One of the happiest things about traveling the Western book world is to be able to visit the upscale antiquarian book fair from time to time, which is different from the usual publishing house-led new book promotion exhibitions, nor is it the kind of jump sale of books that clear inventory or wind-stained books. The Ancient Book Fair is composed of ancient booksellers or auctioneers of ancient books, and the exhibition halls are all out-of-print old books with collectible significance or souvenir value, limited edition special books, and objects related to text, images, printing, and publishing. In the ancient book fair, you can always appreciate the exhibits from the perspective of intellectuality, aesthetics, history, emotion, etc., so you can get endless fun. Of course, I attend the California International Book Fair in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is the largest in the world, every odd-numbered year. From February 15 to 17, 2013, 220 ancient booksellers from Europe, the United States, Australia and other places gathered in the exhibition hall of downtown San Francisco. The following is a transcript of my observations.
Writer's Manuscript with First Edition
In addition to out-of-print old books, the most common in ancient book fairs are letters and manuscripts of well-known authors, and some Western publishing houses will even produce special editions, attaching a page of the writer's manuscript to the front of the book to improve the collection value of the book. Bookseller James Cummins Bookseller, for example, presented a complete collection of the poet Walt Whitman's 1902 edition, sold in a limited edition of thirty-two codes, in ten volumes. The first volume is accompanied by a manuscript of Whitman's handwritten prose, on which the poet's revisions and annotations are clearly visible, and three beautiful sentences later appear in the late Leaves of Grass edition. As the bookseller puts it in the table of contents: "Although there are only three lines, any fragment of Blades of Grass by Whitman is something that people aspire to have." I believe this sentence speaks to the hearts of many Whitman fans. The collection is priced at $47,500. James Cummings also showed the first edition of Blades of Grass at his own expense in 1855, which Whitman published at his own expense in 1855, and does not appear in the author's name, but the front title page is printed with a dashing portrait of him wearing a hat when he was young. This edition is said to have been printed in only about eight hundred copies, although it does not have the author's signature and does not have the author's manuscript attached, but because it is a milestone in literary history, it is priced at sixteen and five thousand DOLLARs.
The complete 1902 edition of the poet Walter Whitman's complete works, sold in a limited edition of thirty-two codes, a full set of ten volumes, the first volume is accompanied by a manuscript of Whitman's handwritten prose
In addition, the bookseller Peter Harrington also displayed Mark Twain's forty-three-page manuscript. Mark Twain was an American popular writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in addition to novels, short stories, and essays, he also wrote several travelogues, one of which was A Tramp Abroad, published in 1880, based on his 1878 trip to Europe, with fictional characters and stories, and his narrative style had his usual humor. The twentieth chapter of the book speaks of his ridiculous antique collection, including a broken bottle that was once used to hold tears and a missing plate that claimed to be owned by Henry II. Peter P. Harrington's forty-three-page Mark Twain manuscript is the same chapter of The Tramp Abroad, which includes mark Twain's hand-drawn broken bottles and plates, and these images also become the prototype of the illustrations in the book. The manuscript of this chapter, together with a first edition of The Wanderer Abroad, was priced at £50,000. Seeing expensive writers' manuscripts and first editions on display, those of us who are not rich in books will sigh with excitement, but on the one hand, we are also very pleased, which means that there are still people in the world who know how to appreciate them and recognize their value.
Mark Twain's first edition of The Tramp Abroad in 1880, plus twenty chapters of the author's manuscript, was priced at the book fair for fifty thousand pounds
A prime example of the Golden Age of Illustration
The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was the "Golden Age of Illustration" in Britain and the United States, influenced by the "Arts and Crafts Movement" and the "Art Nouveau", coupled with the development of color printing, the excellent performance of illustrators in magazines and books, creating an unprecedented period of glory.
High-quality, large-folio limited edition illustrated books are popular as high-end Christmas gifts, with elegant ivory sheepskin on the cover with gilded text and patterns, and the title page of the book is encoded and signed by the illustrator. Arthur Rackham was one of the star artists of the time, and the illustrated version of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (written by J. M. Barrie) in 1906 was one of Lorcan's masterpieces. The dreamy and flexible atmosphere emitted by the pastel picture has deeply touched many people. According to records, the French composer Debussy was inspired by the book given to his daughter by a friend who saw the illustration titled "The Fairy is a Delicate Dancer" and composed the piano song of the same name, Les Fées sont d'exquises danseuses (French translation of The Fairies Are Exquisite Dancers). At the Old Book Fair, the British Jonkers Rare Books exhibited a deluxe edition of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, signed by Lorcan, number 389 (limited to 500 copies), with a list price of 7,500 pounds (about 12,000 US dollars).
The limited edition of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, produced in 1906 by Hodder & Stoughton, was popular for arthur Lorcan's illustrations. I was delighted to see arthur Lorcan's original watercolor illustration of the book, Autumn Fairy, in the display window of a bookseller's booth at a book fair.
Because of the acclaim and popularity of this illustrated edition, the publisher asked Lorcan to select twelve of his favorites from the original fifty illustrations, and in 1912 copied them into six hundred prints of the same size as the original watercolor, entitled "The Peter Pan Portfolio", with the intention of the first hundred sets of parchment-bound coats, each of which was signed by Lorcan. Probably reluctant to sign 1,200 times in a row, Lorcan ended up signing only about twenty sets, and yongke Bookstore had such a set, with a price of thirty-five thousand pounds (about fifty-five thousand dollars). What surprised me even more was that at the same ancient book fair, there was a bookseller Jeffrey Lee. Jeffrey H. Marks exhibited one of the book's original illustrations, Autumn Fairies, priced at $135,000.
Selected works by Virginia Woolf
At the Old Book Fair, you'll always see the first editions of the work of the British woman writer Virginia Woolf, most of her work by The Hogarth Press, a small publishing house she co-founded with her husband, Leonard Woolf, and the woodcut illustrations on the hardcover book covers were designed by Woolf's artist sister Vanessa Bell. Bell's design is clean and original, but very attractive. I sometimes wonder if the reason Why Woolf's book is so well-known and unique has something to do with Vanessa Bell's cover. At the book fair, the first editions of six woolf books appeared in the stall of the bookseller Adrian Harrington, including the essay "A Room of One's Own" and the novels "To the Lighthouse" and "Mrs. Dalloway", showing three books on the front cover, priced at $2,250 from left to right. $2,700 and $3,650; As for the three books on the far left that only show the spine, they lack the original outer cover and range in price from $1,250 to $1,600. Woolf's loyal collectors are often willing to pay several times more for that thin coat.
The first edition of the work of the British writer Virginia Woolf often appears at the Ancient Book Fair, and the simple woodcut illustrations on the book cover were designed by Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell
Dutch gold flower paper
From the 18th to the 19th century, a highly decorative handmade paper appeared in Europe called the Dutch gilt floral paper, which was coated with a layer of gold paint and embossed with a floating and magnificent flower pattern. Dutch gold flower paper was often used by publishing houses to bind the covers of British and American children's books, which were produced in Germany and Italy, probably because they were exported from the Netherlands, so they had the name of "Dutch gold flower paper". This handicraft has long been lost, but unexpectedly, a Massachusetts bookseller brought several pieces of Dutch gold flower paper that has been circulated for hundreds of years and is extremely well preserved.
Dutch gold flower paper produced in Nuremberg, Germany in the 18th century
John Windle, a bookseller known for his medieval books, bought one on the last day of the fair (February 17) and gave it to his wife, Chris Loker, who runs out-of-print children's books, as a belated Valentine's Day gift. Touched, Chrissy not only framed the artwork-like paper, but also decided to use the pattern on the paper for the cover of a children's book she was compiling.
This 45 cm × 38 cm paper costs five figures, which is not an astronomical amount, but I think this gift is much more expensive than diamond pearls.
16th century chain theology book
I was at the stall of the bookseller Robert Rulon-Miller and saw a strange book with a chain, an early 16th-century book. On the outside, it is a huge volume, but in fact contains two Latin theological anthology and translations of different authors, published in Paris in 1511 and 1512. The pigskin binding of the book was made by monks from the German Franciscan monastery of the time, named "Santa Maria Assumpta", located in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. Before that, most books were based on religious themes, copied and bound by hand, and most of the books were made by monks in monasteries, and the best way to understand this historical background was to read the novel The Name of the Rose by the Italian writer Umberto Eco.
16th century chain theology book
Even in the early days of printing, books were still expensive, and monks continued to color or staple them. In addition, because books are precious, a chain is often installed in one corner of the book cover, and the other end of the chain is worn on the fixed slider of the bookshelf or desk, so that the reader cannot take the book away. The monastery was founded in 1275 and dissolved in 1802, and the books in the courtyard's collection were naturally scattered. Hundreds of years later, scholars and booksellers judged from the embossing of the cover, the metal decoration and the imprint on the page that the book belonged to the Early Convent of the Ascension of St. Mary. Although the cover has been worn and mothed, revealing some linings of wood, the deep historical background naturally exudes a sense of beauty, and it is no wonder that the veteran bookseller Robert Luren-Miller bought the book on his way to the exhibition. At first, he was reluctant to sell, and he admired it for several days, before he delayed putting it out in the afternoon of the last day of the book fair, and marked it for forty-two thousand DOLLARs, waiting for the next person to buy it. Shortly after the book fair, it was rumored that the special collections of the New York University Library had acquired the chain book, and I had seen them list it on the Internet. I am glad that this chain book did not fall into the hands of a hidden private collector, which means that the next time I go to New York, I will have the opportunity to visit this "old friend".
"Kem Scott Chaucer"
In the 14th century, the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer wrote many masterpieces, including the most famous "The Canterbury Tales", and I wonder how many later writers have been inspired by his work. At the end of the 19th century, William Morris, the founder of The Kelmscott Press in the United Kingdom, printed Chaucer's work under the title "Chaucer's New Print", which Western scholars commonly refer to as The Kelmscott Chaucer.
"Kem Scott Chaucer" is revered by the Western book industry as the most beautiful book of the 19th century, with a print volume of about 440 copies, and six books appear in the book fair, which are seen in the picture of off-white pig skin, light brown Moroccan leather and blue cardboard, linen back three different styles of binding, the top picture is the opening page of the text
This folio book is regarded by the Western book industry as the most beautiful book of the 19th century, the font, layout, decorative lace in the book are carefully designed by Morris, containing eighty-seven prints, the original picture was painted by the artist Edward Burne-Jones (Edward Burne-Jones), then carved on the woodblock by a first-class woodcarver, and finally printed with the finest ink produced by Hanover, Germany, a process of about five years, with a print volume of about 440 copies; About forty-eight of them were bound in white pig skin with a metal buckle, and the embossed pattern on the cover was taken from a 15th-century book by Morris and executed by the Doves Bindery.
A volume of Kem Scott Chaucer, bound on thick cardboard and linen, is now worth tens of thousands of dollars, while the pigskin binding edition is double the price. These books are not easy to see, but in order to appreciate this edition of the book bound in pig skin, I once flew from the United States to London to visit a private library. But in this book fair, under the same roof, there are actually six books, and three of them are pig skin bindings, and two are Yangchun bindings. The one on display by John Windle is unique, framed in Moroccan leather by Johanna Birkenruth, a member of the Guild of Women Binders, with the cover embossed with Art Nouveau motifs with a relief-like three-dimensional feel. The Women's Binding Association was a short-lived group from 1898 to 1904, and its members were known for their courage to try new techniques, and their works were often refreshing, and Mr. Wendor's book was priced at ninety-five thousand US dollars.
Chinese printed materials
Don't think that the Western Ancient Book Fair only has European and American books, and some book stalls will also display Chinese old out-of-print books from time to time. For example, at the booth of the Viennese bookseller Michael Steinbach, I saw a chinese translation of the Old and New Testaments printed by the Anglo-Chinese College in Hong Kong in the third to fifth years of Tongzhi (1864-1866), a complete nine-volume version with a list price of fourteen thousand euros. Anglo-Chinese College was founded in Malacca in 1818 by a British missionary, Robert Morrison (1782-1834), and moved to Hong Kong in 1843. The college also has a printing house, this set of nine-volume Bible translation is printed by the college's printing house, Chinese translation language through many European and American missionaries to discuss and approve, printing using traditional rice paper and format, but in the Western hardcover way binding, the standard "Chinese and Western combination".
Hygiene Habits Picture
In addition, I also saw a set of "Hygiene Habits Pictures" that was first published in December 1931 and republished in December of the following year, containing ten postcard-sized promotional cards, each with a color picture on the front, lyrics and song scores on the reverse, and an envelope cover with the words "Nanjing Gongyin Lane Health Department General Distribution" on the back, and the price of each set was triangular. At the same time, it also shows that at that time, there were also large wall charts for sale thirty-two times larger than these cards, and each set was one yuan and eight corners. The song score behind this set of pictures is short and cute, and one of them is: "I use my chopsticks, I use my bowl, I bring my own hand towel, and all diseases are not passed on." The composer is Hu Zhou Shu'an (1894 ~ 1974), I checked it, found that this person is tsinghua school (later renamed Tsinghua University) selected by the public fund to study in the United States one of the first batch of female students, once studied music theory, piano and vocal music at Harvard University and other schools, is said to be the first professional vocal educator since the Republic of China, the first choral female conductor, the first female composer, everyone is familiar with the Hokkien nursery rhyme "Oh sleepy, a big inch; Oh pity, a foot bigger" is actually a lullaby created by her. Hu Zhoushu'an's husband, Hu Xuanming, was the first public health expert since the Republic of China, and founded the Chinese Health Society in 1921, and this set of "Pictures of Hygiene Habits" is presumably the result of the joint cooperation of Hu and his wife, who have many "first" titles.
A myriad of objects
The ancient book fair not only has books, but also ancient maps that are hundreds of years old, such as the British ancient bookseller and mapmaker Daniel Crouch's stall with hand-colored atlases from the 16th to the 17th centuries, and the nearly two-hundred-centimeter-high map of the Americas in the early 18th century, each with tens of thousands of pounds. In addition, you can see all kinds of old posters, old photos, old cards, book stamps, celebrity letters, etc., and sometimes some objects related to books, texts or images, such as John Lennon's signature on the inside of the record, small metal book clips, and so on. The British bookseller Marlborough Rare Books exhibited many small scroll bars that were very popular in the 19th century, which can pull out panoramic wide-angle paintings from three to five hundred centimeters long, like the mini version of the "Qingming River Map", which mostly depicts landscapes, famous battles or historical events, and is hand-colored with copper or lithography. Marboro also had a scrapbook of leaflets and receipts from 18th-century British shops, printed with merchant sizes and messages, as well as handwritten amounts and instructions, often accompanied by beautiful decorative patterns, which were the best archives for understanding the history of the common people.
A myriad of objects
Not all of the things in the ancient book fair are at a high price that can be expected, but in fact, there are some cheap and good exhibits. At the booth at the Bolerium Books, I saw a small round iron piece with a diameter of 3.2 centimeters, a small badge produced in 1971 when the American Chinese were "fishing", and the Chinese and English propaganda words on the disc, "Diaoyutai - For Justice Tiao Yü Tai We Want Justice!", presumably the slogan of the slogan shouted during the protest march. At that time, Tang Degang, Liu Daren, Zhang Zhiguo, Guo Songdi, Li Yu and other people who were "fishing protection" people at that time probably all pinned this small badge on the placket. Can you believe it? For just twenty dollars, you can own this historical object from more than forty years ago. The Western Ancient Book Fair, which has been going on for many years, has always been a grand event for insiders to watch the doorway and laymen to see the lively, which can meet the diverse needs of many people. The most happy thing about this California International Ancient Book Fair is that I found that many enthusiastic ancient book dealers are only in their early thirties, and I also saw that some serious visitors are teenagers, and these young generations who grew up in the prevalence of online reading can have such a high interest, can only say that the physical books with both inner beauty and external beauty, for book lovers, there will always be an irreplaceable attraction of e-books, and the popularity of Western ancient book exhibitions and collections is the best evidence.
The content is selected from Zhong Fangling's "Four Seasons Visit"