Most Recent Posts shill bidding fake bidsPosted Jan-13-08 12:26:45 PST CattailCindy Be sure to know your dealer well. They cause a false market value, and then the book you paid umteen hundreds for, turns out to be worth only a 100.00 or less. Watch your dealers auctions closely. We sell a large variety of New, Used, Out of Print, History, Foreign, Literature, Physics, Rare Books, Antiquarian, Religion. Americana, U S history, wild west, mining, world explorers, ****************************************************************************************** Book collecting proper began after the invention of movable type (c.1437) and the proliferation of inexpensive books. The aim of early collectors, such as Willibald Pirkheimer (1470–1530) and Jean Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Harleian Library of the British Museum were founded respectively on the private collections of Sir Thomas Bodley and Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford. By the end of the 17th cent., book auctioning was common throughout Europe. In the 18th cent. collectors shifted their focus from building up libraries to seeking original editions, including incunabula, of earlier works. At first criteria were more visual than literary: early printing, fancy binding, and colorful illumination. Richard Heber (1773–1833), whose collection of first editions of literature and history filled several houses. During the 19th cent. first editions of native contemporary literature began to attract book collectors. The two most notable collectors of the second half of the century were Henry Huth (1815–78), an Englishman, and Robert Hoe, the first important American collector. In 1884 Hoe became the first president of the newly founded Grolier Club, a New York-based society dedicated to the appreciation of fine book production |