lovely rare/unusual/valuable books?

[butters]

i appreciate this has been done before, but i cannot be arsed to go dig it up.

tell me about your books.

i have one that i don't think especially rare or valuable, but it's ticking me off not being able to find out any information on it online unlike others i have:

it's a 3" x 5" embossed leather over card cover copy of A Christmas Carol in prose, published sometime after 1901 - unillustrated, well-worn (the cover looks as if it were once red) with no loose pages but lots of nibbled wear at the edges.

i like to think that it maybe went to war at least once, and was read and re-read many a time, being all small and pockety-sized.

there's a book fair at olympia, soon, for which i got some complimentary tickets and to which i intend to take a few of my books. it's more about information on them than anything really.

 

[butters]

i've a Cruden's Complete Concordance to the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha (the student's edition) with memoir by William Youngman, published 1895 by Frederick Warne and Co.

i think that's probably about £45 or so, maybe less (probably less) but it's all about the books themselves for me; i love the old bindings, the colours, the fonts, the richer language....

 

[oggbashan]

it's a 3" x 5" embossed leather over card cover copy of A Christmas Carol in prose, published sometime after 1901 - unillustrated, well-worn (the cover looks as if it were once red) with no loose pages but lots of nibbled wear at the edges.

...

Sorry, it has no value at all in that condition - except to you for sentimental reasons. I would sell it for less than £1.00.

i've a Cruden's Complete Concordance to the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha (the student's edition) with memoir by William Youngman, published 1895 by Frederick Warne and Co.

...

Cruden's is still read but more modern editions are preferred. It has more value as an old object than as a reference book. You could probably buy a complete Cruden for about £15 but postage could be high.

Og (retired secondhand bookdealer)

My most valued book is a 19th Century copy of Cervantes Don Quixote with 1000 illustrations by Gustave Dore. It isn't that valuable in itself. I could replace it for about £200 but it was the first joint purchase my wife and I made after our marriage 40 years ago. It cost us £10.00 when that meant we lived on bread, cheese and pasta for a few days because £10.00 was almost all the money we had. We love that book, not just for its appearance and content but for what it represents in our marriage.

The most valuable book I have ever handled was a 17th Century Dutch book of the flora of the Americas. It sold for about £30,000 at auction. Unfortunately I hadn't bought it. It was sold on commission by the bookdealer I was working for when learning the book trade.

 

[trysail]

Sorry, it has no value at all in that condition - except to you for sentimental reasons. I would sell it for less than £1.00.



Cruden's is still read but more modern editions are preferred. It has more value as an old object than as a reference book. You could probably buy a complete Cruden for about £15 but postage could be high.

Og (retired secondhand bookdealer)

My most valued book is a 19th Century copy of Cervantes Don Quixote with 1000 illustrations by Gustave Dore. It isn't that valuable in itself. I could replace it for about £200 but it was the first joint purchase my wife and I made after our marriage 40 years ago. It cost us £10.00 when that meant we lived on bread, cheese and pasta for a few days because £10.00 was almost all the money we had. We love that book, not just for its appearance and content but for what it represents in our marriage.

The most valuable book I have ever handled was a 17th Century Dutch book of the flora of the Americas. It sold for about £30,000 at auction. Unfortunately I hadn't bought it. It was sold on commission by the bookdealer I was working for when learning the book trade.

The most valuable book I've ever actually handled came as the result of once owning a good condition first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses ( one of 1,000 published by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co.).


I, of course, know what they changed hands for at that time (~1990). I'd love to know what kind of price they command these days.

 

[oggbashan]

The most valuable book I've ever actually handled came as the result of once owning a good condition first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses ( one of 1,000 published by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co.).


I, of course, know what they changed hands for at that time (~1990). I'd love to know what kind of price they command these days.

According to abebooks: $80,000 to $135,000.

 

[KRCummings]

Books are just paper and ink. The stories or information is what matters and that rarely if ever changes from edition to edition except for educational materials and the like. I will take a new copy over old any day simply because it'd be easier to read. Any other use goes against everything they stand for.

 

[trysail]

According to abebooks: $80,000 to $135,000.

Interesting. Whoa!! It appears to have appreciated rather handsomely. I hadn't thought to look at abebooks. God knows, I'm not in the market. The listings include a couple of ABAA members who have the book for sale but I don't trust the accuracy of their descriptions of condition. I'd most assuredly engage someone I knew to be a reputable dealer before I'd give a second thought to buying something at those kinds of prices.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Many years ago I acquired a signed copy of DRACULA by Bram Stoker, but I did some research and learned that Stoker died a year or two before the publisher went into business.

 

[eyer]

Many years ago I acquired a signed copy of DRACULA by Bram Stoker, but I did some research and learned that Stoker died a year or two before the publisher went into business.

Maybe Dracula was autobiographical...

 

[butters]

Sorry, it has no value at all in that condition - except to you for sentimental reasons. I would sell it for less than £1.00.

ah, thanks, ogg! i do love that little book, it has a certain cachet to it that is nothing to do with value and all to do with how i like to imagine it was loved before.



Cruden's is still read but more modern editions are preferred. It has more value as an old object than as a reference book. You could probably buy a complete Cruden for about £15 but postage could be high.

you're the 'go-to' guy, then, for this kind of info. another reason why i love this site! yeah, i've seen it online from around £20-40, so the £15 is no surprise really. again, it's more about how i love old books, i think

Og (retired secondhand bookdealer)

My most valued book is a 19th Century copy of Cervantes Don Quixote with 1000 illustrations by Gustave Dore. It isn't that valuable in itself. I could replace it for about £200 but it was the first joint purchase my wife and I made after our marriage 40 years ago. It cost us £10.00 when that meant we lived on bread, cheese and pasta for a few days because £10.00 was almost all the money we had. We love that book, not just for its appearance and content but for what it represents in our marriage.

that sounds a fabulous book - my oldest ones are from the early 1800's but none of them are in wonderful condition. i still love them, though.

The most valuable book I have ever handled was a 17th Century Dutch book of the flora of the Americas. It sold for about £30,000 at auction. Unfortunately I hadn't bought it. It was sold on commission by the bookdealer I was working for when learning the book trade.

did you get to read it?

 

[butters]

The most valuable book I've ever actually handled came as the result of once owning a good condition first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses ( one of 1,000 published by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co.).


I, of course, know what they changed hands for at that time (~1990). I'd love to know what kind of price they command these days.

what happened to your copy, trysail? did you pass it on to a family member, or a friend, perhaps?

 

[gravyrug]

I don't have anything really old, but I do have a few autographed books that I have no intention of giving up. I also have several out of print paperbacks that probably aren't technically worth much, but are of great sentimental value to me.

 

[butters]

I don't have anything really old, but I do have a few autographed books that I have no intention of giving up. I also have several out of print paperbacks that probably aren't technically worth much, but are of great sentimental value to me.

morning, gravy

i think you've really said what it's about - the value lies with the individual, the history (or romance) behind the 'how comes you own it and who did before' and stuff. for me, new books are lovely, too, but with an old book i can muse on how many other hands held it, how many other eyes read it, how many other minds the author connected with ...

 

[oggbashan]

did you get to read it?

Read it? I had to collate it. We received it as a pile of loose pages and the pages were not numbered. I arranged it by the leaves before it was sent to be bound.

 

[butters]

Read it? I had to collate it. We received it as a pile of loose pages and the pages were not numbered. I arranged it by the leaves before it was sent to be bound.

goodness, what a job!

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I have a couple of out-of-print (and all of the plates have been lost) martial arts books (forms manuals) that the respective schools are dying to get their hands on but that I refuse to sell to them.



It comforts me to possess them.

 

[Sean]

I have a copy of Three Men in a Boat that went with a Lancahire Fusilier to the Boer War. His name and regiment are written on the flyleaf. It's pretty beaten up but still gets read every couple of years or so. And I have a signed first of all three of Stephen Donaldsons first Covenant series.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Maybe Dracula was autobiographical...

OMG! I threw away a fortune!

 

[butters]

I have a couple of out-of-print (and all of the plates have been lost) martial arts books (forms manuals) that the respective schools are dying to get their hands on but that I refuse to sell to them.



It comforts me to possess them.

you have to keep some of the best stuff to yourself, don't you? what's that about a teacher not teaching every thing he knows, just in case? :inscrutableface:

I have a copy of Three Men in a Boat that went with a Lancashire Fusilier to the Boer War. His name and regiment are written on the flyleaf. It's pretty beaten up but still gets read every couple of years or so. And I have a signed first of all three of Stephen Donaldsons first Covenant series.

see, that's exactly the sort of thing i mean - its provenance: its history becomes an intrinsic part of what the book means to an individual. as for you SD's - i almost envy you

ogg helped me out this morning, solving a mystery that's nagged me for years: on the front and inside a nicholas nickelby was embossed/printed a longish word whose letters were so badly written as to baffle me - the 'something' edition. ogg kindly pointed out that it's most likely the signature edition, so the word in question was actually 2 words - charles dickens he also supplied a likely date for the book - around 1889
and here's an online image i found of his name so you can see what i mean - if you didn't know what it said, i bet you'd be baffled as well.

 

[gravyrug]

you have to keep some of the best stuff to yourself, don't you? what's that about a teacher not teaching every thing he knows, just in case? :inscrutableface:


see, that's exactly the sort of thing i mean - its provenance: its history becomes an intrinsic part of what the book means to an individual. as for you SD's - i almost envy you

ogg helped me out this morning, solving a mystery that's nagged me for years: on the front and inside a nicholas nickelby was embossed/printed a longish word whose letters were so badly written as to baffle me - the 'something' edition. ogg kindly pointed out that it's most likely the signature edition, so the word in question was actually 2 words - charles dickens he also supplied a likely date for the book - around 1889
and here's an online image i found of his name so you can see what i mean - if you didn't know what it said, i bet you'd be baffled as well.

Okay, that's pretty damn cool.

 

[jodylee]

I love my out of print Peters score editions of my some Bach cantatas that I have, and I am most proud of finding an unused and pristine edition of Willi Apel's Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600 at a book seller in Cambridge, UK while I was on a trip. They had to write a price in, it had been there so long!

 

[oggbashan]

I love my out of print Peters score editions of my some Bach cantatas that I have, and I am most proud of finding an unused and pristine edition of Willi Apel's Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600 at a book seller in Cambridge, UK while I was on a trip. They had to write a price in, it had been there so long!

I found about 30 copies on abebooks.co.uk. but most were in the US. It is also available as a POD (print-on-demand) book.

 

[Peregrinator]

I have a copy of Three Men in a Boat that went with a Lancahire Fusilier to the Boer War. His name and regiment are written on the flyleaf. It's pretty beaten up but still gets read every couple of years or so. And I have a signed first of all three of Stephen Donaldsons first Covenant series.

I want one with the original cover:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Peregrinator/books_0028.jpg


We own some old books, but what I really want to get my hands on is anything at all that's bound in human skin.

 

[trysail]

what happened to your copy, trysail? did you pass it on to a family member, or a friend, perhaps?

'twas purchased in partnership with a pal. He bought my share for a fair price. He's far more the Joycean than I'll ever be. We remain pals.


He once stated that he intended to donate it to his alma mater. I've never asked him whether he still owns the book.