Dipping Your Toe Into the Ocean of Rare Books
Fine bindings on a recent visit to Maggs Brothers, Bloomsbury, London.
1999 Christie’s South Kensington auction catalog - The author’s introduction to the world of rare books.
by Tara Cheesman
Shortly before the turn of the century, a friend sent me a catalog from Christie’s South Kensington for an auction of Modern First Editions. It contained photos and descriptions of three hundred and eighteen lots, the majority comprising five or more books, to be auctioned off on Friday, November 5th, 1999. I’ve written about this catalog before. The Collection of Peter Apap Bologna made a lasting impression because the titles listed for sale were accessible and the authors familiar. It suddenly made building a collection of my own seem achievable.
Bologna’s library consisted of first editions by many of the essential writers of the 20th century: Amis father and son, Chinua Achebe, Seamus Heaney, Iris Murdoch, Auden, Golding, and Steinbeck, to name just a few. There were also some quirky surprises: works by Caroline Blackwood, Kazuo Ishiguro (his last novel, The Unconsoled, had been published in 1995), Penelope Lively, Jeanette Winterson, Hilary Mantel (a decade before Wolf Hall). Even genre writers like Raymond Chandler, P.D. James, Georges Simenon, and Patrick O’Brien were represented. And many others whose reputations have grown and diminished in the succeeding decades. Bologna assembled an eclectic and highly personal mix of individual volumes procured over a lifetime, some of which were probably bought at the prices listed on the dust jackets. Proving you don’t have to be wealthy to build an exciting and meaningful collection of books.
Always something delightful at Honey & Wax in Brooklyn.
A number of qualities can make a book rare. It is worth remembering not all old books are valuable, not all first editions are expensive, not all beautiful books are important, and not all important books are beautiful. Scarcity and condition matter. Important details are not always obvious. You won’t find Maurice Sendak’s first professional illustrations in a children’s book but in the unassuming 1947 physics textbook Atomics for the Millions. And the difference in price between a book with a dust jacket versus one without can be shocking to the new collector (the young girl’s face on the dust jacket of the first edition of Esther Freud’s novel Hideous Kinky was drawn by her father, the artist Lucien Freud). In his introduction to the Christie’s auction catalog, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson wrote about “the courage to follow one’s nose,” reminding us when you start collecting anything, a point of view is essential. Narrowing in on a specific category is helpful. And building a trusted network of booksellers and rare book dealers is indispensable.
The internet has revolutionized book collecting. Foxtail Books scours Abebooks.com, eBay, Biblio.com, and Etsy. We also visit bookshops all over the world, and we prize the relationships we’ve formed with certain rare booksellers above all else.
Sadly, gluing small squares of paper to the inside covers or end sheets of our treasured and often valuable books is not as desirable as it once was. Or, perhaps their slip in popularity is because we do not lend out books like we once did. Today, the most seen bookplates are those signed by authors and offered to readers who pre-order their books.
Foxtail Books scours Abebooks.com, eBay, Biblio.com, and Etsy. We also visit bookshops all over the world, and we prize the relationships we’ve formed with certain rare booksellers above all else.
There are specialists for every subject under the sun who know what’s rare and what’s not in their particular field. Visiting book fairs large and small, is a valuable way to meet people in the field, start understanding the trade, and have an opportunity to ask the experts questions. An example is the annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair and the “shadow fairs” nearby featuring smaller sellers every spring. When initially working with a bookseller, it helps to check if an organization like the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABAA) or the International League of Antique Booksellers (ILAB) accredits them. Accreditation speaks to a seller’s experience, ethics and standards, and reputation in the field. These organizations are also excellent resources for finding a seller who matches your interests.
Some of Foxtail Books’ favorite sellers are:
Raptis Rare Books, in Palm Beach, Florida, and Between the Covers in Gloucester City, New Jersey, are where we go for fine modern first editions.
In New York City, Imperial Fine Books has the most beautiful, luxurious fine bindings and leather sets in the United States.
James Cummins Bookseller, also located in New York City, is our go-to specialist in literature, Western Americana, sporting books (and more).
Honey & Wax Booksellers of Brooklyn, New York, offers books we don’t see anywhere else, treasures of aesthetics, story, and je ne sais quoi. They also created The Honey & Wax Book Collecting Award, which encourages collecting among young women and is in its seventh year. (The 2018 inaugural prize winner’s collection featured the work of the husband & wife illustrators Leo & Diane Dillon). So, if you’re buying a birthday present for Foxtail Books, please head to Honey & Wax!
Tara Cheesman is a freelance book critic and a National Book Critics Circle member. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, Guernica, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Mystery Tribune and other online publications. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.