Links & Auctions

- The Cotsen Children's Library has acquired a large cache of woodblocks used to illustrate books published by John Newbery and several successors. An online searchable database of the blocks is planned.

- From Keith Houston, "Interrobang Archaeology."

- Over on the Morgan Library blog, John Bidwell on "A Fine Binding for the Prince of Books."

- Adam Smyth's excellent TEXT! dispatch this week is "Paper, wasps, dandelion roots."

- Bodleian Library Publishing has made nearly 550 publications, exhibit catalogs, &c. available through HathiTrust.

- Salt Lake City bookseller Curt Bench, who some readers may recognize from the Netflix documentary "Murder Among the Mormons," has died aged 68.

- In Smithsonian, V.M. Braganza on the cipher monogram of Lady Mary Wroth.

- Steven Lubar sent along a post about a course he taught this summer at Brown, "Books, Material & Digital," which looks like it worked very well!

Upcoming Auctions

- Summer Historical Auction at Alexander Historical Auctions on 24–26 August.

- Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books at University Archives on 25 August.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 26 August.

- 100 Items of Judaica, Rare Autographs at University Archives on 26 August.

- Books in All Fields with Fine Press Books, Americana & Maps at PBA Galleries on 26 August.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions on 28 August.

Links & Auctions

- The Virtual Ephemera Fair runs through 8 p.m. EDT today (15 August). Coming up next on 1–2 September is the New York City Virtual Book and Ephemera Fair.

- The planned in-person New York fair for September has been cancelled, with a new planned date of April 2022.

- I missed this Atlas Obscura piece last November, looks like: Jeffrey Arlo Brown on "How German Librarians Finally Caught an Elusive Book Thief."

- Over at Penn Today, a look at the Penn Libraries' participation in a multi-institution project to digitize materials documenting early medical education.

- A very happy tenth birthday to The Collation, the excellent Folger blog. They've got a neat "by the numbers" post to celebrate. And also from them this week "Book History, Manuscript Studies, and Navigating Special Collections During COVID-19."

- On the University of Glasgow archives and special collections blog, "The Foulis Brothers Book Receipts Project: how much can an invoice tell us?"

- The St Andrews special collections blog continues their series on the recent USTC conference on gender and the book trades.

- From the Columbia University rare books blog, "Two ancient papyrus fragments and their very modern reunion." 

- Madison Rootenberg Schwartz is in the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight this week.

- The NYPL has acquired a collection of Russian zines.

- Newly published by Quaritch, Arthur Freeman's Historical Forgery in Romanophobe Britain: Robert Ware's Irish Fictions Revisited.

- CNBC will be airing an episode of "Super Heists" this week focusing on the 2004 Transylvania University Library thefts.

Upcoming Auctions

- LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History at Swann Galleries on 19 August.

- Apple and Steve Jobs at RR Auction on 19 August.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – Space – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 19 August.

- American Historical Ephemera & Photography at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 20 August.

Links & Auctions

- The Virtual Ephemera Fair (summer edition) will be held on 14–15 August over on Getman's Virtual.

- Karin Wulf has been appointed the new Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library. Congratulations!

- Cambridge University Library has acquired a new book from Gabriel Harvey's library for their collections.

- From the BL Medieval Manuscripts blog, "A mariner's handbook from the library of Sir Walter Raleigh."

- Over on the Peter Harrington blog, "Why do we use catalogues in the rare book world?"

- From Adam Smyth at TEXT!, "Book ownership, Paul McCartney and Napoleon Bonaparte."

- On the Morgan Library's blog, "Collecting Bibiena."

- From the N-YHS, "Art in Early Republic New York City."

- Over at Books and Borrowing, "Labouring-Class Borrowing at Innerpeffray Library, 1815–1833."

- On the St Andrews special collections blog, summer intern Megan Briers reports on her efforts to identify some items from the library sales of Rev. John Lee.

Upcoming Auction

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Vinyl Records & CDs at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 11 August.

Links & Auctions

- Coming up on 14–15 August, the Virtual Ephemera Fair (summer edition).

- Christie's will sell the private collection of the late and much-missed Bill Reese in a series of four sales beginning in May 2022.

- A 3,600-year-old tablet containing a portion of the Gilgamesh epic was seized from Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible by the Department of Justice in 2019, and a court ordered its forfeiture this week based on the tablet's illegal importation into the United States (first in 2003 and then with false provenance in 2014).

- Over on the Notre Dame Special Collections blog, "Preparing a Parchment Fragment for Posterity."

- The lineup for the 42nd Annual Conference on Book Trade History, "The Humours of Collecting," was announced this week.

Upcoming Auctions

- Modern Literature at Forum Auctions on 5 August.

- Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries on 5 August.

- Fine Literature – Beats & the Counterculture at PBA Galleries on 5 August.