Page 61 - JOAApril21

A Rare Book After All

Jim - Just because something is old usually doesn’t
I picked up a copy of What Our Girls Ought mean that it is supposed to be in bad condition.
to Know by Mary J. Studley, M.D. (which is very There are some exceptions of course, for some-
interesting) copyrighted by M.J. Studley, New thing interesting or rare that would warrant that
York: M. L. Holbrook & Co., 1878 and gives it should be restored. But these weren’t those.
credit to C.P. Somerby, Electrotyper and Printer, Or were they? A second look prompted this
139 Eighth St., N.Y. I saw one online with a follow up email:
date of 1881 in good condition selling for $125.
Could this be worth something? I have pictures of Dear B.F.,
the tome to show its condition. I can send them to I looked at your photos again and you do
you if you like. indeed have a rare book. I didn’t see it the first
The table of contents includes Chapter III – time because many of the photos came through
“What shall we eat, and how shall we cook it?” upside down and I had trouble seeing them
Chapter V is “How we breathe,” with Chapter VI on the small screen of my iPad last night. But
being “How we breathe – continued.” Chapter IX looking at them again this morning on the larger
is “How Plants and Animals are Perpetuated” screen of my shop computer, I see that you have
followed by Chapter X called “How to Become a copy of the Book of Common Prayer printed by
Beautiful.” The last chapter, XIII, is called “The Debrett in London in 1789. This is a London
Perfect Woman.” printing of the copy of the book printed for the
J. W. United States in Philadelphia which is called the
first American prayer book for the Episcopal
Dear J.W. church and was in use for about a hundred
Sorry, but I don’t know that book. My guess years. The title page says it all –
is that while it is interesting, I doubt if it is a “The BOOK of Common Prayer And
$125 book. Prices online are all over the place. Administration of the Sacraments and other
Some very cheap and others absurdly over- Rites and Ceremonies As revised and
priced. You can literally see a book on one site proposed to the Use of the Protestant
for hundreds of dollars or even more, than the Episcopal Church At a Convention of
same book on another site for a tenth of that. So the said CHURCH in the States of
going by just one price can be deceiving. And it’s not getting any New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania,
better. The internet is like the Wild West. Buyer Beware! Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and
That said, I only found two old copies online – one in good condition South-Carolina. Held in Philadelphia
at $150 and another in poor condition “binding shot” for $20. from September 27th to October
Thanks. 7th, 1785.”
It has been rebound in a later
Jim – binding but it still appears to be a nice
Hi! I have a few rare books I’m interested in selling for the right price. book. Hopefully, there is no more
I imagine you might need to see them in person. Because they are so old they damage to it.
are quite fragile. So in the meantime, I’ve taken some photos that might I haven’t been able to find a reliable
help you. I have sent you a separate e-mail with the attached photos. Look value on it yet, but there are two copies
forward to hearing from you. of it for sale online by two different
Sincerely, dealers for $2,800 and $4,000. Of
B. F. course, these are asking prices and
aren’t necessarily worth that until
Dear B.F., someone actually buys them.
Thanks for the photos. Sorry but I don’t see anything that I could As for the more reliable rare book
use. Old does not always mean valuable. For the most part, they seem to auction records of copies that have actually sold, I can only find two damp
be mostly turn-of-the-last-century fairly common reprints of older classics stained copies that sold for a few hundred dollars and your copy appears to
like Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Tennyson, etc. which only have modest be much better than those.
value when in good shape, which most of yours aren’t in. The most I don’t have a specific market for it, but I think it’s a good item for a
interesting probably would be The Short History of the Confederate States rare book auction.
by Jefferson Davis, but since the front cover is detached, the spine appears Thanks and good luck,
to be damaged and it might have other issues, I would pass as it would need Jim D.
some repair work and I have enough books that
need to be repaired already. James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since 1975, when he decided
Thank you! that it would be more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to get a “real” job. For a born collector like
Jim, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy more books. He has about 30,000 second hand and rare
Jim D.
books on the shelves, and just about all subjects are represented. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 154; Trappe,
MD 21673; 410-476-3838; unicornbookshopMD@gmail.com; www.unicornbookshop.com
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