Today I direct your attention to a speech given by Alan Bamberger (a dealer of rare and out-of-print art books and an art consultant) to the Friends of the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC. It's titled "Collecting Art Like a Pro," but I think you'll find it could very easily apply to books, or any other type of collectible.

...Regardless of how you view your collecting, whether serious or recreational, there are techniques that you can use to maximize not only the quality and value of your art, but also your own personal enjoyment, appreciation, and understanding of that art. Step one is being true to your tastes. This means acknowledging that you like certain types of art regardless of what you think you're supposed to like or what seems to be the current rage. All great collectors share this trait-- that's one thing makes their collections stand out. When personal preference is ignored in favor of the status quo, one collection begins to look just like the next. A few people dictate, the masses follow, everyone walks in lock-step, and the art you see from collection to collection becomes boring and repetitive....[Link to more]

I'm a sucker for year-end lists and I enjoyed reading Abebooks' freshly released list of its most expensive sales in 2011. The list is conveniently divided into a variety of categories--overall highest sales figures are followed by an array of genres and fields, including science fiction, mystery, photography, art, science, travel, and religion.

By far the highest grosser this year was a first edition of Das Kapital by Karl Marx which went for a little over $50,000. It doubled the price of the runner-up, a signed first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird which took in $25,000. Other notables in the top ten include a complete run of Aspen magazine ($22,900), a first edition of The Hobbit ($20,400), and a first edition of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs de Mal ($14,900). The most unique item on the list was a handwritten manuscript by John Ruskin reflecting on his reading of Thomas Carlyle which was purchased for $18,700.

A 'Secret Index' of investment-worthy autographs, you say? Yes, and it has produced a 14.84% return per year since 2000.

A Secret Index Autograph Investment Report published by Paul Fraser Collectibles of Bristol, England, tracks the forty rarest and most investment-worthy autographs in the world. The price of the average autograph from the PFC40 rose 14.84% per year. And, he notes, "The rising trend shows no sign of stopping."

Calling autographs a "mid- to long-term alternative investment that you may not have thought of before," Paul Fraser believes the market for collectibles is gaining strength, and he cites several reasons: 1) baby boomers are "nostalgia investors" who have a lot of wealth; 2) China is a nation of enthusiasts; 3) there are an estimated 200 million collectors in the world, and that is predicted to double in 20 years; 4) leading collectors continue to fight over the best pieces; 5) museums are still actively acquiring; and 6) there is a finite supply and growing demand.

Some of the autograph examples PFC offers in the Secret Index (recently featured on MSN Money) are Neil Armstrong (up 981.8% since 2000), Fidel Castro (up 22% since 2000), Walt Disney (up 22.65% since 2000), and George Harrison (up 26.10% since 2000). Other figures on the list include Salvadore Dali, Bob Dylan, and J.K. Rowling.

The earning power of these items is quite aside from the fact that autograph collecting, like book collecting, is often a personal pursuit. But the fruits of that pursuit are genuinely good investments, some better than others. It's certainly worth a look at the Secret Index!

The original manuscript of Casanova's lively memoir is on display for the first time at the National Library of France. It is the centerpiece of a new exhibition called "Casanova--the Passion for Freedom," which is open to the public through February 19, 2012 in Paris.

Casanova was an Italian by birth, but lived in France before getting himself expelled from Paris in 1760 after seducing various wives and daughters of the French royal court. Casanova's adventures led him back and forth across Europe until his death at age 73 in Bohemia in 1798. Casanova completed his 4,000 page memoirs shortly before he died.

One reason I look forward to Christmas is that I'll stock up on winter reading. Every year for the past few years, my mother-in-law graciously buys my "want list" of current fiction and non-fiction, wraps them beautifully, and presents them in a gorgeous bag (this year, a designer fabric bag by Stephanie Barnes). This is an amazing gift, because while I do buy "new" books throughout the year (binge at the Harvard Bookstore for my birthday in the spring), and I receive about two dozen books from publishers for review, I don't often splurge the time or money on bedside reading. So I've taken to keeping a list of books I know I want to read but can wait until Christmas to get.

This year, I asked for ten titles, and ten I did receive. As you'll see, books about books and literary fiction are my main genres. Some were recommended by others, some I learned about through reviews, and some are part of "collections" within my library.

How familiar are you with the literature of Christmas?

Below are snippets from five Christmas "classics." Can you identify the book or short story from which each is excerpted? Can you identify each work's author? What about each work's original date of publication?

Answers will be found at the end of this post. Have a safe and joyous holiday!

The Challenge:

(a) "Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most unpleasant,
Around the whole room, and he took every present!
Pop guns! And bicycles! Roller skates! Drums!
Checkerboards! Tricycles! Popcorn! And plums!"

(b) "[T]he butler brought in a huge silver vessel of rare and curious workmanship, which he placed before the Squire. Its appearance was hailed with acclamation; being the Wassail Bowl, so renowned in Christmas festivity. The contents had been prepared by the Squire himself; for it was a beverage in the skilful mixture of which he particularly prided himself, alleging that it was too abstruse and complex for the comprehension of an ordinary servant. It was a potation, indeed, that might well make the heart of a toper leap within him; being composed of the richest and raciest wines, highly spiced and sweetened, with roasted apples bobbing about the surface."

On display through December 31 at Bard Graduate Center's Focus Gallery in New York City, is a selection of Christmas cards that serve as "an introduction to a large artifactual and aesthetic field that until now has been largely unexplored ... These cards constitute a category of American material culture that is rich in documentary potential yet has been nearly invisible in the scholarly literature." Seen above is a modified French-fold card in green, black, and gold lithography on lightweight imitation parchment, short fold at bottom, ca. 1935, from the Bard Graduate Center exhibit and book, American Christmas Cards, 1900-1960.

An accompanying book, edited by Kenneth L. Ames, contains 375 images with text that examines their visual and cultural history. It's a perfect guide for collectors of ephemera, collectors of graphic history, and, of course, collectors of Christmas material.

Happy holidays!

Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with David Eilenberger, our first southern bookseller, and the proprietor of Eilenberger Rare Books in Durham, North Carolina.

NP: How did you get started in rare books?

DE: I was tending bar during the late 1990's, near the end of my ill-fated graduate school career in European history. Doug O'Dell of Chapel Hill Rare Books was one of my regulars. Knowing of my interest in history and writing, he hired me as a cataloger. It was a wonderful experience. The shop was a treasure trove of manuscripts, photographs, maps, and ephemera as well as rare books, and I was quickly hooked. Doug was a shrewd businessman, but saw our mission as one of scholarship as well as profit. As a result, I had free reign to research the historical context of our most important items, sometimes above and beyond what might have been strictly necessary to sell the materials. For me, the work was not just a job, but a continuation of my education. And, I hope, this intellectual curiosity made for some interesting catalogs and helped sell a few books.

Last month, I received my Walden Woods/Thoreau Institute newsletter--always a welcome piece of mail bearing good news about education and preservation at Walden Pond. Even better, this newsletter had a bit of rare book news. Bookseller Mark Stirling of Upcountry Letters, who specializes in the Transcendentalists, sold (at a discount) his personal collection of Emerson material to the Thoreau Institute. Stirling wrote to me recently, "I was pleased that the items were returning to their hometown, so to speak, and that they would be available for study."

As one would assume, the Institute's Thoreau collections are fabulous, but in Stirling's words, "it needed Emerson, his essential associate in the history of ideas." The vast collection is primarily manuscript and association items, accumulated by Stirling over the course of twenty years. Some fine examples, according to Jeff Cramer, curator of collections at the Thoreau Institute in Massachusetts, are a first edition, first state copy of Nature, a manuscript leaf from Emerson's lecture, "Reform," and one of only five hundred printed copies of An Oration, Delivered Before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837 ("The American Scholar").