John Ward and His Magnificent Collection
Golden Legend Inc. of Beverly Hills, California, has just published a limited edition of John Ward and His Magnificent Collection, which looks at Ward as an educator, collector, and curator. Ward devoted his life to collecting rare music scores and original editions, all of which are now at Harvard.

From the book's introduction: "The purpose of John Ward and His Magnificent Collection, call it another festschrift, is to examine and celebrate John Ward's labors since his retirement. In these twenty five years, his second career continues the first and expands his work as a collector and curator of a vast and internationally important collection of original music and dance material for the Harvard University libraries."

Edited by bookseller Gordon Hollis, the 168-page book contains an introduction by Hollis and a transcription of an engaging interview between Hollis and Ward. It also contains chapters by noted antiquarian music dealers John and Jude Lubrano ("La Chasse et Le Professeur; or, Reminiscences of Four Decades on the Prowl"), Sir Curtis Price ("Origins of the King's Theatre Collection"), and Professor D.W. Krummel ("Lutebooks on the Loose"), among other curators and librarians.

The edition of 200 in hardcover costs $75 and may be ordered directly from Golden Legend. All profits will go to the Harvard Theatre Collection.

To read more about antiquarian music collecting, check out the feature written by Joel Silver from FB&C's May issue.  
curtis price, d.w. krummel, golden legend, harvard theatre collection, harvard university, houghton library, joel silver, john and jude lubrano, john ward, lubrano music, music antiquarian, music collection
Trash to Treasure
A few days ago, this story popped up in the AP about a trove of nineteenth-century architectural drawings of Central Park features and other public spaces in New York City. It seems that a New Jersey real estate broker named Sam Buckley, who inherited the documents from his father, recently placed many of them with Christie's for an upcoming sale. Buckley said his father told him he found them in a city dumpster sometime before 1960. Now seen as priceless city archives, "The city asked a court to order the drawings turned over or award at least $1 million in damages" reported the AP. My reaction to that is, "What?!" I would love to hear what our readers think.

800px-Angel_of_the_Waters_Fountain_and_Bethesda_Terrace,_Central_Park.jpg
Bethesda Fountain and Terrace in NYC's Central Park. Drawings of these features by
architect Jacob Wrey Mould are the subject of legal wrangling. Credit: Alonso Javier Torres. 

Incidentally, in this month's digital edition, I reviewed David Howard's new book, Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic which touches upon the same issues. How can anyone determine how an historic document was acquired 50 or 150 years ago? How much time can pass before cities, states, or governments are no longer able to make ownership claims? Particularly if they never attempted to get to back (e.g. in North Carolina), or never even knew it existed (e.g. in New York), or discarded it back in the days when 'institutional archives' were attics and basements with poor security and little professionalism.  

architectural drawings, archives, associated press, bethesda terrace, bill of rights, central park, christie's auction, david howard, historic document, jacob wrey mould, lost rights, sam buckley
America's largest book collection for sale?
You may soon have an opportunity to purchase America's largest collection of books. The asking price will be steep and you will have to compete with one of Forbes' "400 Richest Americans."

Barnes and Noble announced on August 3rd that it is thinking of selling itself. Why? The push may be coming from billionaire Ron Burkle, who likes to buy and sell supermarket chains and is part owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's been acquiring stock in Barnes and Noble since 2008, although he is not a majority shareholder.

Most discussions about bookstores eventually head down one conversational aisle: e-books. Burkle is convinced that Barnes and Noble should become - wait for it - a consumer electronics company.  He doesn't just mean that Barnes and Noble's e-book reader, NOOK, should compete more heavily with Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad, he feels that Barnes and Noble stores should go all out and become a retailing hydra: selling books, e-book readers and consumer electronics products from Hewlett-Packard. (Think Apple Stores with "Twilight" and Dan Brown novels over near the restroom.)

Burkle has been involved in a nasty proxy lawsuit with the Barnes and Noble board. The Delaware judge overseeing the fight, Vice Chancellor Leo Strine, struck down Burkle's suit, writing in his ruling, "At bottom, Yucaipa is simply positioning an absurd scenario at best fit for a discussion by a Red Bull fueled group of nerdy second year law school corporate law junkies, who find themselves dateless (big surprise) on yet another Saturday night."

Ouch.  Talk about being kicked in the nook.

Apple, Barnes and Noble, Burkle, Kindle, NOOK, iPad
Book Culture From Below

The 18th annual conference for the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing begins on Tuesday in Helsinki, Finland. Titled "Book Culture From Below," the conference's focus is book culture among 'everyday' readers (peasants and proletarians). More than 250 scholars from various fields will delve into topics like Twentieth-Century Reading and Book Markets, Private Libraries in Rural Cultures, Publishing Fairy Tales in New Contexts, Transmission of Books and Manuscripts, and Materiality of Books, among others. The program lists numerous panel discussions and lectures (with links to PDF documents that contain abstracts on each topic). A few of the events will be available through webcasts. 

Book historians doing webcasts? In a recent email, SHARP's vice-president, Dr. Ian Gadd of Bath Spa University wrote, "SHARP 2010 in Helsinki will be the most online SHARP conference yet, with webcasting, Facebook, Flickr photographs, and Twitter." So there are ways for those of us with an interest (that is not necessarily academic) to participate in this fascinating conference. 

It should also be noted that SHARP recently redesigned its website, which is now a scholarly nook for book history news, academic events, and research guides.  

SHARP, academic conference, authorship, bath spa university, book culture, book history, fairy tales, ian gadd, manuscripts, private libraries, publishing history
The Sound of the Color Red

I sometimes encounter at book fairs, trade shows and the like, book collectors who complain that "there's nothing new to collect."  This often is after these collectors have come away empty-handed from such affairs, despite several hours spent wandering concrete floors.

Perhaps the subjects or authors they collect are subjects and authors other collectors also collect.  This can lead to depleted bookseller inventories, to much higher prices than they are accustomed to (or willing to) pay, and so forth.  
 
It is then that such collectors often seek what John Carter termed New Paths in Book Collecting--which is to say, there must be some interesting author or subject out there that no other book collector has yet latched on to--something that can be collected comprehensively, and relatively inexpensively, because no one else is yet collecting it.  But what?
 
Hello...!  Have you ever heard of libraries?!  What about bookstores?!  A few hours of wandering aimlessly about either of these will expose you to countless collecting possibilities.
 
Oops.  "My bad!"  I forgot that municipalities nationwide are shuttering their libraries.  And are just as rapidly withdrawing their support for brick-and-mortar independent bookstores.  So much for serendipity.
 
Or not.  The Internet is brimming with serendipity, as anyone can vouch for who has ever wasted time on social networking sites like StumbleUpon.  Consider, for example, the book collecting possibilities of a topic I recently came across in just such a serendiptious manner, synesthesia … .
 
According to MedicineNet, synesthesia is a medical condition in which normally separate senses are not separate. Sight may mingle with sound, taste with touch, etc. The senses are cross-wired. For example, when a digit-color synesthete sees or just thinks of a number, the number appears with a color film over it. A given number's color never changes; it appears every time with the number. Synesthesia can take many forms. A synesthete may sense the taste of chicken as a pointed object. Other synesthetes hear colors.
 
Why collect books about this subject (assuming oneself or a loved one does not have this condition)?  Well, for one thing, the printed literature is not that vast. The earliest reference I could locate was a pamphlet published in 1820.  Most of the literature dates from the mid-20th century onwards.  Not more than a few hundred titles altogether.
 
Moreover, the majority of these titles do not appear to be particularly expensive (a couple of typical examples are depicted below).
 
Articles about synesthesia might also warrant some space on one's bookshelves--many of these are readily available electronically (although the more scientific articles often require payment for access).  As with books, the literature is not that vast...yet.
 
Of course, someone may already have beaten you to the punch, and is furiously collecting everything he or she can about synesthesia … .
book collecting, book collector, book history, books, home library, private library
Jefferson/Hemings document
In the current issue of Drew Magazine (of Drew University in Madison, NJ), editor Renee Olson brings to light a document buried deep in the university's archives, a document I had the pleasure of holding in my hands when I worked on the Drew Library's Gibbons collection back in 2004 and 2005. Her article, "Paper Cuts," describes a racist caricature and poem about Sally Hemings that Thomas Gibbons owned. Gibbons, a wealthy Southern planter, mayor, and steamboat magnate, was notoriously anti-Jeffersonian. The drawing is titled "Mrs. Sally Jefferson." The artist/poet can only be guessed at, and until recently, the document itself was unknown to all but a few Drew librarians and researchers. When Olson spoke to Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses: An American Family, she was told that only two other representations of Hemings are known. 
annette gordon reed, drew magazine, drew university, gibbons collection, historic document, racist caricature, renee olson, sally hemings, thomas gibbons, thomas jefferson, university archives
New Collectors Guide Online

The Raab Collection, historic document dealers located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has just published a new catalogue titled Great Collections: The 19th Century. Fully accessible online, the new guide includes chapters on how to build a collection, tips on preserving, displaying, loaning, or donating items, and highlights from their 19th-century holdings. "Our goal is ... to demonstrate the scope and nature of a great collection and to arm the reader with the tools to create one." For collectors, history buffs, or genealogists who are just beginning to build a collection and need advice on things like archival framing, acid-free binders, and insurance riders, this handy and well-illustrated guide is perfect. The images and  descriptions of several noteworthy autographs and historic documents make for enjoyable perusing, and, as an added bonus, they have reprinted an article on facsimiles that Raab recently wrote for Forbes. 

For a longer treatment of historical autographs and document collecting, Raab published a more elaborate guide last year, In the Presence of History, which is available for purchase from their site. With 178 pages and hundreds of illustrations, it is much more comprehensive and appeals to serious collectors.   

archival framing, archive, autograph collecting, autographs, collector's guide, document collecting, document collector, document facsimile, document preservation, genealogy, historic document, nineteenth century, raab collection
Booked in Baltimore

Running from Sept. 2-5 at the Baltimore Convention Center, the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show is widely recognized as the largest indoor antiques show in the U.S. It includes a 70-dealer antiquarian book fair within the show. A few of those dealers booked for Baltimore shared some highlights with us. 

The rare book department at Arader Galleries is bringing some treasures from its travel and natural history libraries at 72nd Street in New York (seen above). According to Arader's Kate Hunter, "Some of the highlights of [Arader's] collections that we will be bringing to Baltimore include Audubon's iconic The Birds of America, from Drawings made in the United States and America, published in seven volumes in Philadelphia between 1839 and 1844, this is the first octavo edition with 500 hand-colored lithographed plates after originals by Audubon, and including 65 images not found in the earlier celebrated Elephant folio edition of 1827-1838. In recording the birds of America and imbuing each image with natural grace and scientific accuracy Audubon established himself as the premier bird artist of his age and since." She said they've also packed a fine copy of Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, from the famous library of Beriah Botfield, and including 500 superbly hand-colored copper engravings. She called it "one of the most comprehensive and most beautiful records of English and exotic flora." Arader will also offer the first major work of Sir Hans Sloane, A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, with the Natural History of the Herbs and Trees... Kate Hunter invites readers to stop by stand 808 to see these (and other) rare treasures from Arader. 

Griffon's Medieval Manuscripts of St. Petersburg, Florida, will have a medieval leaf and a Piranesi print among its offerings. The leaf, seen here at left, is from an illuminated Antiphoner manuscript, Bologna, circa 1300, with a $30,000 price tag. There are seven lines of text, in a gothic liturgical hand and of music on a four line red stave. The Giovanni Battista Piranesi print titled "Veduta dell' Atrio del Portico di Ottavia" dates to 1760 and is in very good to excellent condition. Griffon's also has a rare map of early America by Henri Abraham Chatelain, as well a pristine miniature leaf from a finely illuminated Dewan, early 19th century, seen here at right. At $475, it speaks to the company's mission of introducing people to affordable art. As Dr. Anthony Griffon has written of his company, "Our goal is to attract the average person to experience a different and exciting arena of art collecting."

Ian J. Kahn of Lux Mentis Booksellers in Maine shared some stunning images of the material he's bringing to Baltimore this year. At left, Portraits of the Children of Nobility (1838) is uncommon in its full burgundy leather binding and has what Kahn called "a wonderful collection of images, each with supporting prose and poetry" for $425. A fine press book guaranteed to turn heads at Kahn's booth is Mokomaki: Thirteen Etchings of Shrunken & Tattooed Maori Heads, illustrated by Leonard Baskin and published in a numbered limited edition by the Eremite Press, 1985. Wrote Kahn about this interesting item seen below, which he is selling for $12,500: "This is one of four copies created within the 'Deluxe' first 10 copies. The 'Super Deluxe' copies were created in response to Baskin's friend (and vellum dealer) asking him if he would consider printing some of the images onto vellum. The result is inexplicably wonderful." Also at Kahn's booth will be an 1806 pamphlet titled Horrid massacre!!! that is said to be the first example of engraving for a printed book in the state of Maine, very scarce at $2,500.

For those who are also interested in art and antiques, more than 550 international dealers will be exhibiting in Baltimore, in areas such as fine art, furniture, jewelry, porcelain, textiles, and folk art. Check out the website for hours, prices, and a list of vendors. 

arader galleries, art collecting, audubon, baltimore antiquarian book fair, baltimore antiques show, book collecting, book dealer, book fair, copper engravings, elizabeth blackwell, fine press, griffon's medieval manuscripts, ian j. kahn, illuminated manuscript, kate hunter, lux mentis booksellers, medieval leaf, mokomaki, pamphlet, piranesi, rare map, sir hans sloane
Sipper Goes Online
Ralph Sipper, of Ralph Sipper Books in Santa Barbara, CA, has just launched his first (yes, you read that right) website. Welcome! Being an "old school" antiquarian bookseller for 40 years, Sipper finally agreed to bring his shop online. He said of the decision: "Old-fashioned as I am, and motivated by the enthusiasm of my daughter and son-in-law, I am moving onto the Information Super Highway in as positive way as I can muster."

His daughter, Cory, and her husband built the very attractive site. She said her father is "quite happy to have his website. Possibly, even excited. As long as it doesn't take time from handwriting and snail-mailing his business letters." Take a browse through the inventory, check out their Book of the Month, and read a fascinating interview Matthew Bruccoli did with Sipper for the Dictionary of Literary Biography, which is posted in PDF.

Ralph Sipper Books is an ABAA member that specializes in literary first editions and manuscripts.

antiquarian books, book dealer, bookseller, dictionary of literary biography, literary first editions, manuscripts, matthew bruccoli, ralph sipper
Collecting Commonplace Books
Time was when readers kept commonplace books. Whenever they came across a pithy passage, they copied it into a notebook under an appropriate heading, adding observations made in the course of daily life.... Unlike modern readers, who follow the flow of a narrative from beginning to end, early modern Englishmen read in fits and starts and jumped from book to book. They broke texts into fragments and assembled them into new patterns by transcribing them in different sections of their notebooks. Then they reread the copies and rearranged the patterns while adding more excerpts. Reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities. They belonged to a continuous effort to make sense of things, for the world was full of signs: you could read your way through it; and by keeping an account of your readings, you made a book of your own, one stamped with your personality....
 
A considerable scholar in his own right, Robert Darnton, source of the above quotation, probably would appreciate his own words being commonplaced.  There was a time, after all, when capturing and commenting upon particularly apt quotations was the very essence of a well-rounded education.
 
Known as early as the 14th century, commonplace books came into their own in the 1600s, and they continued as a popular pedagogical device well into the 20th century. Over the centuries, the focus of such books shifted from capturing and organizing "exemplary" thoughts and ideas to something more akin to a hodgepodge: a jumble of quotations, recipes, medical remedies, and whatever else struck one's fancy as worthy of capture and commentary. 
 
Although a number of commonplace books have found their way into print (a typical example is depicted above), many more survive only as manuscripts in institutional collections.  We are fortunate that some of these institutional collections have been digitized, so we all can appreciate them.  Harvard's Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History contains some particularly instructive examples of the commonplace book.  (For a good recent overview of the practice, see David Allan's Commonplace Books and Reading in Georgian England.)

Several scholars have suggested that blogs are direct digital descendants of the printed commonplace book.  One could make the same argument for FaceBook, Twitter and like services.  In fact, it's not much of a stretch to imagine the LOC's archive of every tweet ever made as the world's largest commonplace book....

book collecting, book collector, book history, books, home library, private library