Page 46 - 2020 March JOA

Questions About Books

Good morning, Hi, Jim
I was wondering if you could help me. This book looks old and is in pretty My husband and I are beginning to downsize and I have come across some
good shape. Is it worth anything? I’ve included some pictures below. books we have ‘saved’ that might have some value. Wondering if a couple of
– R.C. photos and a little information might help you in rendering us an opinion?
I have 8 books ... The Novels of Jane Austin … illustrated by C.E.Brock
Dear R.C. – and edited by R. Brimley Johnson with colored illustrations by C.L. and
Sorry, but the photos H.M. Brock.
are too blurry for me to I would rate their condition as fair. Do you think they have any value??
see what you have. Please Thank you for your time … I also enjoy your columns in the Journal
send clear photos of the of Antiques!!
title page and copyright – J.H.
page.
Thanks,
Jim D. Dear J.H.
The set certainly has some value, but since you call the condition fair
Dear Jim, (which is not very good in the book collecting world), I’d need to know
Is that what you are what the problems are: stains? foxing? water or insect damage? missing
looking for? – R.C. pages or illustrations? damaged bindings? etc. Also, I’d need to know
who published it and when as I believe it was reprinted a few times in
Dear R.C. – slightly different formats and my sources say that the original edition
Yes, thanks. Perfect. It is a copy of Treasure Island published by Easton 1903 was in 12 volumes, so your set may be missing 4 volumes, which is
Press which came out with several different versions of the book from the not very good.
1970s to the 1990s and maybe later. So it’s not particularly old, scarce or Thanks,
Jim D.
valuable. Value is probably about $25 retail.
Thanks. Hi Jim
Thank you for your quick response! I will try to bring them to your shop

Hello, sometime in the near future. Regarding their condition, pages are intact and
good and the outside cover has some stains. I believe this was a set of 10 volumes
I saw your article about errors in books and I’ve not been able to find the
answer to my question, so let me start by thanking you for taking the time to …I have only 8 of the 10 … that I have found so far!
Again, thanks!
humor this neophyte. – J.H.
I recently bought a book, A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill.
It’s a new book, a new author, and a first edition from Pantheon.
I was flipping through the pages and found that three pages in the book
have their color inverted. White is black and black is white. The resolution Good morning,
We are an architecture firm near you that is working with a client who is
is also poorer but still readable. It looks almost like a print out you’d see in a renovating an old home with a library. The previous owner left some books
college literature class. behind in the library and the current owner is interested in determining if any
I doubt it’s worth anything and I doubt it’s even of interest, but I wanted
to see if you knew anything about this kind of issue. of the books have value. Would you be interested in any of the books? I have
attached some photos of them. We can also coordinate a visit to the residence if
– C.L. you would like to see them in person.

Dear C.L. Thanks
Without seeing the book I am not quite sure what you have. It could K
well be some kind of printing error as you say or just possibly the colors
were inverted on purpose for some kind of special effect. You might Dear K,
contact the publisher about this. If an error, I doubt if it would have any Judging from the empty spaces on the shelves, it would appear that
collector’s value (but who knows?!), but maybe they would send you a the previous owner took anything of value and left the rest. Many of the
good copy. books left are in poor to bad condition. The books with the spines
Let me know if you find out anything more. partially or totally missing would likely have no value, the paperbacks
Thanks, would have minimal value at best, the old set of encyclopedias would
Jim D. probably have no value and the remainder of the sets aren’t particularly
decorative which is why people buy them these days. Sorry, but there
Hi Jim, isn’t anything that I could use.
The “on purpose” part was first thought since that seems to be de jour these Thanks,
days. I’ve sent an email off to see what they say! Jim Dawson
Thank you for taking the time to answer my inquiry. I’ll definitely let you
James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since
know what I find! 1975, when he decided it would be more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to
– C.L. get a “real” job. For this born collector, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy
more books. He has about 30,000 second hand and rare books on the shelves, and just
about all subjects are represented. Reach him at P.O. Box 154; Trappe, MD 21673;
410-476-3838; unicornbookshopMD@gmail.com; www.unicornbookshop.com
44 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles