The most extraordinary book I ever missed wasn’t a book. I attended an auction in Pittsburgh and ended up bidding on two daguerreotypes – one of Frederick Douglass, another mis-identified as an obscure Philadelphia author but that turned out to be of John Brown. I thought I’d buy them easily as I was willing to far exceed the estimates of a few hundred dollars each. One went for about $12,000 and the other around $24,000, and I stayed on them nearly all the way but didn’t get them. It turned out that within a year, one sold for around $200,000 and the other sold for $129,000. Oh, well! How many books do you have? 

The ILAB Metasearch and the Future of the Online Book Trade - An Interview with Jim Hinck

If they are not currently being searched they will need to let me know so that I can add them to the list. The only requirement is that they need to have books that are already listed in one of the online databases that are included in the metasearch. In a few cases they will also need to let the database operators know that they are ILAB affiliates and want to participate in the ILAB metasearch. I can tell them if that is necessary when they contact me.

"It is uncanny how often you pick out the right book that way"

Derek McDonnell has, over the course of 25 years at Hordern House, established himself as a pre-eminent dealer in Australiana and the history of Pacific exploration. He and his partner Anne McCormick have produced a series of beautiful and scholarly catalogues, which have established a new bibliographical standard for their subjects, as well as publishing a series of essential bibliographies. By BT Wolfe. 

Stéphane Clavreuil tells BT Wolfe how his home city has overtaken London as the place to go for the best choice of dealers. Stéphane Clavreuil and his father Bernard are the fourth and third generations respectively of the leading antiquarian book firm Librairie Thomas-Scheler.

From vintage cars (how many rare book dealers drive an Aston Martin?) and guitars to Beslers, Blaeus and Goulds, Bruce Marshall, a major but discreet player in the colourplate, natural history and travel book fields, reveals to BT Wolfe his pilgrim’s progress through the rare book world

London dealer Sam Fogg is probably the most glamorous and successful of the new generation of British dealers, dominating the market for manuscripts. He tells Beatie Wolfe the secrets of his success.

As long as you have an open mind you can use the money to buy something else and make money on that. You’ve got to keep rolling the dice.

We are very sorry to report the death of bookseller Diana Parikian (ABA member since January 1963). Please read and enjoy this celebratory interview, which reminds us of her long life and the considerable impact she made in the trade.  

Diana belonged to that small group of booksellers who actually read, or at least browse, the contents of obscure books, in Latin, Italian and French, to discover some unknown feature. She published eighty catalogues over the last forty-five years.

It’s rare that an antiquarian bookshop should have a history as long and rich as the jewels of its stock.

 But with Sotheran’s in London’s Sackville Street celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, it can justifiably lay claim to the title ‘oldest antiquarian bookshop in the world’.