rare books

A first edition of the Nicolaus Copernicus book that puts forth the theory that the sun — not the earth — is at the center of the universe has fetched more than $2.2 million at an auction, nearly double the expected price.

Not so surprising, considering an 1887 New Haven, Conn. telephone book in the same auction brought in $170,500.

A rare early copy of A Study in Scarlet was discovered among a box of charitable donations at an Oxfam store in Harrogate. The volume has been put up for auction with Bonham's auctioneers in Oxford, where it will show on May 20.

Click on the image to enlarge it and learn how to properly open your books.

The text originally appeared in Modern Bookbinding Practically Considered : A Lecture Read Before the Grolier Club of New York, March 25, 1885 with Additions and New Illustrations.

This is neat. The poetical works of Richard John King or Adelaide Anne Procter are being kept under glass, not because they’re in such huge demand, but because of their fore-edges, which were painted with water color pastorals.

A rare first edition of Tolkien's The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, has sold at auction for £60,000 [$120,000 Cdn]. The copy, inscribed by the author with a message of thanks to his friend Elaine Griffiths, who helped the author see the work into print, went to an anonymous telephone bidder.

Julian Blackwell, head of the Blackwell's bookstore chain and publishing company has donated $10-million towards building a new exhibition hall for the Bodleian Library so that the public can have access to its rare treasures hitherto only available to scholars and researchers.

This collection of alphabet books from the last hundred years is more for adults than children. It includes such curious titles as An Anti-Slavery Alphabet and An Alphabet of Celebrities. The latter is quite amusing.You can actually flip through the books here.

Rare works by Charles Dickens, including a page from the original manuscript of "Pickwick Papers" and an illustration of the "Oliver Twist" character Bill Sikes, are going on the auction block. The Kenyon Starling Library of Charles Dickens is expected to fetch more than $2 million when it is sold at Christie's on April 2.

Several mysterious ancient books have been discovered in China, and for the past two years nobody has been able to read them. The books contain a script similar to Chinese but quite undecipherable to the experts. It is speculated that they might be a written form of the Tujia’s speech. The Tujia are an ethnic minority hitherto believed to have no written language.

A little off the beaten book track here, but I couldn’t resist. Books of Hours are among my favorite books-as-art objects. Valued for their artwork rather than their content, these beautifully illuminated pieces of history are a medieval book collector’s dream. Here’s a little bit about them…with pics.