15,000,000 is just a number but it’s a big one

Rare Book Hub continues to be on a tear adding both new and old auction records to our Rare Book Transaction History.

We have long obsessed about completeness, believing deeper data would help the field. It has, in unexpected ways.

Seventy-five years ago, the rare paper field began to divide into researchable categories encouraging three generations of specialists. These days, because of Rare Book Hub’s depth and complexity, it has become easy to create search templates to permit the grand sweep of emerging ephemera to find its place in the collectible paper field.

In the past, most ephemera was difficult to contextualize. Our first categories, are now beginning to search upcoming auction lots for relevance. Auction houses are going to adjust their scopes of interest to consider a much broader range of paper. Categories are going to be the way these broadening fields are going to be visible.

As well, because our data is now so dense, it’s become possible to look for hidden associations to quickly confirm provenance.

We can do this today because the field is broadly providing support.

For this we say a heartfelt thank you.