Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2008 Issue
New England Book Auctions purchased by James Cummins
A busy house to change hands
By Bruce McKinney
James Cummins, the New York bookseller, has purchased New England Book Auctions of Sunderland, Massachusetts and will assume control on January 1st, 2009. For the five years that AE has provided detailed coverage for the book auction field New England Book has consistently had the highest sell-through rate among auction houses worldwide: 98-99%. NEBA's approach is to combine appealing material with spare descriptive style and low estimates.
New England Book was founded in 1980 as Oinonen Book Auctions. In March 2001 the name was changed to New England Book Auctions and Leif Laudamus assumed its direction. The firm conducts more than twenty sales a year, a dozen of them catalogued.
Sales are conducted on Tuesdays, about twenty times a year, at the Hotel Northampton in Northampton, Massachusetts.
A spokesperson for Mr. Cummins indicated that no significant changes are envisioned other than an increase in buyer's premium, from 10% to 15%, which will take effect on January 1st. At 15% it will still be among the lowest premiums in the field.
Mr. Cummins is the owner of James Cummins, Bookseller, 699 Madison Avenue, New York City. The firm also operates a warehouse/order processing center in New Jersey for its mail order sales. The firm has extensive inventory some of which may find its way into the auction rooms at New England Book. In the higher value rare book business sales have increasingly been by auction in recent years.
Mr. Cummins' representative on site is Susan Falciani. Her email address is susan@nebookauctions.com.
The address will remain the same:
New England Book Auctions
P O Box 470
Sunderland, MA 01375
Phone: (413) 665-3253
FAX: (413) 665-8790
