ ”

Used bookstores have been disappearing for decades: The Booksellers tells us that 1950s New York had 368 bookstores, and today it has about 79. But the antiquarian book community continues to grow. Online, the rarest items can flourish and be found. You don’t need to scour dusty shops for a first edition of Moby-Dickin French, or the only known surviving galley of HarryPotterandthePhilosopher’sStone(the latter is priced at $275,000). And on Instagram, you can find your people, and lure in new ones. Book nerds are posting and reposting old books ad infinitum. Then, everyone meets in droves at the Armory, to drool over a 16th-century treatise that debunks the existence of witches.

My friend and I continued on to other booths. We examined an old map: a portolan chart of Europe made in Venice circa 1360, right after the Black Death. We tried to decipher the lines, wiggles, and tiny words, all handwritten on animal hide. This was one of the four oldest complete modern maps of Europe that exists, the description said, a map so atypical it can’t be classed with anything made like it at the time. It holds mysterious details we still don’t understand about early modern mapmaking. I couldn’t imagine it could have a price, but we asked, and it did: $7.5mn.

Everything at the fair was considered “antiquarian books or ephemera”. Ephemera are things like maps, photos, posters, menus, autographs. A pair of shoes worn in Singin’intheRain . Anything considered “historical evidence”. An “antiquarian” book is a book valued as a unique physical object, or anything considered “rare”.

The fair had whimsy: two books of Edward Lear’s nonsense, and one of FiveDelightfulandIrresistibleThings. Booksellers eating giant sandwiches, mayonnaise dripping onto plates that were balanced on priceless stacks. People grabbing rare illustrations by Warhol and Miró with bare hands, passing them around like cookies. Some old books even held remnants of past lives: a forgotten snack crumb, tucked into the creases.

The fair also had magic. That day I told my friend about a diner I loved in New England, and an old Norman Rockwell painting that was set there. Halfway through the fair, we turned and there it was, a first edition signed by Rockwell himself, daring us to call it chance. A minute later I opened the cover of a signed copy of Patti Smith’s memoir JustKids . “Patti’s here,” a stranger told me. “She’s just . . . walking around.”

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Most exciting of all, the fair was full of physical reminders that everyone in history was human, after all. Ernest Shackleton’s surgeon had an archive, and it was for sale. Leonard and Virginia Woolf printed an edition of TS Eliot’s “The Waste Land” by hand. There was even a copy of Joan Didion’s Salvador , inscribed by Didion to her psychiatrist in 1983: “For Elsie,” it read, “This is the first book I finished since I became your patient. Had I not become your patient, I never would have written another book at all.”

I loved seeing old booksellers in tweed entangled with a motley crew of diverse New Yorkers, who paid 65 whole dollars to look at dusty spines. I loved that an ecosystem like this popped up and flourished, for four rainy days, in 55,000 square feet. And I left loving books even more, for holding the stories, facts and thoughts we’ve acquired over centuries. Of course there’s a thriving subculture around them. They’re the building blocks of culture. What a relief that Didion’s psychiatrist, and Shackleton’s surgeon, and every other human in history, decided not to throw it all out.

LilahRaptopoulosisthehostoftheFTWeekendpodcast

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Vintage AI Predictions Show Our Hopes and Fears Aren’t New Even If the Tech Is

Men and women took a swan dive into neural nets and deep learning long before they had the computing power to make their imaginations a reality.

The essence of the very concept of “artificial intelligence” is inherently cold. Cool metal encasing a mess of silicon and wires buzzing with processed data. No, the computer cannot “feel” or even “think,” but that sense of emotional scarcity often gets attributed to the scientists and researchers who helped create what we know as AI. Knowing that, what emotional substance can you truly glean from the old typewritten extrapolations of an early computer scientist?

Enough enough is the answer. The starched writing of a 1960s academic is burned with with few hints of excitement like the scattered ash of a cigarette left on a white page, but they are there, hidden in the technical jargon of faded research papers and technical documents. In a letter from pioneering philosopher David Lewis to

https://gizmodo.com/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-tech-1850433697

a friend in 1964, he touched on the metaphysical nature of intelligence. He claimed that human intelligence is an “illusion,” that we’re barely more than computers with large storage capacity. He rejects an existential identity of the human consciousness. To recreate a real human brain, you would need to recreate all its firing neurons, a difficult task since back then scientists understood even less about the brain than they do now.

“If a machine won the Turing game behaved intelligently with the wrong internal mechanism, it wouldn’t be intelligent,” Lewis wrote. “You say, what if humans have the same sort of internal mechanism? We don’t know well what kind they have.”

At the annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, a gathering of antique and rare booksellers from around the world, one small booth by the UK-based Christian White Rare Books contained a single shelf of old, yellowing documents, photos, and other paraphernalia relating to the early days and research into artificial intelligence. Owner Christian White and his daughter Poppy offered Gizmodo an exclusive glimpse into the old, fading text that offered a rare and intensive look at that early AI history.

Though the Turing test is now considered antiquated, these papers, letters, and documents were penned during exciting days, the “anything is possible” post-war fervor that bled from the research papers into the collective consciousness through the burgeoning “golden age” Science Fiction scene. So much of the collection is, White admitted, “quite boring” to look at, at least on its face. There’s technical memorandums, conference flyers. To White, with all his very British mix of whimsy and deference, this was the stuff that was “going to change the world, but it’s not always done in a beautiful, fantastic format.”

Most of the papers relate to the late 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, the post-WWII age where the legacy of Alan Turing and his contemporaries created a boom time for advancing the idea of an artificial cognition. Computers, these “thinking machines,” didn’t actually perform any real thought. Our modern understanding of generative AI still doesn’t actually “think.” But beyond vague notions of an “artificial general intelligence,” this early research shows that the ideas of Deep Learning, as we know it now, were already being theorized before the technology was there to see it through. The concept of “neural networks” that powers today’s AI chatbots, as well as probabilistic computing and machine’s passing as a human all that was being considered long before companies like OpenAI came onto the scene.

https://gizmodo.com/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-tech-1850433697

“From the very beginning, computers are being thought about not just as mathematical, but as a kind of thinking,” White said. “This idea of artificial intelligence was there from the outset.”

While there is plenty of AI experiments coming from laypeople in an open source network, today’s major AI developments are stemming from for-profit companies who have shunted their entire businesses toward deploying generative AI en masse. Compared to now, these papers were from a time of scientists doing research for research’s sake, and not just in the halls of academia. Places like Bell Telephone Laboratories, the once-famed site of Nobel Prize-winning research into lasers and transistors, was also a home for early work in AI. One of White’s collections included a probabilistic work study looking at how well Turing-type computing machines were with a “random element.” Another old brochure from ACF Industries shared multiple papers discussing, in part, techniques for weighing information for intelligence analysis.

The average ChatGPT-user probably hasn’t heard any of the names on these documents, though women are often left out of the conversation on early AI research, despite how critical they were. One of those ACF papers was coauthored by Joyce Friedman, a professor and computer scientist working on the cutting edge of machine intelligence in the 1950s and 60s. Another photo in the collection features pioneer computer scientist Jean Hall feeding perforated paper through a computing machine at Argonne National Laboratory.

The documents also showcase the concerns these early researchers had about the computers they were building, before they even had the technical ability to build these machines. They were aware of the risks of what would happen when people couldn’t tell the difference between content generated by a human or by AI.

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“Just by the idea of making a computer simulate a human is quite terrifying,” said Poppy. The younger White is starting her master’s degree in reproductive health at the University of Edinburgh. “I think these people, they were just thinking of something so new and different, it probably seemed kind of surreal.”

Flip through the following slides to get a better look at the ways scientists progressed toward AI, and how they conceptualized recreating the human brain with computers.

https://gizmodo.com/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-tech-1850433697

Keith

Haring’s Intergalactic Journey

Q&A: Julie Gaines

American Fine & Decorative Arts Bloom At Doyle

Americana Overtakes Pook & Pook’s American & International Auction

From Shakespeare To ‘Calvin And Hobbes’—

The 63rd Annual NY International Antiquarian Book Fair

Freeman’s Americana: A Good Day For Historical Portraiture, Aesthetic Movement Furniture & Export Porcelain

Nadeau’s Springs Into Season

With Asian Fare & Antique Lighting

61st Philadelphia Show: Diversity Amid A Deluge

Four Day Event Totals $1.6 Million— McInnis’ Forward Thinking Strategy Results In Successful Single-Owner Sale

Cape Ann Artists Of The Past Advance At Rockport’s Art Auction

‘Death Is Not The End’

The Rubin Museum Explores The Afterlife Across Cultures

Notable Prices Recently Achieved At Various Auction Houses

Across The Block

BY

All prices include buyer’s premium.

Excerpts From Shakespeare’s First Folio Draw Applause At Swann NEW YORK CITY – William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) King Lear; Othello; [and] Anthony & Cleopatra, extracted from the First Folio, nearly doubled its high estimate, reaching $150,000 at Swann Galleries’ timed auction of early printed books on May 4. Published by Isaac Jaggard & Edward Blount, London, 1623, the folio, consisting of pages 283 through 368, contained the complete text of all three plays and came with a modern photocopy of the title page tipped in. Along with representation by Shakespeare, the sale featured the third installment from Ken Rapoport’s collection, showcasing a large group of preRestoration quarto plays. For information, 212254-4710 or www.swanngalleries.com.

Beats Estimate At PBA Galleries

BERKELEY, CALIF. — A rare, inscribed copy of Jack Smith’s important artist’s book, The Beautiful Book, led PBA Galleries’ May 4 sale, Fine Literature with Beats, Bukowski & the Counterculture, Rock Posters. Going out at $17,500, the book is the only collection of Smith’s photographs published in his lifetime, featuring images of New York artists. Inscribed to poet/ publisher Kirby Congdon, this copy included 18 photographs by Smith and a portrait of Smith. Smith was a filmmaker, actor and pioneer of underground cinema. He is generally acclaimed as a founding father of American performance art and has been critically recognized as a master photographer. For information, 415-989-2665 or www.pbagalleries.com.

Dutch Cat Painting Charms Bonhams Skinner’s Spring Americana Bidders

MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — A portrait of a black and white cat seated on a parquet floor, delightfully rendered in oil on canvas by Dutch artist Sal Meijer (1878-1965), achieved $19,125 to lead Bonhams Skinner’s Spring Americana sale, which was online from April 30 to May 10. Measuring 15¼ by 11½ inches, it was the top lot of approximately 400 on offer. For information, 508970-3000 or www.skinner.bonhams.com.

Early Thomas Machine Sews Up Good Price In Vero Beach Sale

VERO BEACH, FLA. — A rare Nineteenth Century sewing machine by William F. Thomas, one of the founders of the British sewing machine industry, beat its $200/400 estimate at Vero Beach Auction’s May 6 sale, selling for $950. “It’s funny, this item sold really well and isn’t the most exciting thing, but it’s supposed to be a really rare early machine,” said the firm’s auctioneer David Kratzer. Thomas purchased the rights to Elias Howes’ patent and employed Howe for several years. The machine measured 16 by 10½ by 9 inches and included a custom wood removable tray. For information, 772978-5955 or www.verobeachauction.com.

Frank Fleming Sculpture Has Strong Finish For Auction Barn

NEW MILFORD, CONN. — One of the top sellers in The Auction Barn’s online estate auction on May 1 was a bronze sculpture of a frog, cornucopia and nesting bird by southern sculptor, Frank Fleming (19402018), which earned $2,500 against an estimate of $100-$1,000. It stood 10 inches tall and outranked another 379 lots of furniture, fine art, estate jewelry, Asian works of art and collectibles. For information, 860-799-0608 or www.theauctionbarnct.com.

A+ Copy Of Legend Of Zelda Gets A+ Result For Bruneau

CRANSTON, R.I. — Of the more than 150 lots Bruneau & Co offered in its May 6 Graded Showcase: Comics, Toys, & Video Games auction was a sealed 1989 Nintendo Entertainment Systems copy of The Legend of Zelda, which had a CGC grade of 9.2 A+. The vintage game, which had been estimated at $1/2,000, sold for $7,188, to a buyer from Florida. For information, 401-533-9980 or www.bruneauandco.com.

Photographer Jack Smith’s Artist’s Book Chinese Altar Table Is Breakout Lot At Winter Associate PLAINVILLE, CONN. — A Chinese rosewood altar table, Ming style but of a later, simple form, was a breakout lot at Winter Associates’ May 8 sale. It surpassed an expectation of $100/200 to finish at $19,200. Measuring 33 by 54½ by 22 inches, it had been purchased in Beijing in 1948, and was shipped to Tsingtao, more than 400 miles, by oxcart. The lot included a book, Chinese Domestic Furniture, by Gustav Ecke that featured a similar table. Originally made to come apart and pack flat for travel, it was glued once in 1960 by a conservator, along with a second restoration, with a receipt, from 2014. For information, 860-793-0288 or www.auctionsappraisers.com.

Edison Electric Pen Jots Down

An Impressive $12,800 For Nye

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. — Nye & Company offered its third ever Edison electric pen, number 8263, for auction on April 27, as part of its late April Estate Treasures Auction, in which nearly 700 lots crossed the block. The pen, which is one of 52 pens included in the current listing of the Edison Electric Pen registry and relates to examples in several institutions, descended in the family of the original owner and sold to a buyer in California for $12,800. For information, 973-984-6900 or www.nyeandcompany.com.

Eighteenth Century Chinese Cricket Vase Brings Good Luck At David Killen Sale

NEW YORK CITY — The sale of the Chinese porcelain and art collection of Dr Guillermo Rico, MD, featuring a rare Eighteenth Century famille rose cricket vase as well as the contents of Rico’s New York City apartment drew enthusiastic bidders on May 7 at David Killen Gallery. The collection included the cricket vase with decoration of floral enamels and several large crickets among the fauna (shown). In China, crickets are a symbol of prosperity and abundance. They are considered good luck, since they are a good omen for farmers for a plentiful season’s crop. True to form, the vase leapt to $12,000. Highest price in the sale, $16,800, went to a Chinese bed or sofa with red lacquer reserves, circa 1900. For information, www.davidkillengallery.com or 646-590-2788.

APRIL 3 , 202 3

Rare collection of Shakespeare's work worth millions up for sale

Five rare editions of work from famed English playwright William Shakespeare will be on sale for more than $14 million at an upcoming book fair in …

Read more on ctvnews.ca

https://flipboard.com/@ctvnews/top-stories-19khdp21z/-/a-OoRukan8S3KOR1DLxjilg%3Aa%3A2823982346-%2F0

APRIL 27 , 202 3

The Briefing

Thursday 27 April

Ukraine’s call for more weapons and ammunition to bolster its defences grows louder ahead of a counteroffensive and world leaders gather for the eighth edition of the Delphi Economic Forum. Plus: The Global Countdown comes to us from the Maldives.

https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-briefing/3009/

MARCH 29 , 202 3

Shakespeare’s First Folio and four more on sale for £8m

The First, Second, Third and Fourth Folio plus poems are on sale: it’s more Bard than you can shake a spear at

“A beggar’s book outworths a noble’s blood,” wrote Shakespeare and his books are worth rather more than a beggar’s.

On the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, five of the earliest editions of the Bard’s works are on sale for a total price of £8.76 million.

“It’s the pinnacle of a bookseller’s career,” said Adam Douglas, senior specialist at Peter Harrington Rare Books. Copies of the first four editions of Shakespeare’s plays and a first edition of his collected poems go on sale at Peter Harrington in London today.

The rare book specialist is not selling them as a set, and this is a rare opportunity to buy a copy outside an auction. While the identity of the private sellers is undisclosed, the calibre of the artefacts is undisputed.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shakespeares-first-folio-and-four-more-on-sale-for-8m-b9q59hvjt

A First Folio makes up the bulk of the five books’ value, with a price tag of £6.25 million. It once belonged to the 2nd Lord Hesketh and was sold at Christie’s in 2010 for £1.5 million.

The 400-year-old book, printed on French linen paper in a calf binding, is a superior example, said Douglas. “Although four of the leaves are missing and provided in facsimile, the rest of the book is in really outstandingly fresh condition.

“It has that untouched quality. There’s a crackle as you turn over the leaves which is delicious.”

A mystery surrounds the book, which was not in Sir Sidney Lee’s census of First Folios, conducted in 1906. After decades or centuries in obscurity, it resurfaced in Hesketh’s collection in the 1950s.

Next highest in value is the Third Folio from 1663, numbers of which were greatly depleted by the Great Fire of London. While there are thought to be 233 extant First Folios, from an original run of 750, there are only three copies of the Third Folio in private hands. This edition can be yours for £1.25 million.

The other books have intriguing backgrounds. The Second Folio, published in 1632, belonged to Sir Christopher Willoughby, an 18th-century baronet. It is being sold by a British owner for £450,000.

The Fourth Folio, of 1685, is printed in a larger font and refers to “Shakespear”, but this particular version appears to have been rebound in about 1790. It will cost £185,000.

The final book, the collected poems, is one of only 64 known copies and once belonged to a William Bent in Rome in 1664. As befits an exceedingly rare piece, the cost goes up again, to £625,000.

If not yet sold, they will go to a rare book sale in New York next month and then to London’s rare book fair, Firsts, in May.

They will be locked away for safekeeping almost as securely as Prospero’s books when not on display.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shakespeares-first-folio-and-four-more-on-sale-for-8m-b9q59hvjt

MA

Y 17 , 202 3

From Shakespeare To ‘Calvin And Hobbes’: The 63rd Annual NY International Antiquarian Book Fair

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Review&OnsitePhotosbyZ.G.Burnett

NEW YORK CITY

In contrast with traditional antiques and art shows, the 63rd New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) carries with it an air of fantasy, especially for book lovers. Organized by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith +

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/from-shakespeare-to-calvin-and-hobbes-the-63rd-annual-nyinternational-antiquarian-book-fair/

Associates in the Park Avenue Armory, NYIABF offers 55,000 square feet of rare books, illuminated manuscripts, illustrations, photographs, prints, maps and ephemera in almost every subject from ancient texts to art books from contemporary presses. Nearly 200 exhibitors from 17 countries brought their finest wares, laureling the prestigious fair with an extraordinary lineup that annually draws those in pursuit of knowledge that is only forbidden depending on one’s budget. More than 1,500 visitors celebrated the fair’s opening on April 27 and 12,000 overall during the weekend, a 26 percent increase in attendance compared to 9,500 in 2022. This was 15 percent above the previous year’s peak, which marked the 63rd NYIABF as the most successful installment of the fair in the past decade.

Opening nights are often the place to spot celebrities, but at NYIABF it was certain distinguished tomes that were drawing crowds. Perhaps the most high-profile of these was found at the booth of Peter Harrington, London, William Shakespeare’s First Folio, “universally hailed as the most important book in English literature.” Published in 1623 by Shakespeare’s close friends and colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell following his death in 1616, the folio contains 36 of his plays, half of which would have been lost without their efforts. According to Harrington’s listing, “[the folio] has been credited with shaping and solidifying Shakespeare’s influence on the English language.” To commemorate the First Folio’s 400th anniversary, Harrington offered each of the four folios separately. At the time of the fair, Folio Four had already sold, as had the first collection of Shakespeare’s Poems, published in 1640. This offering was historic in itself; it was the first time in two decades that all of these volumes were presented together, and “the first time in living memory that they have been offered together for sale.” Attendees stood in line around the booth to catch a glimpse of the First Folio on its emerald velvet support, and only a few were able to come close enough to turn its pages.

Another master of their trade was present at the booth of the Manhattan Rare Book Company (MRBC). Bill Watterson (American, b 1958), reclusive author of the comic series Calvin and Hobbes, sent signed color proofs as thank-you gifts to select newspapers who carried the 3,100-strip run from 1985 to 1995. This large format proof was particularly significant as it showed the series’ final page, titled “Let’s Go Exploring.” “It was certainly the most popular item this year,” said Charles Tolkien-Gillet of MRBC. “Often passers-by had immediate reactions to seeing what is, I suppose, a rather different sort of item for the fair, in addition to particular scarcity of Watterson material in general. And that was really nice to see, and to hear how much Calvin and Hobbes continues to mean in people’s lives.” It was announced earlier this year that Watterson is coming out of his nearly 30-year retirement with The Mysteries, “a fable for grown-ups,” expected this October. Another customer favorite was MRCB’s first edition of Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) from the Biblioteca Lindesiana, “not least for the ‘decapitated’ head cut.”

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/from-shakespeare-to-calvin-and-hobbes-the-63rd-annual-nyinternational-antiquarian-book-fair/

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Illuminated manuscripts were a major focus of the sale, represented by two of the foremost dealers in the rare books business. One of the many jewels of the Les Enluminures, Paris, booth was the “Signed Hours,” by Jean of Tours of the workshop of Jean Poyer, assisted by another illuminator. Tours was a center of the French Renaissance in the Sixteenth Century due to the presence of Italian artists and royal patronage, which spurred the Poyer workshop’s success. Les Enluminures’ assistant art director Tomas Borchert explained that the “Signed Hours’” illustration format featured full-page miniatures, at least one of which was remarkably signed, and rich border decorations, which was a departure from the marginalia and in-text miniatures of earlier manuscripts. The grand format of the miniature and its fresh condition, “the present manuscript survives as a visual tour de force.”

Another illuminated French manuscript from this period was showcased by Dr Joern Guenther Rare Books, Basel, Switzerland, known as the “G and H Book of Hours” which refers to the coat of arms and initials of an unknown patron who is portrayed in two miniatures. Illuminated by the Master of “Spencer 6,” whose style is much like that of Jean Colombe of Bourges, the manuscript shows 36 large and 35 smaller miniatures. According to Guenther, the smaller images opposite larger illustrations were added later, some over the manuscript’s text; the reasoning behind this is unknown. The manuscript also contains a fully illustrated calendar that is similar to the “Très riches

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/from-shakespeare-to-calvin-and-hobbes-the-63rd-annual-nyinternational-antiquarian-book-fair/

heures” of the Duc de Berry, which Colombe finished after it was started by the Limbourg Brothers in the early Fifteenth Century. It is possible that the illuminator of “G and H” was able to reference this masterpiece directly in Colombe’s workshop.

More unusual in this category was an illuminated Armenian manuscript scroll known as a hmail, or collection of spells from Globus Rare Books, San Francisco. Hmail were used as traveling amulets throughout Armenia, consisting of prayers and spells with elements of “folk Christianity.” Globus consulted with specialist Dr Davit Ghazaryan (Matenadaran, Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan, Armenia), who determined that this scroll was written in Bardzr Hajq in Upper Armenia by an artist who both illustrated and wrote the calligraphy of the scroll, signing his name as “the sinful deakon Jakob [sic]” in the colophon. Although not rendered by a specialized illuminist, the length and quality of this work indicates Jakob’s mastery of the medium. The use of hmail continued through the Eighteenth Century, however, few survived due to constant use, making this scroll’s preservation all the more remarkable.

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https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/from-shakespeare-to-calvin-and-hobbes-the-63rd-annual-nyinternational-antiquarian-book-fair/

While many customers come through NYIABF in search of specific books, a few booths offered entire libraries for sale. One such dealer was Type Punch Matrix of Silver Spring, Md., which displayed selections from the library of the 21 Club that was being sold intact. Each of these titles were inscribed to the club’s host Maxwell “Mac” Kriendler (1907-1973) or to his brother and founder of the club, John “Jack” Carl Kriendler (1898-1947), from prominent literary, theatrical and film personalities. Many of these were signed at the club, and members by bestsellers were stocked behind the lobby tobacco counter. One of these was a copy of How To Travel Incognito by Ludwig Bemelmans (Austrian/American, 1898-1962), best known for the Madeline children’s book series. Reminiscent of his wall murals at the nearby Carlyle Hotel’s Bemelmans Bar, the author and artist’s autograph and inscription to Mac was accompanied by a sketch of an upraised arm holding a martini. Other titles included the vocal score for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, a signed copy of Joan Crawford’s 1962 autobiography and St Clair McKelway’s Gossip: The Life and Times of Walter Winchell (1940), the columnist who was banned from the 21 Club who then spurred a Prohibition raid on the establishment in revenge. Embry Clark shared after the fair that although it drew great interest from the crowd, the “21” library is still available at the time of this report.

Fashion illustration is a major category of NYIABF, sought-after by collectors and designers alike. Capitol Hill Books, Washington DC, brought a complete wartime archive by an Englishwoman named Gladys Warren that was possibly created while she was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Many of the illustrations showing women in the latest fashions or uniforms, two historic fashion illustrations and one nude, indication that this may have been Warren’s professional sample dossier. The watercolors and sketches were made on the verso of what appear to be mimeographed World War II aircraft maintenance reports, and there were 26 in the collection altogether.

The word “ephemera” is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time,” a word which does not apply to the rare, delicate stock in the booth of Daniel Crouch Rare Books, New York City. Within the cases were vibrant hand-colored maps, board games, card games and more, including a collection of early to mid-Nineteenth Century tabletop games with lithographed and hand-painted cutout pieces. One of these was “Die Ferien im Schloss,” or “Holidays at the Castle,” made by an unidentified Germany toymaker. Containing a board, six painted figures of well-dressed women and background pieces of a castle and two benches, the object of the game was to line up three of the ladies according to the color of their dresses. Another was “Der Wildpark: The Zoological Garden,” a game created in 1843 by court gardener Peter Joseph Lenné for King Frederick William IV of Prussia, based on his own private gardens and menagerie.

The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair occurs annually at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Street. For additional information, www.nyantiquarianbookfair.com.

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/from-shakespeare-to-calvin-and-hobbes-the-63rd-annual-nyinternational-antiquarian-book-fair/

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https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/from-shakespeare-to-calvin-and-hobbes-the-63rd-annual-nyinternational-antiquarian-book-fair/

New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

27APRIL2023

DETAILS

Start Date: 27 April,2023

End Date: 30 April,2023

Event Website: Visit Now

Region: North America Country: United States

Categories: Fairs & Exhibitions .

What is the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair?

https://www.gowherewhen.com/event/antiquarian-book-fair

According to the New York Times, the International Antiquarian Book Fair is the world’s premier event of its kind. The event draws dealers and collectors from all over the world and features an unparalleled selection of rare books, manuscripts, maps and even autographs.

Collectors will find books covering diverse topics such as art, science, history, literature, fashion, philosophy and children’s books. Visitors can browse over 200 exhibitor booths who come to the fair from over 17 countries.

Need to Know

Tickets can be purchased in advance online. Kids under 16 go free.

Did you know?

This event is formally sanctioned by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association or America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers which means that attendees can be assured of professionalism and authenticity in their dealings.

For more information on this fantastic event, click on the link provided on this page. Don't forget to rate and review it right here and share your experience with the GoWhereWhen.com community!

Coronavirus is causing a number of event cancellations; we provide event website links on each page for you to check the latest updates.

https://www.gowherewhen.com/event/antiquarian-book-fair

APRIL 2 8 , 202 3

Book Club

Reviews and recommendations from critic Ron Charles.

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A book sits at the center of the latest trial involving the much - tried Donald Trump. In 2019, E. Jean Carroll published a memoir called “What Do We Need Men For?” (review). The relevant section describes Trump sexually assaulting Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid - 1990s.

https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camprw/?trackId=61c755279bbc0f1e749439ad&s=644bd45ea61bab12f742e7dc&linknum=4&linktot=106&lin knum=4&linktot=106

The then-president denied Carroll’s accusations. In a statement from the White House, Trump said, “Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book.”

The claim that a woman would publicly detail such a humiliating ordeal in order to “sell a book” suggests much about this defendant’s understanding of women. And publishing.

According to BookScan, “What Do We Need Men For?” has sold fewer than 5,000 copies. As usual, the former reality TV star has radically overestimated the promotional value of his name.

The details of Carroll’s lawsuit playing out this week in New York have been expertly covered here and powerfully analyzed here.

But I’ve been thinking about the skepticism that women face whenever they say they’ve been sexually assaulted. Such reflexive distrust seems strange. It’s not as though most of us have experience with crafty women making false rape claims.

Or maybe we do. After all, that narrative is built right into our earliest, most fundamental experiences with literature.

Even before I knew what sex was, I learned in Sunday school that Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of trying to rape her. Then before I’d kissed a girl, I fell in love with “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which revolves around Mayella falsely accusing Tom Robinson of rape. And in college, I studied Freud’s “discovery” that his female patients who remembered being raped were actually projecting their own fantasies.

A few stories don’t shape a mind, of course, but those classics are in perfect harmony with the misogynist suspicion that has informed generations of men. In her 1975 book, “Against Our Will,” Susan Brownmiller writes, “Male fear of the false rape charge brought by a lying woman the old syndrome of Potiphar’s wife is written into the rape laws of various states.”

Brownmiller concedes, “Fear of false accusation is not entirely without merit in any criminal case, as is the problem of misidentification, and honest mistake.” But then she points out, “The irony, of course, is that while men successfully convinced each other and us that women cry rape with ease and glee, the reality of rape is that victimized women have always been reluctant to report the crime and seek legal justice.”

It’s easy to frame this week’s case as a contest between what Carroll says and what Trump says. But it’s also a contest between what she says and what our literature has been saying over and over again for hundreds of years.

https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camprw/?trackId=61c755279bbc0f1e749439ad&s=644bd45ea61bab12f742e7dc&linknum=4&linktot=106&lin knum=4&linktot=106

Copyright2023AmericanBooksellersAssociation

The covid-19 pandemic sparked inspiring reports about the survival even triumph of independent bookstores. I love those stories, but they make me nervous. No one should be lulled into imagining that brick-andmortar bookstores are sitting on Easy Street. Selling books will always be a razor-thin business with high fixed costs.

This is where you come in: Tomorrow is the 10th annual Independent Bookstore Day. It’s your chance to celebrate those literary businesses that contribute so much to our communities. More than a thousand indie bookstores across the country will be offering in-person and virtual events, readings, musical performances, contests and classes for kids. Use this interactive map to find a participating store near you.

Saturday only you can buy exclusive Indie Bookstore Day merchandise, including literary tote bags, mugs, T-shirts and more (full catalogue). I’ve got my eye on the Bibliophile: Banned Books 500-Piece Puzzle, designed by Jane Mount. The On My Way to the Bookstore onesie, featuring art by Richard Scarry, is perfect for anybody with a tiny reader here or on the way.

If you can’t make it to a bookstore, Bookshop.org, the indie alternative to Amazon, will be offering free shipping on Saturday and Sunday. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

And through Sunday, Libro.fm, the audiobook provider for indie bookstores, has more than 1,000 audiobooks on sale for $5 or less.

Best-selling novelist Celeste Ng is this year’s Indie Bookstore Day ambassador. “In an increasingly impersonal world,” Ng says, “independent bookstores are an antidote to feeling disconnected and dehumanized. Let’s make sure they not only survive, but thrive.”

https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camprw/?trackId=61c755279bbc0f1e749439ad&s=644bd45ea61bab12f742e7dc&linknum=4&linktot=106&lin knum=4&linktot=106

APRIL 2 8 , 202 3

Book Worms Unite: A Look Inside The New York Antiquarian Book Fair

Issac Newton, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, Copernicus and Vignelli all inside the Park Avenue Armory.

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY What do Copernicus and Calvin & Hobbes have in common?

You can find both of them side by side this weekend at the 63rd annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory this weekend, where bibliophiles and casual browsers can browse rare collections at all sorts of price points.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

For example Copernicus? A fine, first edition copy of "De revolutionibus," the first book to propose a heliocentric universe printed in 1543?

Sophia Rare Books, hailing from Copenhagen's meat packing district, has a copy at booth E24 listed for $2.5 million.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

To its immediate right sits a green, first edition copy of Darwin's "On The Origins Of Species" for $950,000.

And in the booth next door is Michael DiRuggiero from The Manhattan Rare Book Company, who was more than happy to show off his ultra-rare, full-color signed proof print of the last ever Calvin & Hobbes comic strip that notoriously anti-commercial author Bill Waterson made as a thank you for a handful of newspapers that carried his beloved comic for over a decade.

"I actually got it for myself personally and kept it a while," DiRuggiero told Patch.

It's yours for $35,000.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

Sellers at the book fair range from the ultra rare and pricy the notoriously expensive Shakespeare’s First Folio is already set aside on reserve at the price of $7.5 million, but the Second and the rarer Third are still available for $550,000 and $1.5 million respectively to the quirky Warhol and Studio 54 ephemera, two separate collections of incredible Kurt Vonnegut letters filled with illustrations and doodles and the sublime.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

TherarestoftheShakespeareFolios,thefirstcollectedworksoftheBritishplaywrightandoftencalledthemostimportantbooksinthe Englishlanguage.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

Among the ultra rare is one of the few surviving original 1972 NYC Subway maps, designed by modernist Massimo Vignelli, for $7,500.

Other rare and interesting items include an early typed draft of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," colorful French anti-Vietnam war art posters, a copy of a 1928 speech Marcus Garvey gave at London's Royal Albert Hall, a counter-culture stoner board game about drug smuggling from 1971 called "Scam" and a 1965 educational comic book produced by the NYC Department of Health Services called "Johnny Gets the Word" about a man discovering that "he's caught the 'siff' (syphillis)."

There's only four known copies and it's one of the more affordable options at a pedestrian $250.

But for even less is a booth by the front who, in addition to their beautiful selection of pricy colorful complete manuscripts, offers a selection of small pages from unfinished manuscripts selling for about $100 each or so.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

If you are a major rare books collector or just someone who wants to see what the collection of human knowledge looked like 400 years ago, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair runs until Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory between East 66th and 67th streets on the Upper East Side.

Doors open at noon each day and close at 8 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday.

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

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InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

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InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/amp/31349922/book-worms-unite-a-look-inside-thenew-york-antiquarian-book-fair

InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

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InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

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InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

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InsideTheNewYorkAntiquarianBookFairattheParkAvenueArmory.(PeterSenzamici/Patch)

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APRIL 2 9 , 202 3

Strong Sales & Record Attendance at New York International Antiquarian Book Fair 2023

COURTESYOFMEREDITHNIERMAN

New York International Antiquarian Bo ok Fair 2023

The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) successfully returned to the Park Avenue Armory for its 63rd edition in New York City.

Over 1,500 visitors flowed into the Park Avenue Armory throughout the evening to enjoy offerings from nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world, continuing to live up to its reputation as a highly international fair.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/strong-sales-record-attendance-new-yorkinternational-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

The fair organizers cited an 15% increase in attendance compared to 2022 numbers, making the 63rd edition of the NYIABF the most successful iteration of the fair in at least the past decade, both in terms of sales and attendance.

There was also a noted uptick in younger collectors and visitors. The NYIABF cited major sales from various dealers during opening night:

• Ursus Books, Ltd. sold a whimsical children’s book signed El Pintor that was a success in the Netherlands during World War II, created by a Jewish couple who used the proceeds to help the resistance. The Dutch collector plans to donate the piece to the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.

• Peter Harrington Rare Books had strong sales so far, including the transaction of a six-figure item. There has also been interest in Williams Shakespeare’s Folios, in particular the 3rd Folio.

• James Gray Booksellers sold three pieces, including Albertus Magnus Secretis mulierum et Viroru(m) , “one of the most influential documents in the history of medieval scientific attitudes toward women”.

• B&B Rare Books sold an original drawing by E.H. Shepard of Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willowsand a first edition of MaryPoppinsOpenstheDoorby P.L. Travers.

• Honey & Wax Booksellers sold a copy of Andy Warhol’s 1962 artist book 25CatsNamedSamandaBlue Pussy , from the library of George Balanchine. The collection sold to Peter Harrington, a dealer-to-dealer sale.

• Kate Mitas sold an archive of a civil rights activist who worked with CORE in Mississippi in the mid1960s, who then became involved in the women's and gay liberation movements in San Francisco.

• Henry Sotheran, Ltd. sold about $9,000 to trade, $2,000 to private clients and received interest for the $67,000 set of WinnieThePoohbooks.

• Autographes des Siècles sold an assortment of French literature letters and received strong interest in two offerings: a set of drawings by late designer Karl Lagerfeld and his letter of René Descartes, priced at $200.000.

• Adrian Harrington Rare Books sold several of their Agatha Christie collection of books.

• Imperial Fine Books sold items with prices ranging from $4,500-$20,000, including a signed and illustrated copy by Kay Nielsen of HanselAndGreteland a set of Nicholay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln Works and Benjamin Franklin’s work.

• Eric Chaim Kline, Ltd. received an order last night for Theresienstadt (concentration camp) currency.

• Tamino Autographs, Inc. sold around $72,000, including an original photo of John Lennon taken the day of his assassination.

• Schubertiade Music & Arts (At “B” Dry Goods”) sold an important musical manuscript from the library of Marie Antoinette and the double signed score from FiddlerontheRoof

• Fine Art & Rare Books sold Iliazd’s Poésiedesmotsinconnus , a rare Czech poster and a unique Soviet industrial product catalog, among other pieces.

• Walter Reuben, Inc. reported great fortune with interest in their offerings of Women in Film, Black film History and classic Hollywood.

Notable guests including Manhattan Borough President Mark D. Levine, John Derian, Gherardo Guarducci, Guillaume Kientz, David Hamond, Alexander Cunningham Cameron, Jill Krementz, Dalia Oberlander, Caroline Nation and Antonio Pio Saracino.

Bibliophiles everywhere are invited to continue the hunt for rare books and all manner of fine works on paper as the NYIABF continues through April 30.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/strong-sales-record-attendance-new-yorkinternational-antiquarian-book-fair-2023

Books viaTypePunchMatrix

Featuring nearly 200 dealers, the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair “can feel like an overwhelming explosion of history, beauty, charm and surprise,” Jennifer Schuessler writes. The event is at Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan through Sunday.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/28/arts/weekend-editors-picks-citadel.html?auth=loginemail&login=email