In 1975, the librarian at Lambeth Palace (the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury) noticed there were gaps in the library's holdings.  He concluded that roughly 60 volumes were missing, including an early edition of Shakespeare, and several important works related to exploration and discovery such as Bry's America. The theft was reported to the police, who investigated the trail, but came up empty-handed.  Nothing more was heard about the case for nearly 40 years.

Then, in February of 2011, the books were discovered hidden away in a London attic.  The thief, who had just passed away, left a full confession with his solicitor and included directions to the attic where he hid the books.  In effect, the thief willed the stolen books back to the library.  When investigators entered the attic, however, they found many more books than the 60 originally thought missing. In the end, the final number of stolen volumes was closer to 1,400.  

The library revealed the news to the British press on Monday, after having spent the past two years conducting restoration work on the books.  Many of them were damaged by the thief, who had attempted to remove ownership markings.  Despite his efforts to obscure the provenance of the books, the thief does not appear to have sold any of them.  

While details of the theft remain unclear, it appears the thief had some sort of connection with the library at Lambeth Palace.

Sea Monsters cover low res.jpgThere are few things quite so charming as the images of sea monsters that turn up on old maps -- personal favorite: the map of Iceland surrounded by sea monsters done by Abraham Ortelius in 1585. What's charming to me, however, was terrifying to sailors for centuries.

Now those sea monsters are getting some deserved scholarly attention, thanks to Chet Van Duzer, an invited research scholar at the John Carter Brown Library and soon-to-be research curator in the geography & maps division at the Library of Congress. His new book, Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps (British Library/U. of Chicago Press, $35), is illustrated with 147 color images. Van Duzer analyzes the most important examples of this decorative cartography from the tenth century to the end of the sixteenth, examining each mapmaker's sources and influences.

Van Duzer is also the co-author of last year's Seeing the World Anew: The Radical Vision of Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 & 1516 World Maps.
Rome : A 3-D Keepsake Cityscape, by Kristyna Litten, Paper Engineering by Gus Clarke ; Candlewick Press,  $8.99, 15 pages, all ages.

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ROME: A 3D KEEPSAKE CITYSCAPE. Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Kristyna Litten. Text copyright © 2012 by Walker Books Ltd. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA on behalf of Walker Books, London.


The Keepsake Cityscape series began in 2011 with a miniature foldout guidebook to New York City. The series has since expanded to include popular destinations such as Paris, London, and Washington, D.C. Each volume is presented in a lovely little slipcase.


The most recent publication shares the pleasures of strolling through Rome, from visiting the Villa Borghese to exploring the inner workings of the Colliseum. Author-illustrator Kristyna Litten skillfully renders twelve of the Eternal City's attractions with lively and bright mixed media illustrations. 


Although these books are marketed to children, I've been collecting them from the start. They are a unique travel companion, and are small enough to tuck away in a luggage side pocket.  Most volumes have been written and illustrated by different authors, which makes these more interesting than the average mass-produced tourist novelty.  And for less than ten dollars, each of these pleated jewels can share their global tales on the same stretch of shelf.   

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Nine letters written by a young J. D. Salinger to a fellow aspiring writer in the early 1940s were recently acquired by the Morgan Library and Museum. The two year correspondence began in 1941 when Salinger was only 22 years old and experiencing his first brush with literary success with stories published in Esquire and Collier's and upcoming stories in The New Yorker. Salinger's early correspondent was Marjorie Sheard, a young Canadian woman who had read Salinger's first published stories and wrote to him seeking advice.

"Seems to me you have the instincts to avoid the usual Vassar-girl tripe," Salinger wrote to Sheard. "You can't go around buying Cadillacs on what the small mags pay, but that doesn't really matter, does it?"

Salinger's letters, which were shared with The New York TImes, contain tantalizing references to short stories that were either lost or never came to fruition.  Salinger was working on one story entitled Harry Jesus which he said would "doubtless tear the country's heart out, and return the thing a new and far richer organ."  The fate of the story remains unknown.

Marjorie Sheard, who is now 95 years old, saved the letters for 70 years in a shoe box in her closet.  She and her family recently made the decision to sell the letters in order to pay for the cost of her care.

The Morgan has declined to reveal the amount of money paid for the letters, which offer a rare glimpse into the early character of the notoriously reclusive Salinger.
At $2.5 million, Jonathan Singer's Botanica Magnifica is considered the most expensive new book ever produced. Now, you can own one for $11.95.

Botanica.jpgThe hand-bound, double-elephant folio of flower photography was created in an edition of ten in 2008-2009 (we profiled Singer in our July/August 2008 issue). Last month, Abbeville Press published an unabridged, palm-sized "Tiny Folio" edition of Singer's masterwork. In 376 pages, there are 250 full-color photographs, with text describing each specimen's botany, geography, history, and conservation.

Singer was a New Jersey podiatrist with a great eye before his botanical photography became so popular. Using his Hasselblad camera, he began photographing rare and exotic plants. When a curator of botany at the Smithsonian saw some of Singer's images, he invited Singer to have a look at the museum's greenhouse. Singer ended up snapping 750 pictures there; he selected 250 to print and publish as Botanica Magnifica. Singer also recently published Fine Bonsai: Art & Nature.

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Primula auricle, from Botanica Magnifica

Incidentally, Abbeville Press has an impressive list of Tiny Folio editions of art/museum collections (e.g., Audubon's Birds of America, Morgan Library's Illuminated Manuscripts). Take a peek.

Images courtesy of Abbeville Press.

A crowdfunding campaign is currently underway to create a limited edition letterpress book of quotes from Leopold Bloom, protagonist of Ulysses.  Entitled The Works of Master Poldy, Yes the book will be a collaborative, trans-Atlantic effort between Jamie Murphy, a Dublin based letterpress printer and designer, and Steve Cole, a Joyce fanatic in Baltimore.  The creators hope to release the book on June 16th, a date better known to Joyce fans as Bloomsday.

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Murphy and Cole previously collaborated on letterpress broadsides inspired by Ulysses, which are now sold out.  (Cole is also behind the multimedia LiberateUlysses project, which encourages multimedia engagement with Joyce's work). Their idea for "The Words of Master Poldy" came from the source itself. Toward the end of Joyce's masterpiece, Molly Bloom references assembling a book of quotes from her husband. She declares, "somebody ought to put him in the budget if I only could remember the one half of the things and write a book out of it the works of Master Poldy yes."  

Now that the Euoprean copyright on Joyce's published materials has expired, someone can.  Murphy and Cole plan to produce the entire book by hand, using a combination of metal and wood type with their letterpress.

The book will be officially published by The Salvage Press, a newly created entity by Murphy that has the goal of "preserving, promoting and pursuing excellence in design, typography and letterpress printing." The Works of Master Poldy, Yes will be its first publication.

If you pitch into the crowdfunding campaign, a variety of perks can be had at various contribution levels.  If you want the book itself, 280 euros will secure you one of the 100 being produced. 400 euros will buy you a deluxe edition, one of twelve, which will be hand bound in quarter leather with several hidden extras.  Other perks, for less money, include postcards, posters, and broadsides.

Typically historical documents aren't seen as quick-turnaround investments, but the confirmation of the discovery of Richard III's bones in Leicester this past February turned that notion, well, on its skull. 


Case in point: at an auction in Los Angeles earlier this month, a manuscript letter signed by the short-lived royal monarch sometime in the 1470s, was bid up to $43,681 in extended online and phone bidding (the actual purchase price is $52,417, adding in the 20% buyers' premium). The auction house, Nate D. Sanders, Inc., says it had 13 bids, from the United States and the United Kingdom. The buyer, Nate Sanders said, is from the UK. 


As a relatively old and rare object, the price is hardly shocking, especially considering Richard's rarity, and yet, this very same document was last seen at auction only five months ago, at Christie's London on November 21, 2012, when it sold for about $18,000 less (£16,000/$24,150, or £21,250/$33,750 with the 25% premium; our auction columnist Ian McKay covered the sale in our current issue.) Is the five-figure return in such a short period of time due to the recent exhumation and international interest in the king's skeleton? 


"He's so rare even without the recent discovery," said Sanders, who agreed nonetheless that this pre-discovery investment proved wise. 


C-Richard III.jpgThe restored paper document dates to the 1470s when Richard was in his twenties and still the Duke of Gloucester. In the pedestrian letter, he intervenes in a land dispute between the 2nd Earl of Westmorland and his tenants. The letter was once sealed with his signet ring. 


In better condition, Sanders estimated a Richard III document might sell for as much as $200,000. The scorned king's documents have been scarce at auction. Last year, Christie's estimated that fewer than a dozen early Richard III letters were known, all of them "either in public archives or now untraced." 


But with so much media attention focused on the discovery, the DNA evidence, and the debate over where the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty's remains will ultimately rest, will we see more Richard III collectibles surface?


Dickon Dearman, owner of Churchgate Auctions, in Leicester, UK, recently told the Leicester Mercury, "There's certainly been more interest following the discovery, but you'd expect that. When something like this comes into the public eye, people tend to get related items revalued and you find more items are put up for auction. It also has an effect on price - values tend to go up if things become more widely known."


Image: Courtesy of Christie's.

The fifty-third annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair welcomed booksellers from all over America, and many came from across the Atlantic as well.  French sellers presented their treasures with typical Gallic flair, charm and grace. Below I share three of my favorite bouquinistes at the Fair and some of their eye-catching wares.

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Children's and Juvenile

            More than two dozen dealers at the Fair specialized in children's books, and two were from Paris.  Michèle Noret, whose shop is nestled in the tony sixteenth arrondissement, brought lovely examples of children's literature from around the globe. Her most intriguing items were Soviet-era volumes printed for budding Communists.  One choice example was a second edition 1927 primer called Lenin for Children. Available for two thousand dollars, the book includes thirty-one full-page illustrations by Russian painter Boris Mikhailovitch Kustodiev, whose paintings had previously shown at the 1906 Paris Salon.  


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            Hailing from near Montmartre in the eighteenth arrondissement, Chez les Librairies Associés brought books covering a wide thematic selection (such as calligraphy and moveable books). They also enticed passers-by with beautiful children's collectibles. Among their wares were seven titles illustrated by acclaimed Russian artist Ivan Bilbin, known for his renderings of Russian folk tales. One of those volumes, from the 1937 Père Castor series, was a fine first-edition of H.A. Andersen's La Petite sirène for $350.


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 Parties and Celebrations

            Libraries Benoît Forgeot (you'll find them on rue de l'Odéon in the sixth) brought an outstanding collection of illustrated books celebrating holidays and festivals spanning the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries.  Available for a tidy $80,000, one particularly sumptuous volume was a perfectly conserved depiction of a 1688 regatta. The boating event was organized in honor of the marriage of Ferdinand de Médicis, Grand Prince of Tuscany and Yolande-Béatrice.  Fourteen gorgeously illustrated in-folio plates by Alessandro Della Via portray the extravagant festivities. An image from the book also graced the bookseller's most recent catalogue. (see below) 

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Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Joe Fay, manager of the rare books department for Heritage Auctions in Texas.

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How did you get started in rare books?

I've visited a bookstore at least once a week since I was 11 years old. There is a chain of used bookstores founded in the Dallas area called Half Price Books. There were two in my childhood hometown of Arlington, Texas. Between HPB, the little paperback shop down the street from my house, and the school library, my interest in books started young. My interest in rare books and manuscripts, however, began while in college in Austin, specifically the day when I learned that I could go to the Harry Ransom Center and hold in my hands the original manuscript for a Sherlock Holmes story ("A Scandal in Bohemia"). I couldn't believe that I could just walk in the building, show them an ID, and get to read what, to me, is a priceless artifact of literary history. Later, while working at Half Price Books just after college, I ran into the Nicholas Basbanes books, the books about rare books by the Goldstones, the Rosenbach biography, and many other books-about-books in that vein. These tales of the rare book trade, the landmark auctions, and the people who inhabited this world further stoked an interest in working in the field of rare books. Then, after working a "real job" for awhile in medical informatics (yeah, it's as exciting as it sounds), an opportunity came open at Heritage for an entry-level position in the Americana department. I jumped at the chance to work with objects of all types that ran the gamut of American history. Six or eight months later, my current boss, James Gannon migrated to Heritage Auctions from the recently-closed (and now revamped) Heritage Book Shop in Los Angeles. I volunteered to be his lieutenant, and the rare books department at Heritage Auctions was born.

What is your role at Heritage? Do you have a particular specialty?

I currently serve as the manager of, and one of the consignment directors for, the rare books department. I solicit consignments of rare books for our catalogs and also our weekly Internet auctions. On top of that, I manage our catalog production, serve as the main customer service contact for our department, and generally do whatever is necessary, including cataloging books for the main sales once the deadline has passed. I also handle appraisals, purchase the occasional collection for re-sell at auction, and travel all over the country securing consignments, and attending book fairs and appraisal fairs.

As an auctioneer, it really doesn't pay to specialize. We see such a broad spectrum of material in printed books and manuscripts of all eras, maps, prints, original art, and more that we have to be generalists. I especially enjoy handling handpress period books and early American imprints, and have been able to learn more deeply about each from classes at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. My particular personal interests are in genre fiction from the Romantic period to the present, including science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and most importantly, horror: Polidori and Shelley; the Sherlock Holmes books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Arkham House imprints; H. P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. And then all of the side roads, back alleys and dark, deserted streets that fork off from those subjects.

What do you love about book auction events, or more broadly, the book auction business?
 
There are many things to love about the book auction business. First, I'm lucky enough to work with books each day. I get to travel quite a bit, too. Also, as some of the other book dealers who've appeared in this series have said (and it holds true for the auction business), I just never know what I'm going to see next, what's going to come across my desk each day, what kind of collection will be revealed in the next phone call, or what that Excel file attached to the next email will contain. No two days are remotely alike. Further, I generally just love talking about books with collectors and dealers, finding out what someone collects and trying to fill vacancies for them in their holdings. I often get to do this once the catalog is completed, and we start "selling the sale." Lastly, there's an excitement to auction day that is almost electric, at times. Sitting in the room last week in New York when the Francis Crick Nobel Prize medal sold for over $2 million, my hands were shaking as the increments climbed. Then, when the hammer fell, I felt my heart start again as the applause rolled through the crowd. We also set two world records at auction last week, one for an unsigned first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and one for an inscribed copy of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (inscribed to W. W. Jacobs, author of "The Monkey's Paw"). Those are the kinds of results I'll remember fondly even decades from now.

Favorite rare book that you've handled?

On a personal level, my single favorite book that I've handled at Heritage was the first book Stephen King ever signed, an advance proof copy of Carrie that King inscribed to his former college roommate, Phil "Flip" Thompson. It sold last year at our New York auction for $11,250. The inscription reads, "For Flip and Karen - two of the best there are - and I mean that - by the way, this is the first book I've signed in my life - it's kind of fun. All the best, no matter what. Stephen King February 4, 1974." Are you kidding me!? I'm a nostalgic fool, and sometimes it seems like Stephen King WAS my childhood. His books, and the films made from them, permeated the culture when I was growing up, and to hold the first book he ever signed was a religious moment for me.
 
What do you personally collect?

It's changed over the years. At some point in the past, I've collected baseball cards, comic books, bookmarks, Star Wars toys, foam fingers from sporting events, chess sets, craft beer, movies, movie posters, silk-screened music posters, and Mr. Potato Heads. I still collect movie posters (generally genre movies and anything printed in the early days for the original Alamo Drafthouse), art made by my kids (which all but wallpapers the house and I LOVE it!), and a friend of mine recently introduced me to the wonderful world of mid-century furniture. I think I've finally settled on a few areas of book collecting, namely books about books, Lovecraft, Bradbury and King, scholarly works regarding the Sherlock Holmes stories, McSweeney's publications, and any imprints, posters or ephemera published by the Harry Ransom Center (or the Humanities Research Center as it was once known).

I have a grand dream that someday I'll have the time and wherewithal to collect together in one place every single printed and recorded expression of horror from the 1980s: novels, story collections, periodicals, posters, videos, ephemera, you name it. But I probably won't live that long, make nearly enough money, or be able to stretch my wife's patience that far.

Thoughts on the present and future of book auctions?

First of all, the "book" is here to stay. Period. And I'll stand up and fight (with words, of course) anyone who says differently. Every generation sounds the death knell of the book, and it ain't happened yet. Book auctions are only going to get better, I think. With the Internet and tools like the Heritage online bidding platform, Heritage Live!, anyone, anywhere, at any time of day or night can bid from his or her home, office, or wherever he or she can catch a wireless signal. As technology like this helps more people grow comfortable with bidding at auction, I think you'll see it become an even bigger and more muscular vehicle for transmitting books directly to collectors and institutions.

Any upcoming auctions you're particularly excited about?

I'm always excited about our next sale, which is October 10-11 in Beverly Hills. You can see it develop at www.ha.com/6100. It is early yet, but we're working on some fantastic single items and collections for that catalog. Personally, I'm also always interested in the Illustration Art auctions (next one in July) and Movie Posters (also July, but I pay most attention to their weekly Internet auctions). Needless to say, there's always something afoot at Heritage.

Paging Sarah Michelle Gellar, a.k.a. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (who also happens to be a book collector), ... a real set of vampire-killing tools is coming to auction


Screen shot 2013-04-16 at 8.21.59 PM.pngWhat's inside is enough to scare the bejesus out of anyone. The wooden box contains three crucifixes, a bible, a mirror, a wooden mallet, a pistol, two wooden stakes, a powder-horn, three silver bullets, pliers, vials (for holy water), and a dagger decorated with ivory.  


Some believe that kits like these were sold to European travelers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to protect themselves from the undead, while others view them as souvenirs that cashed in on the popularity of Bram Stoker's Dracula, first published in 1897.   


Similar sets have occasionally turned up at auction. At Sotheby's last year, a smaller kit sold for $13,750. This one is conservatively estimated to sell for ??8,000-12,000 ($10,477-15,716) when it goes under the hammer at Christie's Paris next week.