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.
Want to do one quick search and pull up the mother lode of vintage books? Try Google Book Search, a database filled… [more]
If you’re interested in collectible childrens books, check out this special digital collection from the Universit… [more]
This archive of 76 influential American cookbooks from the late 1700s to early 1900s, assembled by the Michigan St… [more]
Actually, it's real - check out this excellent exhibition of vintage bookmarks, including high resolution images a… [more]
Lewis Jaffe's homage to the bookplate. Lots of scrolling, but worth it for the great scans, plus commentary on a wi… [more]
Greg Kindall's collection of over 2100 colorful and historic book labels, pasted into books by publishers, printers… [more]
Malcolm Roebuck's tribute to the ornate silk picture bookmarks and postcards ('Stevengraphs') produced by Thomas St… [more]
Howie Schecter's incredible collection of over 1000 silver bookmarks dating back to 1865. Also includes some bookma… [more]
This Flickr photo pool features over 2,000 photos and scans of vintage cookbooks and old recipes from the 1940s to … [more]
This visually interesting and highly specialized collection from the Hawaii Karate Museum focuses on rare and histo… [more]
This Smithsonian microsite showcases Czech avant-garde book cover designs from the 1920s and 30s, complete with hig… [more]
Bruce Black's gallery of paperback book covers from the 1940s and 50s. With help from numerous contributors, he's a… [more]
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]
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