Join the ABAA Gender Equity Initiative for a Networking Reception at this year's Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. The reception will take place on Saturday, November 9, at 7 pm EST, in the Rochambeau's Left Bank Room (2nd floor). Stop by for a quick refreshment before your dinner plans. Saturday, November 9, at 7 pm EST Rochambeau The Left Bank Room (2nd floor) 900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02115 [more Networking Reception]
Position Announcement: Rare Book Cataloger, Burnside Rare Books Burnside Rare Books is seeking a full-time rare book cataloger to join our small but growing team. Starting salary is in the range of $45,000-$75,000 commensurate with experience. All work is to be done in person at our offices in Portland, Oregon. Primary duties are cataloging and researching new inventory, maintaining inventory control, photographing books, working with customers to sell books, shipping orders, and basic office duties. This position may require travel to book fairs or to meet with clients, and other duties may be assigned. Qualified candidates will possess either an academic background in rare book cataloging, or practical experience cataloging for a rare book firm or auction house. This position requires attention to detail, excellent writing and verbal communication skills, strong research abilities, a demonstrated knowledge of book history and the care and preservation of rare books, a professional and client-oriented demeanor, and the ability to occasionally lift boxes of material up to 50 lbs. Please email cover letter and resume to info@burnsiderarebooks.com. No phone calls or visits please. [more Job Opening: Rare Book Cataloger at Burnside Rare Books]
Join us at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts November 8-10, for the 46th Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair! With more than 100 rare book dealers from the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, the UK, and 19 U.S. states, an alluring treasure trove awaits seasoned bibliophiles and first-time attendees at the Fair. Here is a small selection of items to preview the treasures you will find in Boston. Original Artwork by the "Painter of the Revolution" John Trumbull: ORIGINAL PEN AND INK CHARACTER STUDY FOR HIS PAINTING, Priam Returning to his Family the Dead Body of Hector, DEPICTING A GROUP OF FIVE DISTRAUGHT TROJAN MOURNERS. London.: December 22, 1784 5¾ x 6½ inches (14¾ x 16½ cm). Light tanning, some old creases to the paper. Near fine. Matted and framed. $25,000.00 A vibrant and kinetic character study accomplished relatively early in the career of the renowned American painter John Trumbull, in preparation for one of his rare mythological scenes. The present drawing was done by Trumbull during his second visit to London, while studying in Benjamin West's studio. Signed and dated "London Dec 22d 1784" on the verso, it is a study for the following year's large-scale painting titled Priam Returning to his Family the Dead Body of Hector, one of the artist's only major works on a mythological topic. The group studied here, comprising five Trojan mourners including a woman with her two small children, appears on the left side o... [more Boston Book Fair Highlights]
The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (BIABF) has announced special events and programs at this year's fair; kicking off with an Opening Night celebration on Friday, November 8, from 4-8pm; and featuring in-person talks all weekend. With more than 100 rare book dealers from the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, the UK, and 19 U.S. states, an alluring treasure trove awaits seasoned bibliophiles and first-time attendees at the Fair. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8 4-8pm | Opening Night Get a first look at items for sale at this festive preview—an opportunity to browse the collections of U.S. and international dealers and to mingle with other bibliophiles, collectors, museum curators, and special collections librarians. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the event or online... Buy tickets here... SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 12:00 pm | Boston Book Fair Tour Join Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) Executive Director Erin McGuirl for a walk-through of the fair, meeting BSA-member booksellers. This is your opportunity to learn about the book trade, best practices, and to get to know some of your fellow travelers and members of the book trade. Newcomers welcome, limited to 10 participants. Registration required... 1:00 pm | The Ticknor Society Collectors' Roundtable: Off the Beaten Track Many, if not most, collectors happily search among the mountain peaks, focusing on the high points in their chosen area. But some, for various reasons, venture off the we... [more Boston Book Fair Special Events]
Our members list new acquisitions and recently cataloged items almost every day of the year. Below, you'll find a few highlights from these recent additions... Pet Sematary by King, Stephen Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1983. First Edition. Near Fine/Near fine. First edition stated, first printing. Signed by Stephen King and inscribed to a former owner on the title page. Bound in publisher's original black cloth boards lettered in gilt. Near Fine with light softening to spine ends, faint foxing to textblock edge. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with toning and light edge wear, light chipping to spine ends. A very nice copy. Offered by Burnside Rare Books. Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Head with Straw Hat--Halloween Decoration 1950 · Made in U.S.A. . Made in U.S.A. : , 1950. Ephemera no binding. Very good +. . 9” x 6 ½”; color printed stiff die-cut shaped paper pumpkin head with hat and scarf marked “Made in U.S.A.;” unpunched hole for hanging, printed in yellow, black and orange; small crease to wheat and one scarf corner; very good plus. Schneider 113. Unmarked Halloween decoration made by the prolific American party decoration company, The Beistle Company, during the Luhrs ownership. The Beistle Company was founded by Martin Luther Beistle in 1900 and started manufacturing paper Halloween party goods in the 1920s. Henry E. Luhrs, Beistle's son-in-law, took over the company in 1935 after Beistle's death. Offered by Sandra L. Hoekstra. THE GHOST OF OPALI... [more Weekly Highlights]
Browse the latest catalogs, newsletters, and e-lists of rare books, fine bindings, incunabula, print ephemera, and much more from the members of the ABAA below. (Also includes podcasts, blog posts, and other digital formats.) *New* indicates any catalogs brought to our attention since the early October 2024. AARDVARK BOOKS/EZRA TISHMAN BOOK APPRAISALS 16 Recent Aardvarkian Acquisitions Summer Miscellany ABACUS BOOKS Modern Poetry Rubaiyat ABRAHAM LINCOLN BOOK SHOP July Book List: The Virginia Regimental History Series January Book List CHARLES AGVENT Fall Miscellany LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS & LETTERS Part 6 Featured item: AMEN, Irving. COFFEE SHOP. Limited edition color lithograph (image size 19-1/2" x 14" matted and framed to an overall size of 27" x 23"). Of an edition of 300 SIGNED in pencil by the illustrator in the bottom right margin, this copy is marked "Artist's Proof" in pencil at the bottom middle margin and titled in pencil in the lower left margin with the notation "A/P." Appears to be Fine, not examined out of the frame which has minor wear. Offered by Charles Agvent and found in "Fall Miscellany." ANDERSON BUTLER RARE BOOKS Americana April Miscellany ANTIPODEAN BOOKS, MAPS, PRINTS E-list #44 ~ W.W.I., Americana, Australia, Photographs, Maps, Ephemera E-list #43 ~ Antipodean Books at the Brooklyn Virtual Book Fair ARGONAUT BOOK SHOP Recent Acquisitions & Selections from Stock (Summer 2024) JAMES ARSENAULT & COMPANY Recent Acquisitions in Americana (October 2024) Rece... [more Latest Catalogs of Rare Books]
As the current president of the ABAA, I have been attending the biannual Congress of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), the umbrella organization that brings together national Associations from around the world. Our hosts in Amsterdam have outdone themselves! The main Congress was preceded by meetings to discuss official ILAB business. The protection of cultural property, while pursued for the noblest of reasons, can lead to incredible bureaucratic burdens and even become counterproductive if people familiar with the actual function of the book trade aren't involved in shaping policy. Fortunately, ILAB's Executive Secretary Angelika Elstner has been elected to the European Union's Art Market Expert Group to provide precisely this kind of input. Among other contributions, ILAB has shown that Interpol's figures for stolen library materials were wildly exaggerated. For example, it claimed that 472,933 pieces of “Library material” had been seized in the past year, which, if true, would mean that the book trade was awash in literal mountains of stolen goods. ILAB was able to show that almost the entire figure derived from a single 500-year-old family archive in Italy that was confiscated by the state as part of a dispute over legal ownership. In point of fact, ILAB and its affiliates are always eager to protect the integrity of institutional collections, and now ILAB has a voice in the European Union to help shape policies that sustain this goal withou... [more ILAB Congress in Amsterdam: Business and Pleasure]
The Brown Bag Lunch Series, presented by the ABAA Gender Equity Initiative, invites you to join on Zoom on October 22nd, 2024, at 2 PM ET for a Brown Bag Lunch Series with Jordan Ross, the first prize winner of the David Ruggles Prize. Ross will be presenting his collection of "Black Collegiate Textbooks and Histories" along with the prize administrator, Patrick Olson of Patrick Olson Rare Books. October 22nd @ 2 PM ET Collecting Black Collegiate Textbooks and Histories Register here... Jordan Ross Ross has been collecting for ten years, and his decade-long effort to build a "Black Collegiate Textbooks and Histories" collection is paying off. Ross provides not only a snapshot of African American history textbooks in use during the late-19th and early-20th centuries, but also the increasingly scarce histories of the HBCUs that taught with those same textbooks. It started in Fall 2014 with a visit to the campus bookstore at Morehouse College, where he had just started his first year. He asked staff for a history of the college, only to learn that the most recent one was some fifty years out of print. He walked up the street to Spelman College, asked for the same thing, and learned that its history, too, was out of print. Now numbering more than 200 books, Ross' distinctive engagement with a print culture specific to HBCUs aims to preserve these vanishing histories. While many of the judges' decisions are hard, this one was easy. One judge's comment summarizes it well: "Man, Jor... [more October Brown Bag]
The CABS-Minnesota Antiquarian Book Seminar celebrated its 48th year this July on the campus of St. Olaf College. The class of over 50 convened for an intensive week of hands-on instruction and informal conversations about the book trade, including impromptu book shops in the dorms and a lecture from specialty dealer Alexander Akin of Bolerium Books. 22 of the students were supported by scholarships, including from the ABAA Woodburn Fund. Find out more at www.bookseminars.com. [more 2024 CABS-Minnesota Antiquarian Book Seminar]
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) is thrilled to announce a Virtual Book Fair on September 25-27, 2024 at abaa.org/vbf, as part of the celebrations marking its 75th anniversary. This special online event will bring together booksellers, collectors, and enthusiasts worldwide, offering an opportunity to explore and purchase rare and antiquarian books, manuscripts, ephemera, and more, all from the comfort of home. The Virtual Book Fair will feature an array of offerings from ABAA members, showcasing the diversity and richness of materials that define the antiquarian book trade. Participants will have the chance to browse exclusive collections, engage with sellers in real time to celebrate the ABAA's remarkable legacy and its contributions to the world of book collecting. View members exhibiting at the ABAA 75th Anniversary Virtual Book Fair... “We are excited to offer this Virtual Book Fair to connect with a global audience and celebrate our 75th anniversary,” says Susan Benne, Executive Director of the ABAA. “This event embodies our commitment to expanding access to the rare book world and fostering relationships among collectors, sellers, and institutions.” This Virtual Book Fair is one of many events commemorating the ABAA's 75 years of promoting ethical standards, professionalism, and education within the rare book trade. The ABAA has grown from its founding in 1949 to include over 400 members, each dedicated to preserving and promoting the r... [more ABAA 75th Anniversary Virtual Book Fair]