Saturday, November 20, 2021

Links & Auctions

- The auction records were shattered on Thursday evening at Sotheby's when a copy of the first printed edition of the U.S. Constitution sold for $43.2 million. The buyer was Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, who plans to put the copy on exhibit; it will be displayed first at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR. The underbidders were a new cryptocurrency crowdfund group ConstitutionDAO.

- Alison Flood writes for the Guardian on another recent fragment identification, this time in a 1528 volume at the Bodleian Library. Keep looking at those fragments, folks!

- From Kim Beil at LitHub, "What I Learned While Cataloguing an Entire Library of 19th-Century Schoolbooks."

- Over on the Oak Knoll blog, "My Friend's Library, A Story of Association Copies."

- At Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, the first installment in a new series, "Celotti or Ottley? The Source of the Lomax-Wade Collection."

- Josh Smith writes for Books & Borrowing on "The Records of the Bristol Library Society."

- Recordings of all of Paul Needham's Lyell Lectures on the Gutenberg Bible are now available.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres Rares et Manuscrits at Christie's Paris on 22 November.

- The Exceptional Sale at Christie's Paris on 23 November.

- Making our Nation: Constitutions and Related Documents. Sold to Benefit the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation. Part I at Sotheby's New York on 23 November.

- Rare & Important Travel Posters at Swann Galleries on 23 November.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 25 November.

- Bibliothèque Pierre Collin at Pierre Bergé & Associés on 25 November.