Saturday, March 14, 2020

Links, Auctions & Courage

Well. What a time. Honestly it's sort of hard to know what to say through all this, other than to make a heartfelt offer to help in any way that I can. If there's anything you need that I might be able to help with, I'm here. I'm looking forward to trying some experimental instruction sessions with some classes I've been working with this semester, and hope to be able to continue to make progress on many fronts. This is going to be a challenging time for us all. Courage, friends. Stock up on books. Wash your hands. Wash 'em again. Take care of yourselves. 

- Rebecca Rego Barry is tracking postponed or cancelled book fairs.

- Quite a story from Michael Greshko for National Geographic: testing has reportedly proven that the Dead Sea Scroll fragments acquired for the National Museum of the Bible are all modern forgeries. Much more from Art Fraud Insights, including their full report on the findings. See also, The Lying Pen of Scribes. There are implications here for other fragments in collections around the world.

- From American Book Collecting, "In the Midst of It: A Book Hunter Down the Cataloging Rabbit Hole."

- Some great new marbled paper sample books in the Graphic Arts collection at Princeton.

- The recently-recovered 14th-century Divan of Hafez is scheduled to be sold at Sotheby's on 1 April.

- From Sarah Werner, "notes on feminist bibliography."

- Julie Stoner writes for the LC's maps blog, "Solving a Burning Question."

- Jon Munster is in the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight.

- The NYTimes ran an obituary for Andreas Brown of the Gotham Book Mart.

- The Philadelphia Inquirer has a feature on the arrival of the books and other materials from the David Library of the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society.

Upcoming Auctions 

- Backal Collection and Library at Morton Subastas on 17 March.

- Art & Archaeology of Asia – Travel & Exploration – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 19 March.

- Livres Anciens et Modernes at Binoche et Giquello on 20 March.

- The Partridge Fine Arts Research Library at Forum Auctions (online) on 20 March.