Before the opening of the 56th Stuttgart Antiquarian Book Fair, we spoke to Götz Kocher-Benzing of Stuttgarter Antiquariat and asked why Stuttgart is still such an attractive place to buy and browse and trade in antiquarian books.
By the book: Bringing antiquarian bookselling into the 21st century
Pom Harrington on the thrill of selling first editions of Shakespeare, Shackleton and Churchill
Does anyone know of any antiquarian booksellers in Iran? Follow Hugh Myers, cataloguer and researcher at Hordern House (Sydney, Australia), on his amazing trip through the country.
Away to Scotland for a rather special rare book trade occasion last week. A retirement party for our old friend Elizabeth Strong (McNaughtan's Bookshop) – not just a retirement party but also a welcome party for Derek and Anna Walker, who are taking over this much-loved bookshop on Haddington Place from Elizabeth. A big day for her, but perhaps an ever bigger one for them. The closing of one era, the opening of another – a passing on of the baton from one generation to the next. A time for celebration. A time for reflection. A goodish crowd of bookish folk. Edinburgh stalwart Ian Watson (John Updike Rare Books) was there. Cooper Hay had come over from Glasgow. Andrew Hunter (Blackwell's Rare Books) was up from Oxford. Family, friends, customers. A few choice words from our president, Oscar Graves-Johnston. A few words of farewell, welcome and introduction from Elizabeth. A few words of appreciation and anticipation from the Walkers.
ILAB is like the United Nations for antiquarian booksellers. As a truly global umbrella organization it shows that the rare book business is fascinating in its diversity: from Europe to South Africa and the United States, to Australia and Asia. When in 1989 the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of Korea (ABAK) was founded, the antiquarian booksellers in the Republic of Korea immediately became affiliated to ILAB. And now, for the first time, the South Korean colleagues exhibited at this year's London International Antiquarian Book Fair. T.J. Kim, owner of Tmecca Korea, Inc. in Seoul, was one of them. He tells us about rare bookselling in his home country, his own career and future perspectives of the trade.
We found ourselves in the Sussex market town of Midhurst the other day – very pleasant, even in the rain – partly as an episode in the ongoing quest for perfect seasoned logs to keep the home fires burning (the ones available locally are apparently just lumps of wood – but that's another story). So obviously also an opportunity not to be missed to call on Philip Remington (of Reg & Philip Remington), who is nowadays quartered in these parts. Now, while the name Remington might merely suggest rifles or razors to some people, to those of us in the real world it means only one thing: the finest of fine books in the spheres of exploration, voyages and travel. The firm can trace its origins back to that day in 1951 when Reg Remington was taken on by the Francis Edwards firm as a trainee, rising through the ranks to become in turn assistant to Herbert Edwards, then Edwards' successor as head of the voyages and travel department, and then a director of the firm. Meanwhile, his son Philip was undergoing his own vigorous training at the so fondly remembered Hodgson's Auction Rooms on Chancery Lane. In 1979 they joined forces to begin trading independently, taking on a shop in London's Cecil Court in 1980, where they remained as one of its great adornments until 2002.
This week is Banned Books Week. I've written about banned books before: the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in the Weimar Republic, in the Soviet Union. Here's something a little earlier: the libellous Philippiques of François-Joseph de Lagrange-Chancel (1677–1758). These virulent satires against the Regent, the duc d'Orléans, enjoyed a huge popularity in manuscript throughout the eighteenth century, as the varied examples here show. 'In spite of its imperfections and crying injustice, it is the monument of satire in France' (Nouvelle biographie générale).
On 23 April 2016, from 2 pm to 5 pm, the ILAB dealers of Bubb Kuyper Auctions and Antiquariaat A.G. van der Steur will hold an ILAB Pop Up Book Market at Kruisstraat 3 in Haarlem, just beside Kruispoort – the old city gate which was blown up by the Haarlem inhabitants in the year 1573 to protect themselves against the Spanish invasion. Inmidst this beautiful historical location, the Dutch booksellers will offer rare and fine books, maps and prints - some of which you might never have seen before. Jeffrey Bosch of Bubb Kuyper Auctions will be present from 4 to 5 pm to estimate your own bibliophile treasures. And as all the ILAB booksellers on that day across the world, the Dutch colleagues will sell "symbolic books" to fill "empty bookcases" for the school children in South Sudan.
On Saturday, November 8th, the Austrian antiquarian bookseller Dr. Paul Kainbacher had invited collectors and colleagues to his antiquarian bookshop in Baden (next to Vienna), Elisabethstrasse 33. The shop was the perfect location for the "Bibliophile Evening" which was dedicated to The Exploration of the South Sea. The bookshop welcomed numerous guests, among them collectors and book lovers from Germany, Austria and Finland as well as scientists and explorers from various university departments. They all had come to see the most beautiful books and to listen to highly interesting lectures by European experts of the South Sea such as Prof. Hermann Mückler (Vienna University) and Ms. Anke Oberlies (German James Cook Society). See the pictures!
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) was founded in 1949. In the same year Laurence Gomme, the first ABAA President, attended the 2nd ILAB Congress in London as an observer, and a year later the American Association was officially welcomed as a new member of the League during the 3rd Congress in Paris. It took only a few more years until the ILAB affiliates were invited to the United States: to New York in 1955, and again in 1959. The 12th ILAB Congress was held in New York from 20th to 25th September, 1959. And it was bigger than ever before.
Explorette? Explorene? There is no English word for a female explorer, as far as I know, but there should be, as Charlotte du Rietz has proved so ably in her latest list. She has focused on seven renowned women, from the 18th to the 20th century ...
