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.
All across Europe entire libraries belonging to Jews, Freemasons, Jesuits or Communists were looted by the Nazi regime. The books which were not burnt or destroyed were hidden by the Nazis for eventual use after the war. So, when World War II was over, the US-army officers who were part of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Program, found millions of books which had been stolen by Nazis. In her article for The New Yorker Sally MacGrane reports about a project including an online exhibit and a virtual map which intends to document the history and the provenances of those books according to their library stamps.
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America is delighted to announce that Sid Lapidus and Jay and Jean Kislak have been awarded the ABAA and ILAB Patron of Honor. The ABAA feels these individuals demonstrate how the printed word materially affects history, scholarship, and cultural intelligence and the importance of collections to institutions and the public.
It does not happen all that often that an old antiquarian bookseller sees a catalogue and thinks, a little enviously: "I wish that was one of mine." Paul Kainbacher's latest catalogue "Im Herzen Afrikas" is one of those. The presentation is generous, in a large quarto format. Nearly every item is illustrated in colour. The numbering, which often makes a catalogue lifeless, has been omitted. The text is set in single or double columns, which does not make reading hectic, rather it adds a component of surprise and dynamics. Well, these are externals, it is the content that counts. But still, a mood is set, the reader is curious and elated ...
"Now that you have this cookbook, what do you have?" This question appears on the first page of Julie Anna Kirsh's family cookbook, in her grandmother's hand. And it's a question that at first appears obvious: in a cookbook, you have a collection of recipes, perhaps organized by topic. But in the case of a manuscript cookbook, we can glean so much more insight than merely portions, measures, and cooking time. Manuscript cookbooks offer a glimpse into the daily lives of the women and families who recorded their recipes.
For many small children outside of Europe, their first ideas of Paris come from a children's book, and for them, the heart of the city is a vine-covered old house full of little girls in yellow dresses, the smallest and most important being Madeline. The man behind the first seven Madeline books (the series has since been picked up by his grandson) was Ludwig Bemelmans. Though he published over forty-six books in his lifetime and posthumously, it is for Madeline that he is most fondly remembered.
