Are you new to antiquarian bookselling? ILAB bookseller Susan Ravdin has put together a very useful set of articles on how to prepare for a book fair sharing her experience: "...I've been exhibiting at book fairs for over 25 years, and I figure I've set-up over 500 booths in that time..."
Budapest is one of Europe’s leading cultural destinations and is not only famous for its spas, café houses and architecture.
Hungary’s tradition in book culture goes as far back as the 10th century when traveling monks introduced the first codices, not long after the Magyar had conquered and settled in the Carpathian Basin. ...
On Saturday 17th March, the 2018 edition of the annual Stockholm Antiquarian Book Fair will open its doors! We spoke to Mats Peterson, owner of Stockholm's Centralantikvariatet in Stockholm and President of the Swedish association SVAF.
The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) produced by Sanford L. Smith + Associates returns to the Park Avenue Armory for its 58th edition March 8-11, 2018.
Recognized as one of the world's largest and most prestigious exhibitions of antiquarian books, this eagerly anticipated bi-annual fair gives visitors the opportunity to see, learn about and purchase the finest in rare books, manuscripts, autographs, graphics, photographs and more.
From February 9 - 11, 2018, Southern California hosts the
nation’s largest rare book exhibition as thousands of book lovers, booksellers, and scholars converge at the 51st California International Antiquarian Book Fair.
"Through the association the trade has organized themselves as managers and intermediaries of the cultural heritage of books. While the books are waiting for their new owners, it is the antiquarians that take care of them. It is they who bring about the material remains of our literary heritage to new readers, to collectors and institutions. Thus they secure great cultural values for the future, and they distinguish between the valuable and the worthless, between the inalienable and waste paper. Hence the antiquarians contribute, not only to preserve the cultural heritage; they also to a large extent, contribute to define it."
ILAB is very sorry to announce that the 44th ILAB Congress in Amsterdam, planned for 29 September - 1 October and the 40th Amsterdam International Antiquarian Book Fair, planned for 2 & 3 October have both been cancelled.
On the occasion of the 625th anniversary of the University Heidelberg (Germany) the Heidelberg University Library presents its most precious treasure and one of the most important literary resource of German literary history: the Codex Manesse. The exquisitely illuminated medieval manuscript was written at the beginning of the 14th century in Zurich presumably due to the initiative of Johann and Rüdiger Manesse. The manuscript unites the entire range of Middle High German poetry, the oldest texts date back as far as the mid 12th century. Many poems are uniquely documented here: The Codex Manesse is one of the key testimonies for the literature and culture of the Staufer dynasty.
During the last 15-20 years Russia has experienced a significant increase of public interest in collecting antiques, including old and rare books, and as a consequence - intensive development of the antique trade. This is confirmed by numerous facts: increase of the number of antique shops and dealers; enlargement of their stock; improvement of traditional and development of new technologies of the trade ...
Moshe Prigan is an accomplished book collector, freelance writer, and retired teacher of art and history. He lives in Haifa, Israel but searches globally to make new acquisitions for his collection. While mainly interested in English and Italian volumes of Umberto Eco, he also collects other authors including Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. Moshe has generously shared his collecting insights with us in the following interview.
I've ranted before about lighthouses being one of those subject areas from which collectors have mysteriously vanished. People scrabbling and clawing in the most fearsome way for lighthouse literature and then one day, more or less out of the blue, they don't want any at all. Not even the rarest material. I suspect that in this case, eBay and print-on-demand technology killed the market. The field was largely information driven, and once people got access to cheap reprints or bargain copies of scarce texts, the game was over for dealers like me.
