Links & Auctions

This'll likely be the last post for 2021 - my very best wishes to each and every one of you for a restful and healthy holiday season. May 2022 be better for us all.

- The biggest biblio-news of the week is the acquisition of the Honresfield Library en bloc for a consortium of British libraries. The £15 million purchase price was funded by grants and donations, with half the cost given by Sir Leonard Blavatnik. More from Charlotte Higgins for the Guardian and from the BBC.

- There was far less coverage of it, but a $7 million default judgment against Dirk Obbink in federal court is also a very important story. Obbink failed to respond to allegations he had defrauded Hobby Lobby by selling $7 million worth of stolen papyrus fragments.

- From Karin Wulf at Scholarly Kitchen, "Reading About Libraries and Librarians."

- The Middle Temple Library has one last provenance mystery for us this year.

- The National Archives announced its plans for the release of the 1950 census, coming in April 2022.

- The Books and Borrowing team had a tour of Edinburgh's Signet Library.

Reviews

- David Pearson's Book Ownership in Stuart England; review by Adam Smyth in the LRB.

- Gary Goodman's The Last Bookseller; review by Timothy Francis Barry at the arts fuse.

Upcoming Auctions

- De Chateaubriand à Cioran – Raymond Queneau at Aguttes (Aristophil 45) on 20 December.

- Holy Family College Rare Book Collection (Part 1) at Eaton Hudson ends on 21 December.

- Fine Books and Ephemera at New England Book Auctions ends on 21 December.

Links & Auctions

- At The Collation, Heather Wolfe has a wonderful post on a 1602 book theft and its aftermath.

- Jennifer Schuessler writes for the NYTimes on the recent donation of the production archive, props, costumes, &c. used in the Apple TV+ series "Dickinson" to Harvard's Houghton Library.

- Over on the Ransom Center blog, Aaron Pratt on a recent donation of rare books from the Vaughn Foundation Fund, including a first edition of Newton's Principia with an early presentation inscription and early annotations.

- Ken Sanders Rare Books will reopen in 2022 in The Leonardo, a Salt Lake City science and technology museum.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Manuscripts: 19th and 20th Century at Sotheby's London ends on 14 December.

- Early Printing, Americana & Rare Books at New England Book Auctions ends on 14 December.

- Printing & Bookbinding Equipment and Supplies at New England Book Auctions ends on 14 December.

- Valuable Books and Manuscripts at Christie's London on 15 December.

- Printed Books, Maps, Historical Documents & Ephemera, Bookbinding Tools & Materials, Vinyl Records at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 15 December.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams New York on 15 December.

- Children's Books & Illustrations, Playing Cards, Modern First Editions & Autographs at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 16 December.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 16 December.

- Books and Manuscripts Online at Bonhams New York ends on 16 December.

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – Maps & Views at PBA Galleries on 16 December.

Links & Auctions

- A new collection edited by Michelle Levy and Betty Schellenberg, "How and Why to Do Things with Eighteenth-Century Manuscripts," is currently open-access from Cambridge University Press.

- Public Domain Review is doing an advent-calendar style countdown to highlight various pieces of culture which will enter the public domain in 2022.

- Video of the 18 November Archival Silence Working Group event "Language In/Of the Archive" is now available.

- From Peter Kidd, part the second of "Celotti or Ottley? The Source of the Lomax-Wade Collection."

- The Clements Library has acquired a 1761 manuscript plan of the fort at Detroit, and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs.

Upcoming Auctions

- The History of Western Script: A further selection from The Schøyen Collection at Bloomsbury on 7 December.

- Livres d'Heures – Manuscrits – Archives followed by Collection d'un Amateur at Binoche et Giquello on 7 December.

- Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's Paris ends on 8 December.

- Printed Books, Manuscripts and Maps at Bellmans on 9 December.

- Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle on 9 December.

- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Bonhams on 9 December.

- December Auction at Arader Galleries on 11 December.