NO.406
March
31.03.2022
The sale of cultural relics is the business of the rich and powerful in the eyes of ordinary people, and for most of us, it is not a luxury to talk about, but one thing is certain, the history of cultural relics collection exists in the discipline of our art history, and if there is a collection, it is inevitable to buy and sell.
Inside london's century-old bookseller
A large number of ancient books are displayed on the shelves
Each book is a rare treasure that is more than 100 years old
Some have a special binding design
"Cultural relics" is a generic term, and many times it is equated with "old things" and covers a large range. What we are going to talk about here is about the sale and purchase of "Rare Books" and the ecology of ancient booksellers. Take the famous Gutenberg Bible, for example, where every page on the auction market fetches $50,000–$150,000, what makes a book so word-for-word? How do we define "ancient books"?
Jeremy M. Norman, who has been trading ancient books for more than fifty years, has made six rules for judging how a book can be considered an "ancient book," namely: Scarcity: The world must be scarce in number. 2. Substantive importance: such as those with specific historical, literary, scientific and other landmark content. Third, physical characteristics (physical characteristics): such as having a special binding design, or the use of special materials to make book covers, such as human skin, cowhide and so on. 4. Imprint: Refers to a book written at a specific time or place. Association: for example, a person with the author's autograph or manuscript, directly related to a specific person or having special significance. Sixth, the status of the item (condition): Many times, the state of the item will affect the identification and price of cultural relics.
The Gutenberg Bible was the first book in the West to be printed in movable type printing in the 15th century, after books were produced in the form of hand-copied books or woodcuts. To put it simply, for a book to be a valuable ancient book, in addition to having a certain year, it must also be able to meet the above conditions, which are not absolute, but in the ancient book market, it is an important empirical judgment relied on by cultural relic dealers and collectors.
Many times, the collector's profession determines the scope of his or her hand. Jeremy Norman began his career as a book buyer and seller in 1964, when he was only 19 years old, and is now one of the world's most famous ancient booksellers, not only engaged in the trading of ancient books, but also a large collector and professional researcher. When he was in college, he majored in the history of science, and he was definitely a leader in the collection and trading of ancient books on the history of science, medicine, and science and technology.
Bernard Shapero (1963-present), another world-renowned ancient bookseller, specializes in natural history, travel literature, and this type of ancient books fills his bookstore and office shelves, and many title pages, fabrics or prints related to natural history are hung in the store. It is worth mentioning that many cultural relics dealers like to break up ancient books, selling a single title page containing images, and a book is split and sold, and the profit is doubled, which is a common thing in the market. Therefore, some large ancient booksellers have acquired ancient books from various sources, which are naturally mixed with single-page texts.
Bernard Shapero's antique bookstore
The shelves contain many precious ancient books related to natural history
Bernard Shapero was hailed in 2005 by the famous cultural magazine Slate as "London's most successful ancient bookseller, arguably the world's top ancient bookseller". He started his book business in 1979, in fact he never went to university, at the age of 16 he had already set up a stall at The Gray's Antique Market in London, and now he is well-known in the European and American antiquities trade circles, and owns a beautiful Georgian building storefront in St George Street, Mayfair, London.
His antique bookstore, Shapero Rare Books, is across the road from Sotheby's. In an interview in 2002, the ambitious man recalled his state of mind when he first started: "My goal is to climb the ladder step by step and distribute increasingly expensive books. If you like books, you'll want to do the best." In the early 1980s, there was no frequent commercial channel between London and Paris for the distribution of ancient books, and ancient booksellers traveled to Paris about 1-2 times a year, but it was difficult to meet the market demand in London, Bernard Shapero and his partners realized the generation gap, seized the opportunity to expand their business, and thus occupied a key position in the market.
Bernard Shapero presents a panorama of protein photographs of Budapest taken by Kozmata Ferenc (1839-1902) in 1880, consisting of two, one 26cmx177cm and the other 26cmx210cm
Another ancient bookseller, Dr. Titus Boeder (1964–present), Maggs Bros from London. Titus Boeder, a century-old bookseller founded in 1853, joined in 1995 and has been engaged in the trade of ancient books and cultural relics, with Western ancient books on the contents of the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as a collection of important ancient maps of China, which is deeply related to his interest in the history of scientific, political and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.
In addition, he specializes in collecting and trading old photographs, historical albums and prints from China and Japan. In the face of the big environmental impact, Titus Boeder explains the current dilemma of the European ancient book market: "20 years ago, our biggest customers were japanese, they came in batches, we were overwhelmed, and now this kind of grand situation is different, we can buy cultural relics from them, but it is difficult for them to buy things from us, so we must open up the market in other parts of the world." 」 In our conversations with ancient booksellers, we can often realize that the development of the history of cultural exchanges between the East and the West and the sale and circulation of cultural relics are indeed inextricably linked.
Ancient bookseller Dr. Titus Boeder is flipping through his collection of Western prints
Regarding the ecology of ancient booksellers and the circulation of cultural relics, there are still many aspects worth discussing in detail. Ancient and modern collectors and dealers, who may not have majored in art history, yet they have touched more works of art and antiques than the average art history researcher actually sees in books or museums. Their rich vision and appreciation of works of art (or cultural relics) are worthy of our continuous learning and exploration.
//