Auction Catalogs

About Collectible Auction Catalogs

For decades, major auction houses have published plush catalogs to promote upcoming auctions, with pictures and descriptions of the items on offer. These catalogs can be quite collectible for a variety of reasons. Some are historically significant or associated with a famous person's estate, others may document the provenance of certain items or help prove their authenticity. And many others are simply just beautiful, or interesting, or both.

Guest Columns and Interviews

• Guest Column: Bookplate (Exlibris) Collecting Basics

Top Related Sites (“Hall of Fame”)

Google Book Search

Want to do one quick search and pull up the mother lode of vintage books? Try Google Book Search, a database filled…  [more]

Baldwin Library of Childrens Literature

If you’re interested in collectible childrens books, check out this special digital collection from the Universit…  [more]

Feeding America

This archive of 76 influential American cookbooks from the late 1700s to early 1900s, assembled by the Michigan St…  [more]

Mirage Bookmark

Actually, it's real - check out this excellent exhibition of vintage bookmarks, including high resolution images a…  [more]

Bookplate Junkie

Lewis Jaffe's homage to the bookplate. Lots of scrolling, but worth it for the great scans, plus commentary on a wi…  [more]

Gallery of Book Trade Labels

Greg Kindall's collection of over 2100 colorful and historic book labels, pasted into books by publishers, printers…  [more]

Stevengraphs Bookmarks and Postcards

Malcolm Roebuck's tribute to the ornate silk picture bookmarks and postcards ('Stevengraphs') produced by Thomas St…  [more]

Silver Bookmarks

Howie Schecter's incredible collection of over 1000 silver bookmarks dating back to 1865. Also includes some bookma…  [more]

Vintage Cookbooks Photo Pool

This Flickr photo pool features over 2,000 photos and scans of vintage cookbooks and old recipes from the 1940s to …  [more]

Rare Karate Book Collection

This visually interesting and highly specialized collection from the Hawaii Karate Museum focuses on rare and histo…  [more]

Czech Book Covers

This Smithsonian microsite showcases Czech avant-garde book cover designs from the 1920s and 30s, complete with hig…  [more]

Bookscans.com

Bruce Black's gallery of paperback book covers from the 1940s and 50s. With help from numerous contributors, he's a…  [more]

Kerouac Book Covers

This great gallery of over 100 covers of Jack Kerouac's classic 1957 novel 'On The Road' is worth a look for its co…  [more]

Got a site to suggest? Let us know.

Clubs

• American Society of Bookplate Collectors
• The Bookplate Society

Other reference sites

• Childrens Books Online: The Rosetta Project
• Bookmark of The Week
• Pop-up and Movable Books: A Tour
• BibliOdyssey Blog
• Stanford Dime Novel and Story Paper Collection
• Bookmark Collector
• Ramseyer-Northern Bible Society Collection
• War of the Worlds Cover Collection

Are we missing one? Tell us.