A Grand Few Days - 40th ILAB Congress in Switzerland
In September the ILAB booksellers met in Switzerland for their 40th Congress in the history of the League which was excellently organized by the Swiss Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (VEBUKU) and its current president Alain Moirandat. From 22nd to 26th September 2012 they became acquainted with Swiss culture, history and folklore. They visited magnificent libraries and museums, held a conference on a ship on Lake Lucerne, climbed mountains (by cogwheel train), improved their crossbow shooting skills in a cave behind waterfalls and showed their dancing talents at the farewell dinner in the Hotel Montana.
Within three days the Congress delegates saw famous collections of books and art situated in a spectacular landscape. The Rosengart Museum was one of the highlights showing an abundance of pictures by Picasso, Chagall, Klee, Miro, Braque, Matisse, Modigliani. Angela Rosengart herself - "still beautiful, still elegant, still charming, Picasso's dealer, Picasso's friend, a woman painted some five times by the master" - spoke about the real secret of successful dealing:
A real contrast afterwards at Hergiswald: The small and quiet church in the mountains is a true gem because of its beautiful Baroque ceiling of emblems.
ILAB on Top
The ILAB booksellers did right to prepare carefully for the Tuesday excursion. In Switzerland Schiller's Wilhelm Tell shot apples placed on children's heads with his crossbow. And every Good Friday the restless ghost of Pontius Pilate rises from the waters of a little lake on a 7000 feet high mountain called Pilatus to wash the blood of Christ off his hands. It was clear: It could become dangerous.
Exceptional! Professor Werner Oechslin's library houses some 50,000 books on architecture and related disciplines. The private library has been turned into a public institution - an exquisite research library in a building designed by the architect Mario Botta. On Wednesday the ILAB dealers had the honour of being guided through the library by Werner Oechslin himself.
Back to Business - 24th ILAB International Antiquarian Book Fair
After four days of attending ILAB conferences and studying modern art, history and bibliophile treasures (including mountaineering and some traditional sports) the 24th ILAB International Antiquarian Book Fair opened its doors to visitors in Zurich from 27th to 30th September. Collectors and colleagues from Japan, Australia, China, Russia, the United States and all over Europe filled the hall to see and to buy books, prints, autographs and manuscripts showcased by 65 ILAB dealers.
ILAB'S NEW DREAM TEAM: At the Ordinary General Meeting in Lucerne in September 2012, Tom Congalton (United States) has been elected ILAB President, Norbert Donhofer (Austria) has become Vice-President. Tom Congalton, owner of Between the Covers and author of numerous articles, succeeds Arnoud Gerits who served as ILAB President from 2010 to 2012. In further elections the presidents of ILAB's 22 member associations voted for Paul Feain (Australia) as Treasurer, Ulrich Hobbeling (Germany) as General Secretary and for Umberto Pregliasco, Gonzalo Fernández Pontes and Michel Bouvier as new Committee Members. Poul Jan Poulsen, who had been ILAB's treasurer for more than 20 years, was awarded ILAB Member of Honour and ILAB Treasurer of Honour.
"One of the things I hear most often is "If I owned that book I'd be afraid to touch it." I usually respond to this by pointing out that the book in question is four hundred years old, has survived untold wars, plagues and natural disasters in its journey to our hands and is probably a lot tougher than me ... not to mention prettier and more useful. This strikes people as strange."
A Century of Rare Bookselling - An Interview with Marguerite Studer Goldschmidt
Marguerite and Lucien Goldschmidt represent a whole century of the antiquarian book trade, they were "citizens of the world" and their New York gallery, founded in 1953 after Lucien had worked for Pierre Berès since the 1930s, was called "the kind of book-cum-picture shop that Daumier would have liked to draw and in which Baudelaire would have whiled away the hours."
Left alone without husband, family and money, thrown out of better society for doubtful reasons, they dressed as men, entered the army, and earned their livings as soldiers and sailors. Some of them became great adventurers, even braver than many men, and, yet, they lost their lives in storm and thunder or were shot by drunken madmen.
On her trip to the Netherlands, Alena Lavrenova, editor-in-chief of the Russian magazine Pro knigi, visited antiquarian booksellers, auction houses and the book town Bredevoort.
In September the ILAB booksellers met in Switzerland for their 40th Congress in the history of the League which was excellently organized by the Swiss Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (VEBUKU) and its current president Alain Moirandat. From 22nd to 26th September 2012 they became acquainted with Swiss culture, history and folklore. They visited magnificent libraries and museums, held a conference on a ship on Lake Lucerne, climbed mountains (by cogwheel train), improved their crossbow shooting skills in a cave behind waterfalls and showed their dancing talents at the farewell dinner in the Hotel Montana.
Within three days the Congress delegates saw famous collections of books and art situated in a spectacular landscape. The Rosengart Museum was one of the highlights showing an abundance of pictures by Picasso, Chagall, Klee, Miro, Braque, Matisse, Modigliani. Angela Rosengart herself - "still beautiful, still elegant, still charming, Picasso's dealer, Picasso's friend, a woman painted some five times by the master" - spoke about the real secret of successful dealing:
The ILAB booksellers did right to prepare carefully for the Tuesday excursion. In Switzerland Schiller's Wilhelm Tell shot apples placed on children's heads with his crossbow. And every Good Friday the restless ghost of Pontius Pilate rises from the waters of a little lake on a 7000 feet high mountain called Pilatus to wash the blood of Christ off his hands. It was clear: It could become dangerous.
Exceptional! Professor Werner Oechslin's library houses some 50,000 books on architecture and related disciplines. The private library has been turned into a public institution - an exquisite research library in a building designed by the architect Mario Botta. On Wednesday the ILAB dealers had the honour of being guided through the library by Werner Oechslin himself.
After four days of attending ILAB conferences and studying modern art, history and bibliophile treasures (including mountaineering and some traditional sports) the 24th ILAB International Antiquarian Book Fair opened its doors to visitors in Zurich from 27th to 30th September. Collectors and colleagues from Japan, Australia, China, Russia, the United States and all over Europe filled the hall to see and to buy books, prints, autographs and manuscripts showcased by 65 ILAB dealers.
ILAB'S NEW DREAM TEAM: 
"One of the things I hear most often is "If I owned that book I'd be afraid to touch it." I usually respond to this by pointing out that the book in question is four hundred years old, has survived untold wars, plagues and natural disasters in its journey to our hands and is probably a lot tougher than me ... not to mention prettier and more useful. This strikes people as strange."
Marguerite and Lucien Goldschmidt represent a whole century of the antiquarian book trade, they were "citizens of the world" and their New York gallery, founded in 1953 after Lucien had worked for Pierre Berès since the 1930s, was called "the kind of book-cum-picture shop that Daumier would have liked to draw and in which Baudelaire would have whiled away the hours."
Left alone without husband, family and money, thrown out of better society for doubtful reasons, they dressed as men, entered the army, and earned their livings as soldiers and sailors. Some of them became great adventurers, even braver than many men, and, yet, they lost their lives in storm and thunder or were shot by drunken madmen.
On her trip to the Netherlands, Alena Lavrenova, editor-in-chief of the Russian magazine Pro knigi, visited antiquarian booksellers, auction houses and the book town Bredevoort.
