News and Events
September 9, 2020 — Princeton’s gem of a museum, Morven Museum & Garden, has just digitized and added to its website Joseph Felcone’s earlier exhibition, Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761–1898. Each of the 119 views is shown in high resolution with full zoom capability, and each view is accompanied by detailed descriptive text. Other Morven shows devoted to New Jersey history and New Jersey fine and decorative arts will be added to the museum’s website in the coming months.
October 23, 2018 — Zvi Rosen, the intellectual property law scholar and authority on American copyright records, posted a blog about accuracy in copyright records. The case study he used was based on research he and Joseph Felcone had recently done on the authorship of a pseudonymous nineteenth-century New Jersey novel.
May 2, 2017 — On a recent visit to the Rare Book Division of the Library of Congress, Joseph Felcone was interviewed about his forthcoming book on the New Jersey copyright registrations, 1791 to 1870.
July 4, 2016 — Joseph Felcone contributes a guest blog to the Adam Matthew website recounting his discovery, in the National Archives of the UK, of the 26th known copy of the Dunlap printing of the Declaration of Independence.
October 30, 2014 — The Felcone Company hosted a group of Andrew W. Mellon Scholars in Critical Bibliography from Rare Book School. Joseph Felcone spoke about his forty-plus years in the rare book world as a collector, antiquarian bookseller, and published bibliographer. A lengthy and lively discussion followed. The fellowship program at RBS is directed by Felcone Company alumna Donna Sy.
January 24, 2014 — At the annual meeting of the Bibliographical Society of America, Joseph Felcone was awarded the St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize for his book Printing in New Jersey, 1754–1800: A Descriptive Bibliography (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2012). Funded by the St. Louis Mercantile Library, the award is presented every three years for distinguished scholarship in the bibliography of American history and literature.
December 2, 2013 — Joseph Felcone received the 2013 New Jersey Author's Award, in the reproduction of primary sources category, for his book Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761–1898 (Princeton: Morven Museum & Garden, 2012). The award is presented jointly by the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, the History and Preservation Section of the New Jersey Library Association, and the Special Collections and University Archives Division of the Rutgers University Libraries.
June 6, 2013 — Joseph Felcone is interviewed by Fine Books & Collections Magazine about his recently published descriptive bibliography of eighteenth-century New Jersey printing and his personal collection of New Jerseyana.
December 4, 2012 — Library Company of Philadelphia. Joseph Felcone joined fellow antiquarian booksellers William Reese and Clarence Wolf for a panel discussion on book collecting.
September 28, 2012 — Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761–1898, from the Collection of Joseph J. Felcone. Morven Museum & Garden is proud to present the first public appearance of this unmatched collection of New Jersey graphic history assembled by New Jersey collector and bibliographer Joseph Felcone. The exhibition, featuring 120 original works executed between 1761 and 1898, offers a visual iconography of the state beginning with a pre-Revolutionary landscape and ending with a birdseye view of a growing New Jersey city on the eve of the twentieth century. The exhibit and accompanying catalogue reveal a comprehensive pictorial progression of the Garden State over a 150-year period. Featuring historical prints, picturesque landscapes, political portraits, as well as architectural and city views, Portrait of Place presents visual images that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century residents of New Jersey would have encountered in their day-to-day lives. The exhibition runs through January 13, 2013. A comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue compiled by the collector is available for purchase in the museum shop or from the Felcone Company.
September 26, 2012 — In anticipation of Joseph Felcone's upcoming exhibition of his personal collection of 18th- and 19th-century paintings and prints of New Jersey, U.S. 1, the business newspaper of the Princeton area, featured a lengthy article on Mr. Felcone.
April 22, 2012 — The American Antiquarian Society today announced the publication of Printing in New Jersey, 1754–1800: A Descriptive Bibliography, by Joseph J. Felcone. The work describes in great detail all the known products of the eighteenth-century New Jersey press, and includes an inventory of located copies. The book is distributed for the Society by Oak Knoll Press, where further details and sample pages are available. The book is also available from the Felcone Company.
In October 2008, while doing research at the National Archives in Great Britain, Joseph Felcone discovered a hitherto unknown copy of the first printing of the Declaration of Independence. Folded and tipped into a volume of Colonial Office records, the John Dunlap broadside was in superb condition. Felcone estimated its current market value at eight to ten million dollars. It is now the 26th known copy, and the third held by the United Kingdon's National Archives. Immediately after the discovery was made, the National Archives removed the document from the volume into which it had been inserted and transferred it to a secure location. On July 1, 2009, Jeremy Dibbel's PhiloBiblos blog site contained a full account of the discovery. Two days later, the National Archives made its own official announcement of the discovery, which was picked up by numerous newspapers and was the subject of an interview on National Public Radio.
In April 2006 Joseph Felcone's latest book was released: The Old Book Table. A Record of its First Seventy-Five Years, 1931–2005 (New York: The Old Book Table, 2006). The Old Book Table is a social club composed of antiquarian booksellers and those engaged in professions related to antiquarian bookselling. It is the oldest such club in the world. The book was printed for private distribution.
In October 2005 Joseph Felcone received the Roger McDonough Award. Presented jointly by the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, the New Jersey Library Association, the New Jersey Historical Commission, and Special Collections and University Archives of Rutgers University Libraries, the award recognizes Mr. Felcone's "sustained support to generations of library users in New Jersey and beyond."
At a Christie's New York auction on June 21, 2005, the Felcone Company, representing the State of New Jersey, acquired several highly important 17th-century New Jersey documents and maps. In an article in the July 2005 AE Monthly analyzing the sale, AE's Bruce McKinney wrote:
Perhaps what will be best remembered from this sale are the 11 lots that Joseph Felcone purchased on behalf of the New Jersey State Archives for $656,760 including premium . . . a manuscript minute book of the Lord Proprietors of East Jersey, 1664–1683, with a group of hand drawn maps . . . Mr. Snider [the consignor] purchased it in 1998 and later removed the maps and offered the book and maps in this sale individually. The New Jersey State Archives aggressively pursued each related lot, won them all and now has every piece and the option to reassemble them. In this sale the book and 5 map lots brought $493,200 including vigorish [i.e., buyer's premium]. These fragile, rare and exceptionally important items will now permanently reside in the state whose motto is 'liberty and prosperity.'–