BBC journalist Duncan Leatherdale looks at author's autographs, presentation and dedication copies and asks ILAB bookseller Pom Harrington why some books are more valuable than others.
Das Deutsche Literaturarchiv Marbach hat kürzlich eine Frankfurter Privatsammlung zu Eduard Mörike erworben. Der Sammler Klaus Berge, verdientes Mitglied der Deutschen Schillergesellschaft und langjähriger Freund des Hauses, hat über mehr als drei Jahrzehnte hinweg sachkundig Handschriften, Erstausgaben, Widmungsexemplare, Grafiken und Gegenständliches von und zu Eduard Mörike sowie seinem Umkreis zusammengetragen.
105 years ago, from 6th to 8th August, 1908, a famous 19th century autograph collection was auctioned by J. A. Stargardt in Berlin. The owner of the collection was Fritz Donebauer, born in 1849 as a son of a Bohemian innkeeper who became a banker and insurance agent in Prague, and most of all: a collector. In his lifetime he owned hundreds of autographs and manuscripts of mostly Bohemian theatre artists and musicians as well as rare documents from the history of Bohemia and the Thirty Years War. Little is known about Fritz Donebauer, whose collection came to auction in Berlin in April 1908, and even less is known about the private collectors, dealers and institutions who bought the documents, manuscripts and handwritten letters. Eberhard Köstler tries to reconstruct Fritz Donebauer's life and the fate of his famous collection.
This (or a variant of it) is probably the most often asked question I hear. What I'm talking about is, of course, whether it is better to buy a book (or get it autographed by the author) with just a signature alone or whether it is better to have it with a personalized inscription.
The British Library has acquired the personal archive of Sir Alec Guinness. The archive includes more than 900 of his letters to family and friends and over 100 volumes of diaries from the late 1930s to his death in the year 2000. The letters and diaries of the award winning British actor enrich the British Library's collection of archives of great 20th century artists along with those of Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.
How much is it worth? This question is most often asked by book collectors. And most often, there is not a precise answer. Although it is quite common nowadays to discuss rare books "as investments", the value of a book can hardly be counted in Dollars and Euros. It is even more difficult to measure the "worth" of dedication copies. Is the book inscribed by the author? Is this author famous and important, dead or alive? To whom is the book inscribed? Which words did the author choose to express his gratitude or sympathy? Eberhard Köstler, autograph specialist, gives examples of dedications by George Bernard Shaw, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and many other authors, and he shows that nothing is binding when it comes to the "real worth" of dedications.
In detective fiction and on the cop shows it's called "chain of evidence." Book collectors call it provenance. Unless you plan to build your private library solely with "hot off the press" titles, you need to understand provenance. The concept is important for all kinds of collectibles, from works of art to books to archaeological artifacts. Basically, it means: "to confirm or gather evidence as to the time, place, and if appropriate, the person responsible, for the creation, production or discovery of [an] object."
Great news: The Guardian and Associated Press report that the Hebrew University of Jerusalem puts online 2,000 documents from the Albert Einstein archives including unseen letters, postcards and research notes.
"Over the years I have learned more and more about Auerhahn, White Rabbit, Zephyrus Image — small presses about whom I've have published bibliographies — also Semina magazine, Everson and Waldport, plus printers Graham Mackintosh and Dave Haselwood. Jack Stauffacher, who is now in his 90s, and the poets Philip Whalen and Joanne Kyger would relate to me personal stories or anecdotes which I stored away." An Interview with Alastair Johnston, Author of 'Dreaming on the Edge: Poets and Book Artists in California'.
A Commonplace Reformation: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Add. A. 92 - Martin Luther's Autograph Collection of Proverbs. This manuscript is one of two in the Bodleian's possession which are written in Martin Luther's own hand, and, running to 40 pages, is by far the more substantial - though, about the size of a postcard, it remains small. It is a collection of proverbs (Sprichwörter), mostly in German, and dating from some point in the later 1530s or early 1540s. It was acquired by the Bodleian for £45 in 1865 - the "carelessness and poverty" of German libraries and museums for allowing this to happen was later lamented.
History - Congresses, Fairs, Meetings
1947 - Amsterdam - Preliminary conference
1948 - Copenhagen - 1st Congress1949 - London - 2nd Congress1950 - Paris - 3rd Congress1951 - Brussels - 4th Congress1952 - Geneva - 5th Congress1953 - Milan - 6th Congress1954 - Vienna - 7th Congress1955 - New York - 8th Congress1956 - London - 9th Congress1957 - Munich - 10th Congress1958 - London - 11th Congress1959 - New York - 12th Congress1960 - Scheveningen - 13th Congress1961 - Paris - 14th Congress1962 - Basel - 15th Congress1963 - Brussels - 16th Congress1964 - Ravenna - 17th Congress
1965 - Amsterdam - 1st International Book Fair
1965 - Stuttgart - Presidents' Meeting
1966 - Vienna - 18th Congress1967 - San Francisco - 19th Congress and 2nd International Book Fair1968 - Amsterdam - 3rd International Book Fair
1968 - London - Presidents' Meeting
1969 - Copenhagen - 20th Congress
1970 - Paris - Presidents' Meeting
1971 - London - 21st Congress and 4th International Book Fair
1972 - Vienna - Presidents' Meeting
1973 - Tokyo - 22nd Congress and 5th International Book Fair
1974 - Turin - Presidents' Meeting
1975 - Amsterdam - 23rd Congress and 6th International Book Fair
1976 - Brussels - Presidents' Meeting
1977 - Düsseldorf - 7th International Book Fair
1978 - Zurich - 25th Congress and 8th International Book Fair
1979 - Copenhagen - Presidents' Meeting
1980 - New York - 26th Congress and 9th International Book Fair
1981 - Kyoto - Presidents' Meeting
1982 - Amsterdam - Presidents' Meeting
1983 - Stockholm - Presidents' Meeting
1984 - London - 27th Congress and 10th International Book Fair
1985 - Munich - Presidents' Meeting
1986 - Venice - 28th Congress and 11th International Book Fair
1987 - Vienna - Presidents' Meeting
1988 - Paris - 29th Congress and 12th International Book Fair
1989 - Yverdon - Presidents' Meeting
1990 - Tokyo - 30th Congress and 13th International Book Fair
1991 - Copenhagen - Presidents' Meeting
1992 - Cologne - 31st Congress and 14th International Book Fair
1993 - Los Angeles - Presidents' Meeting
1994 - Amsterdam - 32nd Congress and 15th International Book Fair
1995 - Brussels - Presidents' Meeting
1996 - Los Angeles - 33rd Congress and San Francisco, 16th International Book Fair
1997 - Sydney - Presidents' Meeting
1998 - Vienna - 34th Congress and 17th International Book Fair
1999 - Florence - Presidents' Meeting
2000 - Edinburgh - 35th Congress and 18th International Book Fair
2001 - Boston - Presidents' Meeting
2002 - Scandinavia - 36th Congress and 19th International Book Fair
2003 - Potsdam - Presidents' Meeting
2004 - Melbourne - 37th Congress and 20th International Book Fair
2005 - Montréal - Presidents' Meeting
2006 - Wilmington - Presidents' Meeting
2006 - New York - 21st International Book Fair
2007 - Paris - Presidents' Meeting
2008 - Madrid - 38th Congress and 22nd International Book Fair
2009 - Vienna - Presidents' Meeting
2010 - Bologna - 39th Congress and 23rd International Antiquarian Book Fair
2011 - Weimar - Presidents' Meeting
2012 - Lucerne, Zurich - 40th Congress and 24th International Antiquarian Book Fair
2013 - Siena - Presidents' Meeting
2014 - Paris - 41th ILAB Congress and 25th International Antiquarian Book Fair
2015 - Seville - Presidents' Meeting
2016 - Budapest - 42nd ILAB Congress and 26th International Antiquarian Book Fair
Next:
2017 - Copenhagen - Presidents' Meeting
2018 - Los Angeles - 43rd ILAB Congress
(Picture: Presidents' Meeting in Vienna, October 2009)
Raymond Scott was sentenced to eight years in prison, because he had stolen a first folio edition of William Shakespeare's works from Durham University in 1998. On Wednesday he was found dead in his cell in Northumberland prison.
A thief was arrested on Christmas Day in Yorkshire (UK). The Cambridge graduate William Jacques had stolen Ambroise Verschaffelt"s Nouvelle Iconographies des Camellias from the RHS Lindley Library ...
