Affordable Treasure and Pleasures

One of the few positive aspects of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is that it has provided many of us on LibraryThing forums with additional time to read and whittle away at our TBR lists, in many cases unwillingly. Additionally, many LT-ers are now unemployed or under-employed and the financial consequences of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc with new book acquisitions for many.

As some of you already know, when Chris Adamson's marvelous Books and Vines website was active ( or much more active) I contributed sporadic articles with a distinct barbell approach. I began one series entitled 'The Great Illustrated Private Press Books' which highlighted the most sought after, iconic private press books of the past 130 years, books which are well beyond the means of most collectors. The intent was to enabled B&V readers to bring these books into their homes without spending a king's or queen's ransom. Conversely, I also started a series entitled 'Affordable Treasures and Pleasures' which highlighted marvelous fine & private press books that were well within the means of most collectors, inexpensive treasures that may have escaped one's notice. Links to these articles are provided below:

1. https://booksandvines.com/2012/05/29/affordable-treasures-and-pleasures-no-1-act...

2. https://booksandvines.com/2012/07/10/affordable-treasures-and-pleasures-2-in-the...

3. https://booksandvines.com/2012/07/18/affordable-treasures-and-pleasures-3-the-fi...

4. https://booksandvines.com/2013/12/03/affordable-treasures-and-pleasures-4-clear-...

5a. https://booksandvines.com/2015/01/26/affordable-treasures-and-pleasures-5-the-fo...

5b. https://booksandvines.com/2015/02/09/affordable-treasures-and-pleasures-5-the-fo...

5c. https://booksandvines.com/2015/02/23/affordable-treasures-and-pleasures-the-foli...

Clearly, this is an excellent time to revive this series, providing many of you with less discretionary income post COVID-19 with wonderful books and ideas for continuing to expand your libraries and literary horizons. My game plan is to sporadically post new articles in the Affordable Treasures and Pleasures series. The books will be two-fold: either they are very inexpensive fine & private press books OR they will be books in my collection that are (imho) very interesting reads that many LT-ers are unaware of. Many (most?) of these books will not be printed letterpress; however, they will be books with marvelous book design and illustrations or books I hope will prove to be of interest to many.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised - nay, amazed - at the wonderful books available you can still afford. I also hope that these articles will encourage you to perform your own searches and due diligence to find your own 'treasures' which you can then share with this forum.

Thank you for the links and looking forward to any additions.

As much as I enjoy browsing through and reading about the wonderful "Great Private Press Books" on this forum, these affordable treasures are what I mainly seek out right now. I will certainly never own such amazing and valuable collections as many members on this board do, but it is immensely satisfying to find a gem of a book for the price of a modern paperback. Thus, I greatly enjoyed the articles on Books and Vines linked above and am very much looking forward to more of them.

I usually look on ebay for sellers (who are not professional book dealers) putting a larger number of Limited Editions Club books on auction (thus likely liquidating someone’s collection). I then search through all their other active listings. This yielded some unexpected treasures which I would probably not have discovered otherwise. They are typically extremely affordable, even compared to already low priced LECs, probably because there are less people looking for them. Here are some very diverse examples below:

Acts of Light (this is the limited edition for the one listed in the first link in post 1). It is very close to the one shown in the blog, only it has a different cover and a slipcase, contains one more color plate and is signed by the illustrator and the editor. This cost in the $20 range if I remember correctly, but I bought it a couple of years ago, so not quite sure.

Slipcase and Boards:

The slipcase is nice and sturdy, the boards have a different color and different design on the spine.

Additional Color Plate:


Limitation Page:

Not sure if my book is part of the lettered or numbered copies.

Omai is a small book by the Colt Press about the first Polynesian Ambassador to England. It was printed in 1940 on all rag paper and is handset. It is bound in batik and tapa cloths. This is the limited run of 500 copies, there seems to have been a non-limited run in 1941. It cost less than $10.

Cover:

This book seems to have been issued with different patterns to the cloth on the spine, the ones on Abebooks look different then the one I have.

Spine:


Illustration:


Prospectus:


While the first two are very enjoyable books, the one below is in my opinion the most beautiful of the three:
The Silverado Squatters 1923, Charles Scribner’s Sons – Limited run of 380 copies by John Henry Nash. I got this for $15 – my bookbinder repaired some damage to the spine ends, increasing the total cost a bit. It is one of the favorite books in my humble collection, though, so still well worth it for me.

Cover:

I am not really in love with the binding. I was considering to have it rebound, but ultimately followed the advice of my bookbinder and just inexpensively repaired the damage to the spine ends.

Page Edge:


Title Page:


Pages:


Limitation Page:


Page Detail:


Watermark:

>3 teppi2: I have one of the unlimited copies of you #2 above. Nice book and it was definitely quite cheap. However, it seems your #3 above is now going for $65 and up, more's the pity.

>3 teppi2:

Now THAT'S what I am talking about!!

These are true gems that you can unearth with a bit of diligence and imagination. Incidentally, I own No. 1 (Dickinson) and No. 3 (The Silverado Squatters) of teppi2's books and I can confidentally tell you that the John Henry Nash book is an outstanding private press book.

Nash was the dean of the great California private printers and presses, the forerunner of the Grabhorn Press, Grabhorn-Hoyem and (finally) the Arion Press, as well as the inspiration for other California private presses such as the Allen Press, the Peter and Donna Thomas Press, the Greenwood Press (Jack Stauffacher) and the Plantin Press. Nash's letterpress printing was exemplary and this book uses an excellent hand made paper as a bonus. The first page of each chapter has a beautiful wood engraved header and the colorful and tasteful patterned print cover with matching slipcase finish off a wonderful edition.

Well..........

Don't just sit there. Start hunting and treat yourselves !!!!!!!!!

>4 Glacierman: To be honest, I would buy it again in a second even for $65 and consider it a bargain. After all, that is the price of any standard Folio Society book nowadays. And as much as I love my Folios, they can't compare to this book.

>5 dlphcoracl: >6 teppi2:
That's gorgeous -- I'm even considering it on top of the Grabhorn edition of Silverado Squatters that I already own!

>6 teppi2: Well, to be sure, Nash is worth it. The temptation is great, but I am saving up for something else and must wait until I have obtained that treasure. *sigh*

>3 teppi2: Very nice. Thank you for sharing.

>1 dlphcoracl: I will use the encouragement of the Oracle to share our affordable treasures as an excuse to show off another recent find I am quite happy with (and that is readily available at a low price point).

Revolt of the Tartars by Thomas de Quincey

This is a lesser known essay by Thomas de Qunicey, describing the migration off the Kalmyks in 1771 from Russia to China.

The book was printed by the Dropmore Press (a small British private press operating from 1945 to 1955). This book was issued in 1948, and was printed on a hand press on paper hand made by Hodgkinson and Wells. It is illustrated throughout by Stuart Boyle and limited to 450 copies, 50 of which were bound in full leather and signed by the illustrator. My copy is one of the 400 unsigned books, bound in half leather.

Dust Jacket

The dust jacket of my copy is covered in Mylar, and thus in quite decent condition.

Boards

As clearly visible, this is the half leather version. The full leather version has the picture centered on the front board, but color and type of leather appear to be idential.

Spine


Text Block

The handmade paper is thick, strongly textured and quite beautiful.

Title Page


Illustration

There is one third page illustration at the beginning of each chapter, and another full page illustration per Chapter.

Details


I purchased this copy on ebay for approx $20. On abebooks, the 50 signed full leather copies appear to sell in the $150 range, and the 400 half leather ones sell from $40. I very much enjoyed this book, both for its production quality and its content.

>10 teppi2:

Ahh yes I picked this up years ago on a whim (the full leather edition for $50). Only got around to reading it this year and it's fantastic! Paper is top-notch. Illustrations are amusing and more appropriate than the illustrations for the LEC Opium Eater. If you're considering buying it, I wouldn't hold out for the full leather. Doesn't really add much over the half leather edition.

>10 teppi2: temptation... too... much...to...resist...

Interesting. I didn't know this book existed. I've never seen a half-leather edition cover so much of the boards in leather (as opposed to the corners in the classic half-leather design). Looks strange, imo. Still, a very nice edition by all appearances. I may acquire a copy. Thanks for sharing.

>10 teppi2: Couldn't resist, my copy arrived yesterday. Very nice book and so far a good read. I chose the half leather edition for under $50 including tax and shipping. Thanks for the post.

I just now saw the posts here... I, too, own one of the full leather signed copies of the Revolt of the Tartars, and it is a very well written book and a beautiful edition.
As >11 MobyRichard: said, the full leather binding and signature will not add much to your enjoyment of this book, so just aim for the cheaper version - it is still very nice.

I left my home country Germany before I started collecting books, but recently discovered the vast trove of fine press books that were produced there. While the Weimarer Republik was a high time for fine presses in Germany, there are ample treasures to be found in other time periods as well. Some of those certainly fit into the affordable treasures category.

Tierfabeln - G.E.Lessing - Privately Printed by Ludwig & Mayer

Lessing was an 18th century German writer and philosopher of the era of Enlightenment. I have to admit I do not have the best memories of Lessing's writings from time in high school. However now, many years later, I found great joy in reading these fables again. No pressure of the next graded essay (based on my writing style here you can guess those didn't come back with top grades), and hopefully a tiny bit more of an understanding of the message Lessing was trying to convey.

This book was printed in 1965 by the Schriftgiesserei Ludwig & Mayer. A Schriftgiesserei is type foundry, and although they would normally only produce the type for letterpress printing, they seem to have handled the production of the actual book in this case. Unfortunately, they ceased operations in 1984, probably due to a decrease of demand for letterpress type.

This book is illustrated with 18 full page lithographs by Kurt Steinel, most of which are individually signed by the artist. If you like his art style, look out for his illustrations for Goethe's Reineke Fuchs (Reynard the Fox).

The book is printed on Buetten Kupferdruck Papier (mould made copperplate paper) by Zerkall. This is a smooth, heavier stock, cream colored paper. Based on other threads and the list of Folio society limited editions, it appears that Zerkall mould made paper is quite commonly used for modern fine press editions. The book is quite large at 13.75" by 10.25".

Cover


Illustrations










Production Details


This is obviously not an enabling post, not only due to the language, but also as some of the production details are probably not considered quite as desirable (no handmade paper, very simple binding, no stated limitation). However, I find it an interesting showcase as an affordable book with some fine press characteristics, from a different country, and from a very unusual publisher.

This copy in somewhat imperfect condition cost in the $20 range, but I have seen a better condition one go unsold for $15 on ebay before. I think the bookseller price for a copy without any faults is in the $60 range, and there might be different binding variant available as well.

>16 teppi2:

That's tempting for me not only for the book design and illustration, but as a useful way to practise my German (never beyond conversational and much degraded now I've been out of school almost as long as I was in). Thanks for sharing.

>16 teppi2: This book looks really nice. Thank you for the enablement! I ordered the excerpts of the Decameron and "A nur ein Vokal". Currently looking into Tierfabeln.

>18 c_schelle: I would love to order those two as well. Alas, shipping from Europe to the US is still too risky right now.

Shortly after the pandemic started, I ordered Die Schriften Salomos printed by the Julius Schroeder Verlag (one of the copies in full vellum), and it is still not here. I have to assume it is lost in the mail. Now I will probably hold off any direct orders from Germany until transatlantic shipping is back to normal.

>19 teppi2: That sounds awful. That's also a book I'm interested. Do you have the shipping status? I had a book posted from the US to Germany and there was no change in Status for some weeks until it moved quite quickly from LA to Tokyo and then to Frankfurt.

>19 teppi2:
>20 c_schelle:

With the near-total cessation of international flights and air traffic/cargo, the shipping and tracking has become so problematic that I have ceased purchasing books from abroad until the COVID-19 Coronavirus issue is resolved with discovery and widespread distribution of an effective vaccine. Possible exception may be shipping between Great Britain and the United states, as the Folio Society shipments may have increased substantially in time but still manage to get through. It is what is is - caveat emptor.

>21 dlphcoracl: I can confirm that books are travelling safely across the Atlantic from West to East. Over the last 3 months I have bought several books from US book sellers, and these have arrived in the UK without any problems. The big courier companies such as Fedex are still able to deliver very fast transatlantic shipping (at a price).

>20 c_schelle: I was provided a shipping number from Holland, which only tracks data until it leaves the country. The bookseller let us know that the package was received in the US, but that was all the detail I got. I assume it is stuck/lost in customs, unfortunately as I am not the shipper, I cannot do anything to follow up. Well, there is some minimal hope that it will get released some time. As dlphcoracl correctly states, it is what it is, this is probably the least troubling thing happening during this pandemic.

Luckily I still have family in Germany - if I am willing to wait, I can at least use their address for now. Obviously I will only use this for unique items I will not be able to buy later.

I just managed to win a bid on Goethe's Pandora by Verlag Seldvyla in Zurich from 1923 (Illustrated with woodcuts by Ludwig von Hofmann, that I have taken a fancy to). This seems to be from the estate of a bookbinder, who had it custom bound in full black leather with a blind stamped title. Simple and a bit modern, but I liked the binding for this book. A true collector would obviously have bought the book in its original binding (which is quite inexpensive to start with), but I personally liked this rebind and maybe overpaid a bit for it as well. I might post some pictures when I get it - although that could take a while.

>16 teppi2:
As well as being very nice paper, Zerkall is less expensive than many other mould-mades and so is popular with private presses.

Type foundries, especially the larger ones, often had their own printing departments for producing publicity material. I am fortunate to have bought a complete Monotype two-volume hot-metal type specimen from them in the mid-80s. The printing is superb.

>23 teppi2: That doesn't sound too promising. I hope it will still show up.

I found the edition you described, but only one posting had pictures. I'm definetly interested in seeing some. I haven't had any luck finding nice german editions of books. There are not that many second hand book shops in the area I'm living in. The shops in Regensburg and Munich I visited unfortunately didn't have anything of interest to me.

>25 c_schelle: I don't know the rules about posting other people's pictures. I will just post some of the photos from the listing I bought, I hope the seller doesn't mind. If this is against the rules, I will of course take them down.











Actually, the seller has other interesting German books, though not necessarily always on the inexpensive side. If you search for this book name and artist on ebay.de sold listings, the seller should be easy to locate.

I used to live in Berlin. For our family, browsing through antiquarian book shops was a standard weekend past time. I wish I would have been able to appreciate it more when I was a kid. My family didn't look for fine press books though, although some of the golden age fairy books my mother collects probably fall into this category.

Atlanta has some book stores, but significantly less than Berlin, so pretty much all my shopping is online now.

>25 c_schelle:
>26 teppi2:

If you are looking for private press books in the German language (deutsche Sprache) may I suggest the following:

The best sources for these books are selected fine book auctions held twice a year by a handful of German firms, including Christian Hesse Auktionen, Kiefer-Buch, Reiss & Sohn. All of them either enable live bidding directly on their websites or they use invaluable.com, the-Saleroom.com or lot-tissimo.com for their bidding platforms.

As luck would have it, two major book auctions will occur during the first week of July. They are:

July 2, 2020: https://www.kiefer.de

July 4, 2020: http://hesse-auktionen.de

It is a quick an easy matter to register as potential bidders with both auction houses and you can then scan their current auctions and decide if you wish to bid on any of their offerings. FWIW, the Christian Hesse auction (No. 21) is exceptional, with an impressive assortment of modern German private press books AND several editions in fine modern designer bindings, all in the German language.

Note: This public service message is brought to you free of charge from the dlphcoracl.

Mit freundlichen grüßen,
dlphcoracl

>27 dlphcoracl: Thanks a lot for those amazing resources. I know what I will be browsing through the next days...

>27 dlphcoracl: Thank you for for the links. I will have a look on the weekend. The first look seems very promising. I have never bought books through an auction house before.

<16 I'm now also the proud owner of Tierfabeln. I got a fine edition of the book for 20€ from eBay. I was a bit shocked about the size (I may have not realized it as you gave the size in inches), but it fits the theme of the book. You seem to have a special edition of the book, as mine does not have any signatures of the artist.

>10 teppi2: It's been on my list since I saw your post...

I finally caved in and my half-leather copy in fine condition arrived today. What a treat! Thanks for the enabling 😊

>31 Dr.Fiddy: Thanks a lot for the feedback, I am very happy I managed to enable you :). I am still amazed how inexpensive collecting fine press books can be if one looks for lesser known titles / publishers and is willing to accept minor faults.

Below is another recent acquisition, Peronnik the Fool by the George G. Harrap & Co Ltd (1933). Compared to the Revolt of the Tartars, this is not a book that is commonly priced very low by booksellers. However, if it shows up on ebay at auction, it is typically ignored or sells for very little. One copy is currently available on ebay.fr for 30 Euros (buy it now with best offer available), it has already been listed for quite a while. My copy below cost $24 (and was re-listed multiple times before I bought it). I have seen another copy (with less darkening to the vellum) sell for about $30 on ebay a year ago, again after multiple re-listings.

The story is the retelling of a Breton grail quest by George Moore, I found it a quick and enjoyable read. The book is bound in full vellum and printed on handmade paper, unfortunately no manufacturer details are provided. It is illustrated with eight engravings by Stephen Gooden, which are the highlight of this edition for me. The book is signed by both author and illustrator and limited to 525 copies. It comes in a simple board slipcase. Some pictures are below:

Binding and Textblock

As mentioned above, my copy has darkening to vellum board and spine, which seems to be quite common for this edition. I should note that lighting in my photos is bad, it looks much less discolored in person. Copies in better condition are readily available, but at a much higher price.



Pages

>32 teppi2: Thank you for this. I really like the look of this book. I must confess that Stephen Gooden is a new name to me (although I see that he had a distinguished career, doing work for the Nonesuch Press and designing a bookplate for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth among others), and those engravings are stunning.

I have discovered in my book collecting that I have a form of papyrophilia and that paper also looks tactile (just look at the depth of impression of the engravings!).

>26 teppi2: >32 teppi2: ah, I see this thread is going to get expensive...

Out of curiosity, how are you finding these books? I must confess a habbit of running my usual searches for "whittington press OR golden cockerel OR limited editions club OR fleece press" etc., which never leads to be straying too far from my well-beaten path.

>34 ubiquitousuk:

Books and Vines is a great resource. Auction records are good. And if you search abebooks, a lot of classic titles can be found in "fine" editions just by entering the title plus keywords like "limited", "numbered", vellum, letterpress, illustrated, etc. You'd be surprised how much obscure stuff is out there. Multiple forgotten fine press Suetonius Twelve Caesars for example.

Another method is searching by notable illustrators instead of by author or publisher as the illustrator's name is often attached to fine press books from more obscure presses/publishers. Searching by typographer or book designer also works (John Nash, Bruce Rogers, etc.). A lot of these guys did a lot of earlier and now obscure work.

Ebay, after years of spying on my purchases, is also constantly leading me to new fine press books.

>34 ubiquitousuk: >35 MobyRichard:
I completely agree with the methods listed by MobyRichard. Particularly searching by materials, such as vellum or handmade paper (with producer name) has yielded good results for me. Recently I was able to find two interesting books by F Lewis Publishers Limited, which are printed on Barcham Green handmade paper: Aucassin and Nicolette and Salaman and Absal. To be quite clear, those are definitely not the most amazing fine press books, but still very enjoyable and cost less than $5 each.

Cover - Salaman and Absal

As you can see, a very plain cover. This came with a Dustjacket which I did not show here.

Sample Illustration - Salaman and Absal


Sample Illustration (Title Page) - Aucassin and Niclolette


Detail on Paper - Salaman and Absal

As the book contained a note on the paper used, the ebay seller included this in their listing. Thus, it popped out when I searched for "Barcham Green". These details will obviously be in the body of the listing, so make sure to enable search including title and description.

On ebay, if I find a non-professional seller who is selling a number of books e.g. from the Limited Editions Club, I go to their other listings. They might be liquidating a collection, which can lead to interesting new finds. The book in post >26 teppi2: was from a seller liquidating the private collection of a bookbinder. Most of these were not particularly cheap, but they gave me leads to printers I had never heard about before. One of those was the Berner Handpresse, a small Swiss printer. I then bought their "Buch Jesus Sirach" (Book of Ecclesiasticus) from a different bookseller, a book typically priced low. My copy has an unique/eclectic binding to say it mildly ;), not very valuable or collectable but fun in it's own way, and it cost not much more than a modern mass market hardback.

Cover

The illustration on the title page was hand painted (somewhat) accurately on the cover.

Page Edge

I have never seen such a stamped gilded top edge before, and it took a bit getting used to. The original thin board cover is bound in.

Sample Illustrations




Production Details


I have to admit that these searches do not result in a focused or world class collection. I guess for many collectors, waiting for fewer outstanding examples of fine press books is the better approach. However, I personally love all these curious an relatively unknown productions.

>36 teppi2: I for one appreciate your posts and your methodology. I like to collect both types of fine press books - the big, bold, and well known, and the obscure little gems like the ones you've posted. It makes fine press collecting all the richer (in a non-monetary sense).

>36 teppi2: That's a gauffered edge. Not usually seen outside of fine bindings. I have a copy of the collected poems of Thomas Campbell from the 1880s that was bound in full green morocco, gilt, all edges gilt and gauffered. Lovely book. You have an unusual and very interesting book.

>35 MobyRichard: >36 teppi2: thanks for the helpful tips.

Indeed, I've wasted a lot of money on weird book impulse buys when I should probably have been more focused, but it was also through such experimentation that I found some favourites.

>36 teppi2:

Hmm...where are these $5 copies?

>40 MobyRichard: That was an ebay purchase, both were priced combined for less than $10. I think bookseller market price is in the $30-$50 range per book, from what I have seen there are a lot of listings but no sales at that price.

For the less well known fine press books that are not showing up in a lot of searches, particularly if they are in below fine condition, ebay has been the best source for me. All three copies of Peronnik I tracked took forever to sell, no one was interested even at the low price point.

It doesn’t only apply to obscure books. I managed to win bids on Genevere by the Fanfrolico Press and Abercrombie’s Poems by the Gregynog Press, both at $25 (the Genevere sale was very recent and is still visible as a sold item). Both had imperfections to the binding, but not worse than copies selling for a multiple of the price on Abebooks. I was certain I would have competition - both listings were properly described with good ending times and good pictures - but I was the only bidder.

My apologies if I was misleading, I did not intend to state that the books are readily available at the price point I paid, I just wanted to show examples of books/deals I found with certain search parameters / strategies.

>41 teppi2:

Not a big deal. Was just wondering b/c I decided to buy a copy of Salaman and Absal. I found one at $15 which seems like a great deal to me, depending on what condition it turns out to be in. There's also a library copy on abebooks for $10 if anyone is interested.