First-Ever Transatlantic Book Fair opens tomorrow
Tomorrow, 22 July 2021, the Transatlantic Book Fair will open at 2pm (mid-Atlantic standard time) for the first time and run until the 27th July. It is a joint venture of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ABA) and the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and brings together over 150 rare book dealers from 15 countries, presenting more than 5000 books, maps, manuscripts, photographs and rare historical artifacts.
Following on from the success of the ABA Firsts Online fairs and the ABAA Virtual California Bookfair, this fair will also be hosted on a secure, virtual, e-commerce platform, allowing visitors to browse, enquire and purchase items directly. It will be the first to unite North American and European book dealers on a single digital fair platform and the opportunity to exhibit at this online book fair is open to all members of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).
Pom Harrington, president of the ABA says “The online fair model has worked very well over the past year and particularly well during traditional quiet periods such as summer when many collectors have more time to peruse books they find personally interesting. We see the Transatlantic Fair having long-term appeal and it’s something we hope to make a summer tradition.”
While the fair website will operate in English, fair selections will be multilingual. “The event will run continuously over five days and feature booksellers not only from the Americas and Europe, but also Asia and Australia. In other words, the sun won’t set on the Transatlantic Book Fair!,” says Brad Johnson, President of the ABAA.
Among the highlights are a very rare edition of the first description of the world from a German perspective and one of the most famous travel and geography books from the Renaissance: Praeceptorium divinae legis by Johannes Nider (before 1472) and available at Librairie Camille Sourget. A refined Pontifica belonging to the Ferrara Production from 1460, illuminated in the workshop of Giorgio D’Alemagna and Taddeo Crivelli, responsible for illustration and decoration of the Bible of Borso D’Este is available at Bibliopathos.
A copy of the rare first and only edition of one of the best 17th century treatises on general astrology - Astrologia Naturalis sive Tractatus De Effectibus Astrorum Absolutissimus (Treatise of General Astrology) - can be found at Orsi Libri.
And Antiquariaat Forum BV offers a rare German account and first printing of the death of Captain Cook, published in Tallinn, Estonia in 1780.
Among Antiquates Ltd. highlights is the first Icelandic version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. First published in London, May 1897, by Constable, in an edition of 3000 copies, the novel was met with strong (but not overwhelming) commercial success. The third translation to appear was this Icelandic version, also appearing in serialised form (from 13th January 1900), and first published as a complete novel in 1901. (View Antiquates Fair Catalogue here >)
Honey & Wax have included the Doves Press edition of William Shakespeare’s sonnets, one of 250 copies on paper out of a total print run of 265. Editor Cobden-Sanderson corrected some apparent misspellings in the 1609 text (and introduced others), but retained the punctuation and unorthodox capitalization of the original.
There will also be a number of talks from specialists on some diverse topics including a discussion on The Transatlantic Appeal of Ian Fleming’s James Bond with Jon Gilbert, Rebecca Baumann and Ajay Chowdhury (Friday 23 July, 12.00pm EDT) and the History of Fashion in Print, with Rebecca J. Kelly and Dr. Kate Strasdin (Saturday 24 July, 12.00pm EDT).
www.transatlanticbookfair.com