"Enrich your collections, cultivate your curiosity” has been the motto of recent virtual book fairs, hosted by the French antiquarian booksellers association.
The pandemic brought much upheaval to the rare book trade worldwide and amongst other international fairs, the Paris Salon du Livre in April 2020 was cancelled. However, the board of SLAM reacted immediately and launched already in those early days in April 2020 a digital version of the Salon. An idea was born!

Virtual book fairs were developed in the course of 2020 and even a physical fair could be held at the Grand Palais in September 2020 under strictest hygienic measures.
The 2021 edition of the Salon du Livre Rare & des Experts en Objets d'art is now scheduled to take place in September 2021 at a new venue. This change of location is not linked to the pandemic but renovations in the Grand Palais which had been planned by the City of Paris for several years pre-COVID.

SLAM has found an excellent alternative, the Grand Palais Éphémère, an exceptional temporary conference venue, purpose-built on the Champ de Mars just below the Eiffel Tower. All information about the fairs and the association can be found on the Salon website, one of the sites which went live only a few days ago: https://salondulivrerare.com/

A second site: www.amorlibrorum.fr, adopting the motto of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), leads to the virtual rare book fairs organised by SLAM of which one event starts today: The monthly "E-Rendez-Vous”. Every 3rd of the month, this fair allows dealers to display 3 books for 3 days. Speed-dating for bibliophiles!

This new concept was launched by SLAM in February 2021. The fifth session starts today, with a growing success. Nearly 180 booksellers have opened an account since February and take turns each month, with an average of 90 exhibitors present. More than a third of the exhibitors are international booksellers from beyond the French borders. The bilingual site receives nearly 40% foreign visitors!

"It is a real satisfaction to be able to keep this contact, every month, not only with the visitors from France and the whole world, but also with all the colleagues. All of them have made great efforts to adapt to these new methods, and I would like to thank them and congratulate them. And they are rewarded: the percentage of books sold improves fair after fair, and since February and with the two e-salons of December and May, more than 500 books have been sold. 'Amor Librorum' is not a vain maxim but a link that survives, even if it is by internet!", says Hervé Valentin, President of SLAM.

For more information about the SLAM, the Syndicat National de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne, please click HERE or contact the SLAM Office if you wish to exhibit at any of the upcoming events or have questions about buying at a virtual fair.

Enrichez vos collections! Cultivez votre curiosité!

Laurens, congratulations on your recent election as president of the Dutch Antiquarian Booksellers Association, NVvA! First of all, could you tell us about your background, how you entered the world of rare books and describe your business?

I grew up with a bookseller father, and as a young kid I never paid much attention to his business, as any kid would do to his father's works, I suppose. School wasn't for me, so at the age of 17 I went to Australia and became a jackaroo, as they call it, and spent 2 years on a cattle station with 42,000 head of cattle, horses, bicycles and helicopters, almost half the size of the Netherlands. I liked it in Australia and after my two year work visa I went back to the Netherlands, got a student visa and went to Longreach Pastoral College and ended up as a certified station manager. My father's and my good friend Derek McDonnell from Hordern House got me the job and told me that I had received the best training to become a rare bookseller because I learnt how to bounder my fences and crush a snake!

After returning from Australia I did all kinds of jobs and ended up at the head office of Bruna, a company that owns a lot of modern bookshops around the country, where I got involved in the newest hottest thing, e-commerce, and we set up the first e-commerce shop in the Netherlands selling books. After a couple of years I did not like it any longer and in 2000 I sent my father a job application via email and to everyone's surprise he hired me. In 2008 I took over the family business and from there we acquired Asher Rare Books in 2010 and here we are, still holding up the family fort and buying and selling books all over the world, which for me is a very exciting thing to do, free as a bird, meeting new people and different books all the time.

You are busy organising the next ILAB Congress, which will take place in Amsterdam from 14 to 17 October 2024, as well as a number of other initiatives for the association. Given the demands and responsibilities of running an association, what motivates and inspires you to dedicate your time to the wider bookselling community?

Organising the ILAB Congress is a very exciting event. It is not an easy task, as the bar has been set high by the organisers of the Oxford Congress, so we have to work hard to achieve exciting visits, good food and beautiful venues for the booksellers from all over the world. What we are trying to achieve as the Dutch Antiquarian Booksellers Association is to bring some excitement back into the world of rare books. We just had a very nice Amsterdam Antiquarian Book Fair and our book fair team, really did an amazing job by taking us to a new venue, had live music, tours and we handed out a Young Collectors prize, a 1000 euro cheque that had to be spent at the fair. We also like to reach out to universities where they teach book studies or Boekwetenschappen in Dutch!

Why should ILAB booksellers attend the congress in Amsterdam? What is on offer?

Why, why is not the why, after the congress, if you haven't been to the Amsterdam Congress 2024, you will be the one asked why, why, why you haven't been there, YOU have missed out!

Who wouldn't want to spend a week in Amsterdam, being treated like a VIP by all the institutes that open their doors to us, ILAB members from all over the world. To see the treasures that are normally kept behind closed doors, in safes, in vaults, and hardly ever see the light of day. This is why you come to Amsterdam, to be one of the lucky few who have been allowed to see these special items, and on top of that, Amsterdam is the city of fun, there is something to be found in Amsterdam for everyone's taste, preference or hobby. We will all be taken around Amsterdam by canal boat, lunch at the Rijksmuseum, dinner at the Scheepvaart Musum (Maritime Museum), too much to mention and all I can say is SIGN UP for this event. Meet your colleagues from all over the world and have a great time!

And last but not least, if you are a bookseller and want to mix pleasure with business! Then join us at the Amsterdam Book Fair, which will take place immediately after the congress in the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam.

You have recently launched a young collectors' prize, a wonderful project in which you work not only with collectors but also with libraries. Could you tell us a little more about some of your ideas for encouraging the next generation of booksellers and collectors?

Yes, as I said, it was an excellent event. In cooperation with the librarian of the Rijksmuseum and the president of the Friends of the Museum of the Book. We will organise it again next year. We have learnt from our first experience and what we also want to do is to keep this group of young collectors together and have an event with them every three months, visiting a library or a bookseller or a museum.

You exhibit at many international fairs and work across borders; how would you say the trade has evolved in recent years, especially since the pandemic? Where do you see opportunities and challenges?

I think life will continue as before the pandemic, the human brain works in mysterious ways. For me, the pandemic seems to have been a long time ago, I don't think about it and we carry on as before the pandemic. I say this very lightly, but we have to remember that many of our ILAB dealers were affected by the pandemic and some of our members even lost family members.

Having said that, I think we just have to carry on doing what you do best and keep looking for those books and customers and enjoy life!

Laurens, thank you very much for your support and we look forward to meeting you and your colleagues from the NVvA in Amsterdam in October!

To contact Forum Rare Books and Laurens Hesselink, go HERE

Sign up for the 45th ILAB Congress HERE - not to be missed!

What a treat! A real stroll down Memory Lane, paralleling my time on the King’s Road in Chelsea. Philippa’s engaging account begins in 1971, the same year that I joined my brother, Peter, in the Chelsea Antique Market at 253 King’s Road. By the start of the new millennium, Chelsea Rare Books had departed the world-famous thoroughfare. We had also gone, three years previously. The rent that they were paying in 1971 of £700 pa was a distant dream. The new rents on the King’s Road made many shops unviable.

Bernard and Philippa had bought the shop, with no experience of the book trade, from Robin Greer, renowned for his specialist subject, children’s illustrators. Their first sale was a book from the famous racks outside for a 50p coin. Six months earlier and it would have been a ten bob note. Cheques were universally accepted and seldom bounced. There were no mobile phones or computers. Reference books, for most dealers, consisted of a well-thumbed run of Book Auction Records! We relied on instinct and the helpful guidance of the trade and our customers. The world seemed to be very hungry for all areas of antique and fine art collecting, and books were no exception. Dealers from Europe and North America beat a path to London and especially Chelsea. It was this lively environment that allowed our intrepid couple to learn the ropes very quickly. Bernard’s avuncular style endeared him to everyone and Phillipa’s grounded good sense and friendliness quickly made Chelsea Rare Books the ‘go to’ place.

I always enjoyed popping in there, seeking books that I hoped to profit from and a friendly conversation. Philippa speaks warmly of her various assistants over the years. They were generally young women and all of them remained friends, long after they had moved on.

“Amor Librorum Nos Unit” - the love of books unites us, the adopted motto of the book trade, seemed very much to apply here. The bonds that are formed working in books stay strong and Philippa’s various accounts of all who came into her shop, being captivated, then captured, and finally forming lifelong friendships, repeatedly demonstrates this. Even a book thief gets a kind word. Once caught, Leo gave him permission to ‘steal’ from the racks outside. Value not to exceed £1, number of books per week not to exceed one. It became a routine with our thief happily waving his latest acquisition to Leo to demonstrate his adhesion to the deal!

The various accounts of the great, the good and the not so good echoed our own experience. Many rock stars headed for the King’s Road as did film stars, the aristocracy, several politicians and famous people in general. Many were or became avid book collectors. Princess Margaret was a visitor who also opened the ABA Book fair one year. Philippa’s accounts of such visitors are a labyrinth of connected people, all demonstrating how lucky we were to be at the epicentre that was Chelsea.

Chelsea Rare Books was a hub where bibliophiles gathered to meet and discuss their various artistic and book passions.

Philippa’s book buying in Chelsea is the one area where my own experience was entirely different. Chelsea Rare Books were always being offered books. Harrington Bothers, as Peter and I were then, never seemed to get that opportunity. It’s one of the great advantages of having a shop – it inspires trust. I have found this at my own premises in Tunbridge Wells. In Chelsea we were in an antiques market - the World’s first antiques market in fact - a situation I suspect that meant we were somewhat outside the mainstream of the London book trade. In fact, one past president of the ABA gave “they trade from a market stall” as a good reason to deny us membership of the ABA.
For Philippa and Bernard, the offers of books came to them in abundance, including a collection of books from Darwin’s library, several of them inscribed! Happy days!

The Beaufort Gallery was the name they gave to their prints and maps department that they opened in the basement of the shop. In those days the breaking up of books for their plates was prolific and very controversial, as well as being against ABA rules, as it is now. Dealers from all over Europe and America were buying travel and Natural History books for the value their plates would have once separated from the binding. I know of one London bookseller who evicted an Italian dealer from his shop. The dealer had started to dismantle the books he had purchased whilst still on the premises, saying it would make transporting the plates easier! Philippa tells us that their source of engravings was from incomplete and broken books. The strange thing is that now that the craze has passed, many of the remaining intact books have little to no value.

Philippa’s amazing recall of the various book runners, thieves, awkward customers, great friendships formed and extraordinary collectors paints a wonderful picture of the times. As she has moved from selling books to writing them, I am grateful that she took the time to write this one and I heartily recommend it.

Image above: Philippa Bernard and Adrian Harrington at the Chelsea Rare Book Fair, November 2023

This review was first published in the ABA Newsletter, Winter 2024 edition - the full newsletter can be downloaded HERE

The book can be purchased at all major bookshops, such as Waterstones or similar.

Elisabeth Wittkowski (born 1998) wins Young Collectors' Award 2022 for Elton John Collection: "Self-Representation and Reception 1970-72".

On 21 February 2022, during this year's Stuttgart Rare Book Fair, Ms Elisabeth Wittkowski will receive the first prize of the 2022 Young Collector's Award with an endowment of EUR1000 by the German Antiquarian Booksellers' Association.
Link to register for the online prize giving ceremony, please GO HERE

The interest in developing and curating a collection, but also the enjoyment of the objects and collection areas, transcends generations. On the occasion of the 2022 Stuttgart Rare Book Fair, the German Antiquarian Booksellers' Association called for applications for a second time, since the inaugural award in 2020. The applicants, no older than 35, were asked to give an overview of their collection but also to describe their motives.

The jury chose Elisabeth Wittkowski's creative and convincing work on "Self-Representation and Reception" of Elton John in the early 1970s from among the diverse entries. On the one hand, the artist fascinates in his constant development, but the collection often shows another person behind the generally visible stage persona. Authentic representation versus media distortions of reality but also the multimedia nature of Elton John's reception reflect both the collecting theme and everyday cultural processes of the early 1970s.

"And they do collect! This, or similar, is how one might paraphrase a well-known quote. The applications for the 2022 Young Collector's Award, which is being offered for the second time, have shown that the hunt for books, as objects of desire, is unbroken and age-independent. Only the search, the possibilities of acquisition and the contents of the collectibles differ and often have a stronger connection to the present. It is always a pleasure to be able to experience and feel the enthusiasm of young people for printed matter in any form." Sibylle Wieduwilt, Chairwoman of the German Antiquarian Booksellers' Association and member of the jury.

All images below were supplied by E. Wittkowski.

The Stuttgart Rare Book Fair runs 18 - 22 February 2022
Link to virtual fair: VIRTUAL STUTTGART RARE BOOK FAIR 2022

As a result of the COVID pandemic, the German Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (Verband Deutscher Antiquare) developed a virtual fair platform in 2021, which in 2022 will once again give rare booksellers from Germany and abroad the opportunity to present their stock while in-person fairs and events are not yet allowed in Germany.

In 2022, the German Antiquarian Booksellers' Association welcomes 73 antiquarian bookshops and galleries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, England and the US.

All exhibitors are listed here.

Stuttgart Fair Catalogue

The Stuttgart fair catalogue is now published and can be ordered by email from the Association's office.
An electronic version is available FOR DOWNLOAD HERE

Virtual Stuttgart Rare Book Fair 2022 opens 18 February at 12 noon German time

The virtual Stuttgart Rare Book Fair 2022 will go live on 18 February 2022 at 12 noon German time and closes on 22 February 2022 at midnight.
73 German and international antiquarian booksellers and galleries will exhibit up to 20 additional objects each. The virtual fair does not handle direct sales; sales are made directly through the dealer.
You can reach the virtual fair via ff. link: VIRTUAL STUTTGART RARE BOOK FAIR 2022

Steven Temple served as President of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of Canada from 2000 to 2002, and following that as General Secretary of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers from 2002 to 2006.
On the note of his passing, some of his former colleagues expressed their condolences.

"Steven was a very nice man and I greatly enjoyed my years with him on the committee. He was devoted to his work as secretary: we once had a meeting as a committee at Bob Fleck’s house/shop. Steven’s luggage had not been delivered with his flight, and his flight was also delayed. He arrived late, by taxi, without anything but the clothes he was wearing, but, as he said, I’ve got work to do!"
Arnoud Gerits, ILAB President of Honour

"I was around while Steven was on committee and subsequently secretary. I also used to visit his shop in Toronto. He was a kind, diligent and calming influence and a true gentleman. He was also good company and will be missed by all who knew him."
Adrian Harrington, ILAB President of Honour

"Steven was at the forefront of that generation of Toronto rare book sellers that came to prominence in the 1970s and 80s. Many Canadian institutional libraries benefited from rare items he was able to acquire and place in their collections. Steve would remember your collecting interests and an occasional email from him would arrive quoting items that you would never think you would see. Always enjoyed chatting with him on a range of topics outside of just books. Sorry to hear of his passing and condolences to his family."
Matt Doyle

"I always enjoyed visiting the shop on Queen West, or stopping at his booth at one of the Toronto Antiquarian Book Fairs. This included chatting with Steven and usually resulted in learning something I did not know about some aspect of Canadian literary rarities. ... May his memory be a blessing to his family and those who knew him."
Bernard Katz (U. of Guelph Library, retired)

An obituary was published in the Toronto Star on 10 September 2023

George "Steven" Temple, a loving husband, father figure, and esteemed bookseller in the world of books, passed away, on September 7, 2023, at the Niagara Health - St. Catharines Site, just days into his seventy-sixth year.
He leaves behind a legacy of love, literature, and a life well-lived. Steven was the beloved husband of Jennifer Temple (née Fraser), and their union brought together not only their hearts but also Jennifer's two sons, Istvan "Dugi" and Sandor Dugalin, whom Steven embraced as his own and guided as a father figure and friend. He shared a special bond with his siblings, Deborah, Gwenda, Janice, Joel Anthony, and Robert Christopher; and his dear friend, Jacob, who Steven referred to as his younger brother. Born to Norman and Marie (née Vogler), Steven Temple cultivated a remarkable bibliographical record.
He was renowned as the President with the Canadian Booksellers Association and Secretary of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, and books were not just his profession but his lifelong passion.
From 1974 to 2011, he owned his own storefront on Queen Street West in Toronto, where he shared his love for literature with the world. Steven was a man of many interests and talents. He was an avid long-distance cyclist, a connoisseur of Sudoku, and a gifted tenor saxophonist. His music often lulled Jennifer to sleep with the sweet melodies of "Alice in Wonderland."
His dedication to the literary world extended beyond his business, as he sponsored the Leon Rook Award, leaving an indelible mark on the literary community. In 2011, Steven and Jennifer made the move to Welland, where he continued to embrace life with open arms. Although he possessed a rough exterior, his heart was filled with empathy and compassion for those around him.
Steven thrived on taking risks and relished competition, never willing to settle for a life within the confines of a cubicle.

Dawn, congratulations on your recent election as the President of The Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers! Some of us have met you before at ILAB congresses and fairs, but for those who have not met you, could you share your background, how you entered the world of rare books, and describe your business?

Thanks Angelika! My background is in the performing arts and academia, running retreats and workshops; writing, performing, and producing. For some time, I was the artistic director of the Australian chapter of the Magdalena Project, an international network of women in the performing arts. I have undertaken doctoral studies in feminist performance, and for a long time I have been interested in the multitude of ways in which people make meaning in their lives. I never planned to become a bookseller, but I have always been a reader and lover of books.

I entered the world of antiquarian bookselling when I married Hamish Alcorn. He had just bought Archives Fine Books, a large second-hand bookstore in the heart of Brisbane’s central business district. Since 1985 it has occupied the entire ground floor of a heritage listed building at 40 Charlotte Street. There are approximately 300,000 books on the shelves at any given time. Most of this stock is NOT searchable online but is organised by subject and alphabetised by author. Managing this incredible space and volume is the work of Hamish and our staff. This “temple of logos” exerted an irresistible gravitational force on my being, and it was inevitable that I was eventually sucked into its orbit.

A pivotal moment on my journey towards full-time antiquarian bookselling was attending CABS in 2015. I cannot speak highly enough of its focused programme, and the generous, experienced, and informative faculty. I had helped design our website and started to catalogue our stock, but I was swimming in a sea of questions. Attending CABS provided some important answers and opened my eyes to a world of possibility. For the first time in my life something genuinely interested me as much as theatre craft.

Looking for more opportunities to grow I applied for the ILAB mentoring programme and was paired with Sally Burdon of the Asia Bookroom (Canberra). I highly recommend this programme to any bookseller looking to develop understanding of and expertise in the world of rare and antiquarian books. If CABS was a pivotal experience, the ILAB mentorship affirmed and cultivated my new direction.

Archives Fine Books has survived by being a generalist bookstore catering to a wide clientele. Over time, however, our focus in the rare and collectible side of the business has tended towards poetry, literature, history, philosophy, and the arts. I have heard that poetry doesn’t sell, but I have personal passion for it, and the more poetry I catalogue, the more poetry collectors I meet. I find this deeply satisfying.

Given the demands and responsibilities of leading an association, what motivates and inspires you to dedicate your time and efforts to furthering the interests of antiquarian booksellers?

Antiquarian booksellers occupy a unique and important place in the ecosystem of culture worldwide. We are guardians of the human impulse to understand the world and our place in it and to write it down. I want to defend and celebrate this.

When I was first asked to serve on the ANZAAB Board I felt honoured that others perceived I might have a contribution to make. I also saw it as an opportunity to “give back” to an association that had already given me so much. From the start I have been supported to grow as a bookseller by the generosity of colleagues much more experienced than myself. I was supported by ANZAAB to attend CABS in 2015 and by both ANZAAB and ILAB to attend the Pasadena ILAB Congress in 2018. The deeply collegial nature of our trade is professionally rewarding and personally satisfying. I take delight in the ideas of my fellow board members and enjoy working with them. In 2025 we will be hosting the ILAB President’s Meeting in Melbourne, and we are just starting to plan the 50 th Anniversary of ANZAAB celebrations for 2027.

How have you observed the trade evolving over the past few years since you joined the world of rare books? Are there any notable trends or changes that you believe are shaping the market for rare books?

I entered the trade when many were sounding the death knell for the open bookstore and for books in general. Many specialty bookstores around us closed or moved their stock online. Readers moved from print books to e-books and then many returned to print. Collectors are increasingly younger, and I find I am responding to diverse collection enquiries. I don’t yet feel experienced enough to predict market trends. My curiosity about what print material younger collectors are gathering and my desire to encourage them has led to the establishment of the Archives Fine Book Collecting Prize for young collectors. Ask me again after we have run the prize for ten years and I might have more to say about that.

In your opinion, what role does education play in promoting awareness and appreciation for antiquarian books, and do you plan to enhance these aspects within the association?

I think education is very important. In an era where there are shrinking opportunities for people to apprentice themselves to a bookseller in an open bookstore, courses like CABS, YABS, and rare book schools are invaluable. Since attending CABS in 2015 I have been keen to see an educational initiative specifically for booksellers established in our region. We don’t have the volume of booksellers to support an annual week-long event, but ANZAAB has partnered with the 2024 Australia and New Zealand Rare Book School to provide a bursary for a bookseller to attend the course of their choice.

ILAB has also generously agreed to support a bookseller residing outside Australia to attend. The 2024 Rare Book School is being hosted by the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne and will run from February 4-9 (links below).

For some time ANZAAB has supported a member to attend an ILAB Congress. We see this as an educational and relationship building opportunity for members wishing to expand their horizons. Tim White of Books for Cooks (Melbourne) was the recipient of the bursary to attend the Oxford Congress in 2022, and we will shortly be announcing the successful applicant to the 2024 ILAB Congress in Amsterdam.

ILAB national association presidents will meet in July 2025 in Melbourne for the ILAB Presidents’ Meeting; we look forward to meeting you and your colleagues in Australia.

The ILAB Committee thanks you and your colleagues for your efforts in organizing such a meeting.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming you to Australia!

Dr. Dawn Albinger
President
Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers

FURTHER LINKS

https://anzaab.com/

https://www.anzrbs.org/2024-anzrbs-courses

https://www.anzrbs.org/bursaries-awards

Interview: Angelika Elstner

Well-known bookseller and highly engaged supporter of the trade, Deborah Coltham will now steer the ship for the ABA for the coming two years.

After graduating from St Andrews University in 1994 with an MA in English Literature and Medieval History, Deborah joined Pickering & Chatto Ltd as an apprentice to the Head of the Science and Medicine Department, subsequently taking over the role in 1998. She established Deborah Coltham Rare Books in July 2006 and continues to specialise in a wide range of scientific and medical subjects, with books by or about women being a particular area of interest. She has worked closely with major libraries, institutions and individual collectors both in the UK and worldwide. Deborah has been part of the ABA National Council since 2017, for many years in the role of Membership Secretary and Vice-President. Besides her role as president of the ABA, Deborah organises and sits on the judging panel of the ABA National Book Collecting Prize, and is a faculty member of the annual York Annual Antiquarian Book Seminar.

In September 2022, Deborah played a key role in running our very successful 2nd ILAB Symposium at the Bodleian Library's Weston Library, moderating the event.

In a recent letter to members, Deborah looks back at the past few - stormy - years, when the book trade had to weather the unprecedented pandemic and many changes and challenges resulting from it.

It is with immense pride that I write to you in my new capacity as ABA President, having been elected to take over the role from Pom Harrington at the AGM last Wednesday. I am delighted that Bernard Shapiro was duly elected as Vice President, and that Daniel Crouch was happy to remain in post as Treasurer.

I am fortunate to be taking over the role in much calmer waters than in 2021. Pom has worked tirelessly on behalf of the ABA, not only during his Presidency, but for many years, and the trade as a whole has benefitted enormously from his forward thinking, dedication and dynamism. Thank you, Pom, for all that you have done, and all that you will no doubt continue to do on behalf of the rare book trade, and more formally in your role as the Chair of Firsts London. I have a hard act to follow!

Thanks too, must go to Daniel, whose fiscal prudence, and the triumphant ILAB Congress, means that we find ourselves in a more stable position than for some time. Especial thanks to Riley Grant: the number of personal tributes paid to her within the recent annual reports is a clear testament to how much we all rely on her, and the excellent job she does on our behalf as the first point of call for the Association.

May I also take the opportunity to thank Roger Treglown, who has stepped down from Council. First elected in 2000, he has taken on a number of roles, culminating in his Presidency from 2019-2021. The pandemic made for a challengingly two years and denied him an official hand-over to Pom, and so it was good that we could offer him our thanks and appreciation in person last Wednesday. Angus O’Neill is also stepping away from his advisory role on the Management Committee after several years. Recently elected as Vice President of ILAB, alongside Christopher Bailey as ILAB Treasurer, their roles ensure that the ABA will retain its prominent position internationally.

As a trade association, we have a wealth of knowledge and experience amongst our members that is second to none, and which forms the bedrock of the Association. We have a growing number of dealers setting out on their own, or gaining experience in established firms, and who bring with them new ideas and ways of connecting with customers. A number of those entering the Association are graduates of YABS, the brainchild of Anthony Smithson and Alice Laverty of Keel Row Books, with fellow director Jonathan Kearns. Now under the aegis of the ABA Educational Trust, I am sure that it will no doubt continue to prove to be an invaluable conduit for potential new members of the future.

Turning to book fairs, which are so vital and important to many of us, thanks to all who exhibited at Edinburgh. As always, it was pleasure to visit, albeit fleetingly, and it was good to see a steady stream of visitors, and the number of younger collectors in evidence which was encouraging to see. ...

So many members quietly work behind the scenes to help promote the Association, for which many thanks. It does not go unnoticed if perhaps not always trumpeted.

We have many wise heads and smart business brains sitting on Council, who represent the many facets of the book trade from several parts of the country, including sole traders working from home, smaller independent shop owners, long-established family firms, and larger, globally recognised companies. All care passionately about our trade and are extremely active and motivated. I may be the visible spokesperson for the next two years, but it is very much a collective effort, and we are all looking forward to the months ahead.

Deborah Coltham
ABA President

When the fair first started in 1957, Attenborough was abroad filming along the Great Barrier Reef; this year he is cutting the tape, officially opening the event’s sixty-first outing. He is, as he put it, “unabashedly a collector”; he bought his first rare book when he was fifteen. It was On the Origin of Species, naturally – not the first edition but the sixth, in which Darwin introduced the word “evolution”.

To a collector, the specifics of different editions matter deeply, far more than they do to the general reader. They are an important element in the complex of features that determine how well a book fits one’s collection, how badly one wants it. Walter Benjamin observed that “the period, the region, the craftsmanship, the former ownership – for a true collector the whole background of an item adds up to a magic encyclopedia”. As Attenborough notes wryly, one doesn’t necessarily collect books in order to read them.

This year the fair takes place in an exhibition centre in the middle of Battersea Park. It is vast. A hundred and eighty bookdealers have set up stalls, transporting their wares from Vienna, Vancouver, Sydney, San Francisco, among other places. These include your straightforward high-end treasures: an exquisite hand-coloured first edition of Vesalius, yours for £850,000; a Kelmscott Chaucer, £60,000; various early Shakespeare folios. There are also association copies: Alan Rickman’s Harry Potterbooks; one of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories signed by Ringo Starr. A fair few of the dealers specialize in modern first editions: Woolf’s Kew Gardens, set, printed and stitched by the Woolfs themselves; Joyce’s Ulysses in its Greek blue covers. It is like walking around the gallery of a major library, with the added thrill of knowing that, if you just sold one your vital organs, you might take home one of the exhibits.

>> This article was first published in the Times Literary Supplement and is reposted here with permission of the editor. View original article here.

Jean-Marc, congratulations on your appointment as President of SLAM. Please give us a little background about yourself and your background in the trade?

I was born into a family of bibliophiles and was made aware of antiquarian books from an early age. I made my first significant purchase, a 16th century edition of Dante, when I was only 15 years old, spending all my savings, and since then the passion for antiquarian books has never left me. Like many of us, I had another profession before becoming a bookseller in 1998. I was then an engineer in a large French company but my consuming passion led me to give up this career and I chose to create an antiquarian bookshop in a small village of Touraine with beautiful Renaissance houses. From the start I specialised in 16th and 17th century books, the Renaissance being for me a particularly fascinating period in terms of ideas, beautiful editions and creative bindings. Since then I have published more than 50 catalogues, all of which contain a significant proportion of works on humanism and the Renaissance.

Jean-Marc, félicitations pour votre nomination au poste de président du SLAM. Pouvez-vous nous donner un bref aperçu de vous-même et de votre parcours dans le métier ?

Je suis né dans une famille de bibliophiles et j'ai été sensibilisé dès mon plus jeune âge au livre ancien. J'ai fait mon premier achat significatif, une édition de Dante du XVIe siècle alors que je n'avais que 15 ans en dépensant toutes mes économies et depuis la passion du livre ancien ne m'a plus quittée. Comme beaucoup d'entre nous, j'ai exercé une autre profession avant de devenir libraire en 1998. J'étais alors ingénieur dans une grande entreprise française mais ma passion dévorante me conduisit à renoncer à cette carrière et je choisis alors de créer une librairie ancienne dans un petit village de Touraine aux belles maisons Renaissance. Je me spécialisai dès le début dans les ouvrages des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, la Renaissance étant pour moi une période particulièrement fascinante tant sur le plan des idées que pour la beauté des éditions et la créativité des reliures. Depuis j'ai publié plus de 50 catalogues de livres anciens qui contiennent tous une part significative d'ouvrages sur l'humanisme et la Renaissance.

The past two years were exceptional for every bookseller in the ILAB network. How would you describe the rare book trade in France coming out of the pandemic?

The last two years have been very special because of the pandemic. Some colleagues have been adversely affected by the temporary closure of their shops, but on the whole the profession has fared well. Indeed, customers did not stop buying old books, and I would even say that many of us felt an increased interest in books during this period. We are all used to selling by mail order, and even if direct sales at fairs and in shops have slowed down, mail order sales have been strong. To compensate for shop closures, we at SLAM had set up "e-Salons" which allowed our members to present two or three times a year singular works at virtual events instead of fairs, and monthly "e-Rendezvous" in which everyone could exhibit and sell a few selected works. These new ideas were successful both with the booksellers and the customers who followed these events with interest. This year we have decided not to renew the monthly e-Rendezvous, which were no longer justified, but we have kept the "e-Salons" which still attract many customers.

Les deux dernières années ont été exceptionnelles pour tous les libraires du réseau LILA. Comment décririez-vous le commerce du livre rare en France au sortir de la pandémie ?

Les deux dernières années, ont été très particulières, du fait de la pandémie. Certains confrères ont été pénalisés par la fermeture temporaire de leur boutique, mais dans l'ensemble la profession a tiré son épingle du jeu. En effet les clients n'ont pas pour autant cessé d'acheter des livres anciens, et je dirai même que nous sommes nombreux à avoir ressenti un surcroit d'intérêt pour le livre durant cette période. Nous sommes tous habitué à vendre par correspondance, et même si la vente directe sur les salons et dans les boutiques a marqué le pas, les ventes par correspondance ont enregistré un rythme soutenu. Pour compenser les fermetures de boutique, nous avions mis en place au SLAM des "e-salons" qui permettaient à nos membres de présenter deux à trois fois par an des ouvrages singuliers lors d'événements virtuels en remplacement des foires, et des "e-rendez-vous" mensuels dans lesquels chacun pouvait exposer et vendre quelques ouvrages choisis. Ces nouveaux moyens ont rencontré un certain succès tant auprès des libraires que de la clientèle qui a suivi ces manifestations avec intérêt. Cette année nous avons décidé de ne pas renouveler les e-rendez-vous mensuels qui ne se justifiaient plus, mais nous avons conservé les "e-salons" qui attirent encore de nombreux clients.

What challenges do you see in the trade but also what possibilities ?

As far as the return to normality is concerned, it is obvious that the pandemic has left its mark on people's minds. And some traders have become accustomed to selling in a different way, especially on the Internet. The return to the shops and trade fairs is proving to be complicated: the pandemic is not yet completely behind us and other habits have been adopted, particularly by customers. Therefore, the number of visitors to salons has not returned to the level of the years before the pandemic, and the same is true for shops. However, I do not believe that this model is outdated. Some customers have lost the habit of crossing the threshold of a bookshop or coming to a book fair, but new customers have become interested in antiquarian and collectible books during the pandemic and will one day have the desire to see and hold books to make their choice. I think that attendance at fairs will gradually return to normal and that booksellers should not be discouraged but should instead encourage customers to attend again, convincing them that this is still the best way to make exciting discoveries while benefiting from the advice of professionals.

Over time, we have all noticed that Internet sales have continued to grow while the number of people visiting bookshops has fallen. For my part, I believe that we must be careful to rebalance our sales methods: abandoning book fairs and shops would ultimately be a mistake. Mail order sales ensure the financial sustainability of our businesses in the short term, but they are not the best way to educate and train new customers. Trade fairs, such as the one organised annually by SLAM, allow a great many people to see and touch books, some of whom will be tomorrow's customers. We also have the opportunity at these events to demonstrate our skills and ability to guide our customers in building their collections. We must collectively work to attract new clients and ensure the continuity of our profession in the future. The new tools at our disposal must not make us forget that direct contact with books remains the best way to create new vocations.

Quels défis voyez-vous dans le métier, mais aussi quelles possibilités ?

En ce qui concerne le retour à la normale, il est évident que la pandémie a laissé des traces dans les esprits. Et certains marchands se sont habitués à vendre autrement, notamment sur Internet. Le retour vers les boutiques et les salons s'avère compliqué : la pandémie n'est pas encore complètement derrière nous et d'autres habitudes ont été prises, notamment par les clients. Aussi la fréquentation des salons n'est pas remontée au niveau des années précédant la pandémie, et il en est de même pour les boutiques. Néanmoins, je ne crois pas que ce modèle soit pour autant périmé. Certains clients ont perdu l'habitude de franchir le seuil d'une librairie ou de venir chiner sur un salon, mais de nouveaux clients se sont intéressés au livre ancien ou de collection durant la pandémie et auront un jour le désir de voir et de prendre en mains des livres pour faire leur choix. Je pense que la fréquentation des salons reviendra progressivement à la normale et que les libraires ne doivent pas se décourager mais au contraire inciter les clients à se déplacer à nouveau, les convaincre que cela reste encore le meilleur moyen pour faire des découvertes passionnantes tout en profitant des conseils des professionnels que nous sommes.

Au fil du temps, nous avons tous constaté que les ventes sur Internet n'on cessé de croître tandis que l'affluence dans les librairies étaient en baisse. Pour ma part, je crois qu'il faut faire attention à rééquilibrer un peu nos modes de vente : délaisser les salons et les boutiques serait à terme une erreur. Les ventes par correspondance assurent à nos commerces une pérennité financière à court terme, mais ne sont pas le meilleur moyen pour sensibiliser et former de nouveaux clients. Les salons, comme celui qu'organise annuellement le SLAM permettent à de très nombreuses personnes de voir et de toucher des livres parmi lesquelles certaines seront les clients de demain. Nous avons aussi l'occasion lors de ces manifestations, de montrer nos compétences et notre capacité à guider nos clients dans la constitution de leur collection. Nous devons collectivement œuvrer pour intéresser de nouveaux clients et assurer la continuité de notre profession dans l'avenir. Les nouveaux outils mis à notre disposition ne doivent pas nous faire oublier que le contact direct avec les livres demeure le meilleur moyen de créer de nouvelles vocations.

C'est la raison pour laquelle le SLAM organise chaque année à Paris un salon remarquable qui attire près de 15000 visiteurs, clients et néophytes qui peuvent découvrir durant quatre jours la diversité de la librairie française et internationale, des expositions de bibliothèques prestigieuses, des artisans des métiers du livre, qui font la richesse du patrimoine que nous défendons. Cette année encore, le Salon du Livre Rare aura lieu fin septembre au Grand Palais Ephémère, au pied de la tour Eiffel et nous espérons vous y retrouver nombreux.

Jean-Marc, many thanks for this interview.

To contact Jean-Marc Dechaud, please follow this LINK.
Image courtesy of Jean-Marc Dechaud
Interview: Angelika Elstner

This article was first published on the website of the German antiquarian booksellers association, Verband Deutscher Antiquare.

On 14 October 2019, more than 120 art dealers, gallery owners, lawyers, collectors and antiquarians met at the Munich auction house Karl & Faber to shed light on the historically and legally complex topic of Nazi looted art from the point of view of the market players.
A first.
The restitution of Nazi looted art is intensely discussed in public. Since the Washington Declaration in 1998 and the Joint Declaration of 1999, spectacular cases of restitution such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Berlin Street Scene" (Alfred Hess Collection, restituted 2006) or Paul Klee's "Swamp Carers" (Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers Collection, Comparison 2017) have made a name for themselves. In addition, the Federal Government and the Länder have taken measures, such as the establishment of the German Centre for the Loss of Cultural Assets, based in Magdeburg, and the Lost Art Database, which has been in existence since 2001, most recently the still highly controversial Cultural Assets Protection Act (Kulturgutschutzgesetz). The resulting challenges for dealers, trading in paintings, prints, books and manuscripts, are often relegated to the background. And it is precisely these questions that are of central, even existential importance for the art and antiquarian book market.

This makes it all the more important that the initiative of the Interessengemeinschaft Deutscher Kunsthandel (a joint initiative of, among others, the Bundesverband Deutscher Kunstversteigerer and the Verband Deutscher Antiquare) to organise a conference titled "Fair und gerecht? Restitution und Provenienz im Kunstmarkt". The conference was attended by leading experts of the trade. However, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Monika Grütter, had neither appeared nor sent a representative - a "devastating" finding for Prof. Dr. Michael Wolfssohn. In his introductory lecture, Wolfssohn, whose family had waived restitution even after a trial lasting more than 12 years, pleaded for a "visualization" of the injustice committed. The art objects seized from Jewish families between 1933 and 1945 as a result of persecution carried a "Kain sign", the art trade and the public were obliged to point this out. "Justice is not enough", he said, "reconciliation" was important.

Legal uncertainty

It became clear in all lectures and plenary discussions how extremely difficult, and in many cases even impossible, it can be to establish law and justice in restitution cases of Nazi looted art almost 75 years after the end of the Nazi regime. A fundamental problem is the legal uncertainty. Even the Washington Declaration, in which 44 states, 12 non-governmental organizations and the Vatican voluntarily committed themselves to locating cultural property confiscated, stolen or seized for persecution during the Nazi era, to finding the rightful owners or their heirs, and to working out a fair and just solution for restitution or compensation, cannot change this. As a "soft law" (Michael Eggert), the Washington Declaration lacks any legal certainty. There are no legally binding guidelines, complained Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Papier, former president of the Federal Constitutional Court and chairman of the so-called Limbach Commission (advisory commission in connection with the restitution of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution). Dr. Papier sees it as the duty of the Federal Government to finally establish legal certainty by means of a moderate law that takes all sides into account. In the concluding panel discussion, there were unmistakable doubts as to whether the Federal Government would take on this task in the foreseeable future. How should the Federal Republic, how should public institutions as legal successors of the Nazi state deal with claims for compensation in the case of a restitution law? What would happen if such a law were to regulate not only the compensation of Nazi looted art, but also of real estate or company shares seized as a result of persecution? Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Hellwig stated in his controversial lecture on "Developments since the Washington Principles" that one probably did not want to risk social peace.

What is "reasonable"?

Hans-Jürgen Hellwig acted as a consultant for the Cultural Property Protection Act and is now regarded as one of its harshest critics. The law had been drafted with "fake facts", because there was no evidence, for example, that Germany was a money-laundering centre for antique dealers. The legislation, he continued, concentrated one-sidedly on the perspective of the then owners of paintings, graphics and other cultural assets, but ignored the situation of today's owners and did not provide any sensible guidelines for a private restitution of looted art. The current owners are only rarely identical with the descendants of the perpetrators. Many works of art were acquired in good faith decades ago by private collectors at auctions or in the trade, without having any information that they might be Nazi looted art. The situation was different for museums and archives that already existed during the Nazi era or were considered legal successors. In this role, they would have the duty to restitute, or at least to bring about a fair and just solution for all those involved in the sense of the Washington Declaration. Other agreements would have to be found for private restitutions.

What is fair and just? This question can only be answered through careful research into the provenance of all objects, stressed Dr. Uwe Hartmann of the German Centre for the Loss of Cultural Assets and Dr. Christian Fuhrmeister of the Central Institute for Art History. If a work of art were to fill a provenance gap, it would be under general suspicion. Hans-Jürgen Hellwig explained that the new law on the protection of cultural property imposed an extended provenance inspection obligation on the art trade, which ultimately meant that a dealer could only bring a work of art onto the market "if he had previously carried out provenance research to the point of economic ruin". According to Hellwig, this was "unconstitutional". Prof. Dr. Peter Raue agreed: Essential aspects of the Cultural Property Protection Act were unconstitutional, and it would be appropriate to correct this in an evaluation process. Provenance research has been part of everyday life for every retailer for decades, especially the larger auction houses have their own departments that deal with it, explained Dr. Rupert Keim of auction house Karl & Faber and Carl-Christof Gebhardt, former employee at Sotheby's Germany. But how much provenance research is economically feasible and reasonable? Art dealers and antiquarian bookshops not only feel largely left to their own devices by the federal government on this question, and are confronted with sometimes unfulfillable demands.

Insufficient - The Lost Art Database

All the more serious was the fact that the Lost Art Database operated by the German Centre for the Loss of Cultural Property had considerable shortcomings. Criticism of the database, which since 2001 has recorded cultural objects that were stolen, transferred or relocated as a result of the Nazi tyranny and the Second World War, was expressed in almost all of the lectures of the day. The information was too general and did not allow exact identification. It also contained works of art that had already been legally sold before 1930. For an entry in the Lost Art database, unproven allegations were sufficient; in the case of unjustified claims, however, the deletion of an entry was almost impossible. This makes these issues all the more fatal in view of the central role played by the Lost Art database in the decision of restitution cases. Carl-Christoph Gebhardt and Dr. Christoph Andreas of the Frankfurt art dealer J. P. Schneider emphasized that the database had "blackmail potential". Dr. Christina Berking, spokeswoman for IG Kunsthandel, put it in a nutshell: collectors are "pushed" by the state, by the public to restitution, "the main means of pressure" is the entry in the Lost Art database.

So what's next?

At the end of a long and insightful day, Christina Berking summarized the precarious situation of the art market. So far, there have been no binding solutions for the restitution of Nazi looted art from private sources. Different standards would have to be applied for the restitution of artworks from museums and archives. Collectors and dealers should finally be included in the Limbach Commission, which had previously only discussed cases of public restitution. The Federal Government and the Länder were obliged to draw up a restitution law that took into account the conditions of the art market and the private acquisition of works of art and included a law on compensation. So far, however, the political will to do so has been missing: "The state gets the required restitution virtually free of charge".

This forces the actors of the art market, who see themselves just as committed to the Washington Declaration as the public institutions, to act on a legally unclear basis and under constantly growing public pressure. The burden of proof can only be clearly clarified in a few cases. According to Dr. Rupert Keim at the auction house Karl & Faber, 11 cases have been restituted in recent years, although the evidence in none of the cases was unequivocal. It was important to make amends, to acknowledge the injustice that had occurred and to establish legal peace.

What do the descendants of the victims and legal owners need, what do today's owners need? How can both be brought to the same table and how can a fair and just solution be found for both? The trade has an important mediating function in this pressing problem. If the state continues to leave the trade alone in its efforts to find solutions, the limits of what is reasonable will soon be reached. Fair and just - this applies to all parties involved in every respect. "We have not found any solutions today, but we have discussed many solutions," summarized Christina Berking. The Munich conference was a strong, clear signal from the art trade to face up to the responsibility of history and to tackle the resulting problems together. That gives hope for the future.

Text and Images: Dr. Barbara van Benthem, VDA

60 years a fair: "A treasure hunt with a connoisseur's eye" or "Gutenberg is to blame for everything"

These were some of the headlines in the press in earlier years for the opening of the Stuttgart Rare Book Fair, an ILAB-sanctioned fair, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

After the launch of fairs in London by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ABA) and in New York by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), the German Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Verband Deutscher Antiquare, ran its first fair in 1962, which makes the fair one of the oldest and most successful of its kind worldwide.

"It is actually quite unusual for antiquarian booksellers to go public. Last year's success, however, justifies the undertaking: Not only is a larger group of interested parties and buyers made aware of the work of the antiquarian booksellers. The market generally gains a stronger, independent weight alongside the book and art markets," wrote the German Handelsblatt in 1963, for example.

60 continuous years of this rare book fair are also 60 years of German antiquarian and book trade history.

"Treasure hunts" and "connoisseurs' eyes" in pictures ...

Earlier this year, the ABA announced to run virtual fairs on a quarterly basis and has just finished its 3rd virtual fair of FIRSTS ONLINE. Why these additional virtual events and what is your feedback after running three fairs?

Virtual fairs including Firsts Online have provided a vital lifeline for many booksellers to showcase their stock to an international audience when many of their physical bookshops were shut during the pandemic. As mentioned, while virtual book fairs will never replace the in-person experience, Firsts Online has allowed our (ABA) members and colleagues to reach new and existing customers, trade between booksellers, and create awareness of their businesses.
We have worked hard to create a user-friendly experience for visitors to our Firsts Online website with improvements being made after each of the three fairs. Feedback from ABA members and exhibitors has been increasingly positive about the platform, demonstrating that we have a great online tool moving into the new year. We are making further adjustments ahead of the winter edition of Firsts Online fair running 18-23 February 2021.
The feedback from Firsts Online exhibitors has been that the we are getting mostly professional buyers, so dealers, librarians and the more committed collectors. The challenge moving forward into the new year will be to try to attract more new customers and a consumer audience to online book fairs.
Although we do not have a completely accurate count of business generated, we believe the June fair brought nearly £1m of trade, September over £500,000 and November £750,000. The majority of the exhibitors did some sort of business either during or after the fair. The top sales include several over £100,000. These numbers I think are significant, especially considering a stand only costs £150. For the future, how can we ignore Virtual Fairs with numbers like these?

What potential do you see in virtual fairs alongside physical fairs? Will you keep the virtual fairs running when physical fairs can take place again?

While we are all hopeful in-person book fairs will return in 2021, there is still a benefit of running these low-cost online book fairs for those who might not be able to travel abroad however do still wish to participate. At the moment, we are working with other ILAB associations to create a cohesive physical and online fair schedule for 2021 and ensure booksellers can continue to participate in book fairs in one form or another.

As to how the physical and virtual work together needs to be thought through carefully. You don’t want virtual cannibalising the physical. Also there is a matter of organisational resources. Running any fair is a serious amount of work, running two side by side will be a challenge!

Do you feel virtual fairs have changed the booksellers’ selling behaviour? Can you see long-term effects?

The concentrated nature of these events, only allowing up to 20 items forces the dealers to be more selective and thoughtful to what they are offering. I have overall been very impressed with the quality of material offered at Firsts London. It might make some more thoughtful how they present themselves at all fairs in the future.

We all want the fairs to be part of our life again. FIRSTS London will move to the Saatchi Gallery in May, an exciting new venture for the ABA! What can booksellers expect?

We are thrilled to be hosting Firsts London at Saatchi Gallery from 21-23 May 2021, where we expect to call the venue home for the foreseeable future. The decision to move to Saatchi Gallery followed overwhelming feedback from ABA members and exhibitors to secure a higher-profile location for the fair. We are very positive that the gallery's museum-quality spaces and large cultural following will offer a superior platform for exhibitors to connect with their customers. Due to the enduring effects of the covid-19 pandemic, we are working to ensure the latest health and safety guidelines will be met and the fair is safe for both our exhibitors and visitors.