Page 20 - May 2020

Describing Books
he following email is from my friend Ken Callahan of Callahan Dear Ken,
Tand Co. Books; who sells hunting, fishing, sporting, and natural Thanks.
history books at P.O. Box 505; Peterborough, N.H. 03458; ken@calla- Of course, it is always better to ask about old books before discarding
hanbooks.com them, but that often happens. One extreme or the other. Yesterday
someone brought in three books tightly wrapped in plastic cling wrap.
Dear Jim; One was a Bible, the other a hymnal and the third was an older children’s
I enjoyed the latest article “Questions About Books” [Journal of Antiques book. Rightfully enough she wanted to have them checked out. Well, I
and Collectibles, March 2020]. Hope springs eternal. We want to know if the could see through the plastic that they were in such miserable condition,
broken, incomplete, stained and smelly thing we found has any value, before spines damaged or missing, covers loose, the text broken into sections that
we throw it in the trash, be it a book, a bottle or a toy. Nobody wants to throw they had no value, but I’ve learned its best to be diplomatic so I went
something out that might be valuable, and it is always good to check first. through the motions and unwrapped them. Also, it doesn’t hurt to
What would you offer me for a genuine Chippendale wooden chair, in mint double-check, but in this case, my first impression was correct and the
condition? It still has 3 of the original legs, most of the spindles, and has been books were basically junk. I told her this as diplomatically as possible.
painted a lovely bright yellow. The only markings are a stencil under the seat: I know she was disappointed because in her view the books were old
“Montgomery Ward, Chicago,” which is obviously the name of a previous and so as the saying goes “were in good shape for their age.” I hear this
owner. I saw a similar chair listed on eBay for $75,000 but would take often, which virtually always means that actually, the books were in bad
$65,000 cash. shape for their age. Old books aren’t supposed to be in bad shape. Most
books survive in reasonably good
condition if they haven’t been horribly
abused. And there are exceptions
to this when the old book in bad
shape is worth repairing because it
is collectible.
It’s always best to see the books “in
person” if possible although photos
can be very helpful. But even in this
age of digital photography where it is
so easy for anyone to take photos and
Not all that is damaged is lost. The Indiana State Library is email them, it is surprising how bad
fortunate to have a copy of the Commentary of the Four Books the photos are. Often seemingly taken
of Sentences in its possession. The incunabula, with vellum bound
in as inner back strip, was printed by Hermann Lichtenstein on from halfway across the room at a 45º
April 26, 1490 in Venice, Italy. It includes 150 pages with angle in a dark room and out of focus.
hand drawn gothic style capitals penned in a red and blue color. You often see this on eBay, too.
A notation within the front inner cover reads: “Imported from Now I certainly don’t expect every-
Leipsic, May 15, 1847. St. Thomas Aquinas. Printed at Venice, one in the world to be knowledgeable
A.D. 1490. Joseph R. Paxton.”This 529 year old incunabula has about old books, but still I kind of
been visited by bookworms and contains extensive termite damage assume that almost anyone would
to the front cover. Despite its appearance, it’s a wonderful example know that the title page of a book is
of book construction and artistic expression from the early years of usually the single most important page
printing. in the book and so if you were going to
Blog written by Bethany Fiechter, Rare Books and Manuscripts supervisor, take a photo of a book, that is the one
Indiana State Library
page you should take photos of.
I would guess that booksellers probably get more queries about value than But it is surprising how often this is not the case. I might get half
the antique or collectible dealers, because so few people have books in their lives, a dozen photos of random pages in the book and virtually none of
and fewer are collectors. Even if something is clearly marked reprint, 23rd them useful. Sometimes people love to take photos of the frontispiece
edition, or Volume Two, that isn’t enough of a clue for non-book folks to illustration and even the tissue paper guard that separates it from the title
recognize it as what in other areas would be a cheap knock off or very common page which is found in many older books and used to keep the ink from
item. If I come across a bent fork, missing one tine, I wouldn’t rush to a dealer smudging on to the next page.
in antique kitchen cutlery to see what it was worth. I would assume that it was Sometimes, especially on eBay, I wonder if these photos might not
junk. The idea of “worth” is interesting. If I hoped that the fork might “worth” be bad on purpose to try and hide flaws in the book, but maybe I’m just
$100, could I really envision that some eager person would pull five $20 bills being paranoid.
from their wallet to buy it? – Jim
All of the letters that you reprinted in that column sounded like they were
from reasonable people, reasonably wondering if their book was anything
special. And as I said, it is always good to check. Except for the architects with
the partial library. They were just trying to save the cost of a dumpster and James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since
paying someone to clear the shelves. 1975, when he decided it would be more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to
get a “real” job. For this born collector, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy
– Ken 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
18 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles