How do you assess your rare book collection and know if it’s right for sale at auction? At Swann Galleries, we receive many inquiries from folks wondering what to do…
2024 was an eventful year for Swann that brought about exciting changes, including the reorganization of our Fine Art Department, which saw Nigel Freeman step in as the head of…
In the 2024 Winter-Spring season, Swann Galleries continued to provide high-quality auctions of unusual and rare material. Several single-owner collections were featured, including Illustration Art: Featuring Highlights from the Collection…
Collectors of Don Quixote have fastened on to the complex parameters of published editions like true bibliomaniacs. Tracking down each morsel of minutiae appeals to those of us with a…
Swann Galleries continued to offer exceptional auctions of quality material in 2023. The year featured several collections, including a special selection of 100 works from the Stephen White collection in…
Devon Eastland shares her picks for the October 12, 2023, sale of Early Printed books. Gothic Novels If you’ve read through our offerings for the October 12, 2023, sale, you…
The fall Early Printed Books auction on October 12, 2023, will feature lots from three important collectors, including more from Ken Rapaport, as well as works on the history of…
Winter/Spring 2023 Brings a Record-Breaking Season for the Books & Manuscripts Department Books and manuscripts had a standout winter/spring season at Swann. “As a company whose origins are as a…
The house’s third iteration of Focus on Women on June 1, 2023, an auction dedicated to the contributions of women to art, life, and society, brought $361,090, a total more…
Cartwright, Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with Other Poems (1651): Books owned by Mary Kemeys Sarah Lindenbaum is an independent scholar currently working on a book about the life and library of 17th-century female…
This spring’s EPB sale features the third installment from Ken Rapoport’s collection, showcasing a large group of pre-Restoration quarto plays (lots 1-143). Representation from Shakespeare will also grace the sale,…
2022 was a historic year for Swann in more ways than one. The house celebrated its 80th year of auctions, bringing with it the 70th anniversary of the first photography…
The October 13, 2022 sale of Early Printed Books at Swann Galleries was the highest-gorssing auction of books in the auction house’s history at $1.1 million.
From the Collection of Ken Rapoport October’s Early Printed Books sale contains a number of sections that vary in focus, beginning with another installment of Ken Rapoport’s collection. We had…
The winter-spring auction season at Swann is a masterclass in marathon training, and the 2022 iteration proved no different with 20 auctions held between late January and the middle of August.
In this year’s Focus on Women sale, we are pleased to offer several interesting epistolary novels written by women.
The May 5, 2022 sale of Early Printed Books features the first part of the complete library of bibliophile Ken Rapoport. Below are some of the highlights from the selection.…
The Collection of Ken Rapoport This spring’s Early Printed Book sale will feature the first part of the complete library of noted bibliophile and collector Ken Rapoport, who over a…
As we close out another successful year at Swann we look back at our record-filled sales.
When I was an undergraduate, I only knew George Parker Winship’s name because of the series of lectures delivered in his honor at the Houghton Library. The topic of one…
This October’s Early Printed Books sale featuring travel, medicine, and science offers another chance for rare book buyers to travel through time and around the world to shop for historically and culturally significant works and objects. We are pleased to present a curated selection of Renaissance and early modern printing, including scholarly editions of Greek and Latin classics; manuscripts and early printing; a curated selection of medical works; and books that document global contributions to our shared culture.
Early Printed Book, Archives, Vernacular and Fine Art Photography, Among other Material, Draws Interest Among Collectors The house’s inaugural Focus on Women sale on Thursday, July 15, 2021 brought $333,893…
Ahead of Swann’s first auction dedicated to the accomplishments of women on July 15, senior specialist and curator of the sale, Devon Eastland, sat down with author, historian and collector…
What You Need to Know on Auction Day This auction will be held live and conducted remotely. There will not be bidding in the room, though we accept order bids,…
Bibliographers, cataloguers, and scholars rely upon the veracity of a book’s imprint—that is, the publication information provided by the printer on the title page, and includes the following: city of…
Featuring illuminated manuscripts, including an ornate Book of Hours, Use in Utrecht, and a robust section of important early scientific texts by Nicolaus Copernicus, Euclid, and Johann Zahn. Medical volumes include a first edition of Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, among others.
In a year that was unlike any in our lifetimes, Swann’s specialists and staff proved to be as resilient and innovative as ever, bringing forward new and safe ways to…
Early Printed Books, at auction October 27, 2020, featuring sought-after early imprints, incunabula, North American early exploration texts, medical books and more.
Join Us October 5, 2020 at 7PM ET for a fascinating, terrifying look at the rarest books―bound in human skin―and the stories of their creation.
What Goes Around Comes Around Devon Eastland shares the joys of handling early printed books and how sometimes unexpected pieces of history can crop up. As a business with a…
Our sale of Fine Books & Manuscripts on Thursday, July 30, 2020 boasted high prices across categories with early printed books leading the sale, two records being recorded for literature, and autograph material from world leaders garnering attention.
Any experienced cataloger, scholar, collector, or reader of early printing is accustomed to discovering an array of random objects within the pages of books. Even though some of these tidbits may have fallen out of ancient beards, today we celebrate and study them and put them into categories. Devon Eastland, senior specialist for early printed books, provides a handy glossary for these curious items found within various books.
As a bibliophile expands their collection, they gain a feel for auction house and bookseller’s catalogues, which often include terminology that may seem arcane. However, every character in a complex catalogue entry is used to describe the object being sold. For early printed books, some of the most essential things a specialist must note are the size of the book, its collation, and its condition. In order to understand how a book is described, some knowledge of bookbinding fundamentals is helpful. Here, Devon Eastland, our senior specialist for early printed books, dives into how a book is sewn.
Or, WTſ? It’s a common source of confusion: “I have this book, and it’s really old, and all of the s’s are f’s, so I know it’s really old. It’s called Paradife Loft, by John Milton.”
Our Thursday, October 24 sale of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books saw a full auction room and active bidding on the internet and phones with a particular interest in publications by scientists, as well as incunabula, bibles and manuscript publications.
Born in London in 1606, John Bulwer was an important figure in the study of deafness, gesture and the human body and a pioneer the education of the deaf in England. He published five works on the subject before his death in 1656. Set to come across the block are three first editions of Bulwer’s publications.
Bibliophiles of every denomination—Americana, autographs, art books, archives, atlases, ephemera, literature, maps—can find their niche at Swann Galleries. Originally founded in New York as a book auction house, we hold regular specialized sales devoted to books, printed material and manuscripts.
A choice selection of incunabula brings to auction infrequently seen editions of Johannes Jacobus Canis’s 1476 guide to the study of civil and canon law; Albertus Magnus’s comprehensive lapidary De mineralibus, Pavia, 1491; and Philippus Beroaldus’s philosophical tract on happiness, De felicitate opusculum, Bologna, 1495.
Illuminated Manuscripts Lead Early Printed Books at Swann Coinciding with Rare Book Week in New York City, our spring offering of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books…
Rare Book Week kicks off March 5 in NYC. We gathered a selection of our favorite events happening throughout the week, as well as several not-to-be-missed exhibitions. See you there!…
Jean de Mandeville Reaches $100K in Early Printed Books Auction Philippine Imprint sets record Our auction of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books garnered eager interest from bibliophiles, exceeding the…
The study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world has always been a curiosity, and the publishing of theories, studies and findings has, in the last…
When recipe books come to Swann, the only thing to do is test them out. In our upcoming October 18 sale of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books is…
Deborah Chaleff and Jacqueline Feinberg introduce the Early Printed Books & Manuscripts from the Inventory of the late Lawrence Feinberg sale on May 11, 2010 at Swann:“Lawrence Feinberg was originally…
