Posted by Richard Gabriel on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 09:23 AM
Rare books and ephemera sold only on line in our eBay bookstore are up for auction! We have some very high quality items in the auction that are already reasonably reserved to market! Check it out or forward to a friend who is a book collector!
This 16th century book is at the auction! Click on any of the pictures or the eBay logo and it will take you there to the rare book auction online. A very rare and great book retaining its original vellum binding. Printed in 1549 and only 26 libraries have this copy with no copies available.
Want to save some money? Then now is the time to buy! The economy is improving and book prices are sure to go up! They tend to do so dramatically especially following a pick up in the economy. Why? People are looking for ways to divest their holdings into investments that can be liquidated. Books, especially rare books are a limited supply item and everytime a Library buys one, it takes that book completely out of circulation (at least in our lifetimes anyway, Libraries generally don't sell off collections unless they go bankrupt or are merged or bought by another not-for-profit. Don't forget to check out our other auction sales as well! Good luck and thanks for taking the time to view our items!
Calixbooks, rare ephemera and rare books at fair prices sold only online!
Posted by Richard Gabriel on Thu, Jun 17, 2010 @ 11:03 AM
A stunning two volume set made in the tradition of William Morris who created a new look in making modern books by using the old techniques for making books and printing them. Morris's company which included everything from designing wall paper to the making and printing of books, re-created some of the most spectacular works printed before 1500.
Here to, Shakespeare Head Press set out and accomplished the goal of re-printing the 1498 Edition 'The Boke of Noble Kyng. Kyng Arthure Somtyme Kynge of Englande and His Noble Actes and Feates of armes of Chyvalrye, and His Noble Knyghtes and Table Rounde and is Deuyeded in to. XXI Bookes. Wynkyn de Worde, Westminster. 1498.
This edition is an exact copy of that rare and unusual work that includes the wood cut engravings found throughout the text. The Elizabethan scholar A. H. Bullen established the Shakespeare Head Press in Stratford-up-Avon in 1904. His original aim was to produce a good edition of Shakespeare's works, and his ten volume Stratford Town Shakespeare was completed by 1907. After Bullen died in 1927, the press was acquired by a partnership including Basil Blackwell, the Oxford bookseller. Bernard Newdigate was appointed as typographer and under his direction the press worked within the Morris tradition: Ovid's Metamorphoses was the first book he produced as a limited edition. This 1933 limited edition of 350 copies reaches the goal of reproducing a book in the finest, ancient and lasting traditions. This rare book set is the only one we have located and only one other copy is found in the World Catalog of Libraries database. A rare book sold only online by Calix Books.
Posted by Richard Gabriel on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 @ 12:31 PM
The rare book auction at Bloomsbury's this week had 293 lots of mostly medical books and some odds and ends at the end of the auction. There were no real surprises at the auction and 77 items out of the 293 went unbid. That's about 26.3% of the total number of lots. You can download a PDF of the auction by clicking on the auction page catalog!
If you were the seller, you netted about £65,000 while on the low end Bloomsbury was estimating that you would net £94,640 (net £80,444) if all lots sold at the low end estimate or £132,670 (net £112,780) if all lots sold at the high end estimate. Average low end book price was £323 not including buyers premium and for the high end estimate £453 not including buyers premium. Actual auction results were an average of £360 of actual books sold without buyers premium and all of these numbers should be multipled by the currency factor of Pounds to Dollars of today's rate of $1.504 dollar to the pound. You can down load the PDF of the auction or go directly to the web site at Bloomsbury. The analysis for this group of books which are moderately interesting would not reflect the overall market for rare book sales but if you were considering putting together a collection of rare medical items and you intend on selling them, the message is keep your average per book price below the the price you could get at auction! The principles of the buy-sell demand still apply, however none of these rare and antiquarian books fall into the extremely rare and high demand book category. It was a good auction for book buyers and some great deals were obtained, proving that buying at auction can still be a good deal.