By Charles E. Goodspeed.
Books are much more indestructible than is generally supposed.
Furniture, clothing, and most of the appurtenances of the house
disappear rapidly with time, but books, by the nature of their
component material and construction, have a longer life. At least this
may be said of books printed before the present era of paper making.
Since the invention of printing in the fifteenth century, the product
of the myriad presses, principally in Europe, has been enormous, and
the output of books in the four hundred odd years of printing defies
computation. While many have been destroyed by use, fire, or other
agencies, an immense number exists at the present time, and their
disposal, made necessary through death or the breaking up of
households, is a matter of practical consideration. As it is usually
impossible for the owner to find individual customers, the second-hand
book-dealer becomes a necessity. The usefulness of the dealer to the
community depends upon his honesty, intelligence, and industry; upon
his honesty, in giving a fair price to the owner, on his intelligence
in finding customers for books apart from general interest, and on
his industry in so conducting his business that his stock may not
become a mass of ill-assorted rubbish.
The small collection of books in the ordinary household (averaging
usually not over a few hundred volumes), contains, it is safe to say,
a large percentage of no commercial value. The rest may be valued
either for rarity, for the place which they may fill in some
collection, or for the intrinsic excellence of the edition. Customers
for the rarities are found amongst numerous collectors, and to a more
limited extent in the large public libraries. Many individual buyers
prefer the sterling editions printed on rag paper by the old masters
of the craft to books of modern production, and so create a market for
good old editions. Modern editions of standard authors are produced so
cheaply, however, that an old edition will bring but a small price
unless it has some distinguishing merit.
These points should be borne in mind by those who have books to sell.
They should remember, also, that the public is to-day no longer
interested in many subjects on which books were printed in the past.
It should also be known that the arts, the sciences, and the
professions, have made such advances that old books on these subjects
are of little more value than waste paper, excepting in the few
notable cases of books which are of historical importance to the
student as landmarks of progress. The omission of these works, of
obsolete fiction, and the books of the hour, reduce the bulk of the
ordinary collection to a small value.
It may then properly be asked where the valuable books come from, and
how are they obtained? It may safely be stated that most rarities
to-day are discovered in out-of-the-way places, in old collections or
libraries, attics, or from sources which have not been investigated by
the keen-eyed collectors and dealers. There are comparatively few
houses, at least in the most thickly settled parts of this country,
which have no books, and in a considerable number of these collections
there are at least some books which have a degree of rarity and a
special commercial value. The large private libraries are also
constantly being dispersed, and, excepting always the books which are
being absorbed by the permanent collections of public institutions,
form a constant supply, passing from the owner to dealer, from him to
a new owner, only to find their way eventually to the market again.
Books are not valuable merely because of age (excepting those printed
in the fifteenth century), nor solely on account of their rarity. It
is quite apparent that a rare book for which there is no demand can
have no value. It is the combination of desirability and rarity which
gives value, and that value fluctuates with the demand, being subject
to the caprice of the collector or the fashion of the day. This may be
illustrated by the collecting of first editions. Thirty years ago the
first editions of modern authors brought small prices; twenty years
later they were eagerly sought for; while now a reaction is taking
place, and only the great rarities in this line find a ready sale.
At the present time the books which are most quickly sold in this
country are those relating to American history, particularly those on
the discovery and settlement of the continent, the Indians, the
American Revolution, navy, local history, and genealogy, etc. Books on
these subjects which are really rare, find a ready sale.
First editions of the early books in _belles-lettres_, books with
presentation inscriptions from their authors, books containing unusual
examples of early engravers, or those made famous by the illustrative
work of such artists as Rowlandson, Leech, and Cruikshank; these are a
few of the lines in which there are numerous collectors, but it should
be understood that they are only a few of the more conspicuous out of
hundreds of similar lines of interest. The number of collectors is
multiplying with the increase of the country's wealth, and there is a
growing tendency for collectors to take up new subjects, which very
much broadens the interest in the books of bygone days. To enumerate
these subjects at length would be but to detail the personal interests
and hobbies of thousands of cultivated collectors. It may be safely
prophesied that books which are regarded to-day as rare and desirable
by any considerable number of collectors will, on the whole, command a
steady increase in value. The tendency, however, is strongly toward a
decrease in the value of books of moderate value and a large increase
in the value of especially desirable items. The accounts given in the
daily press of the finding of valuable books are the innocent means of
misleading a great many people, who labor under the delusion that
because one early edition of a book commands a large price, another
edition of about the same time must necessarily have the same value.
This is one of many errors which the public entertains regarding rare
books. Not only does a few years' difference in the date of
publication mean the difference between a large value and none at all,
but often two editions, apparently the same, bearing identical
title-pages, possess differences in text, which are known only to the
expert, but which make a vast difference in their value. Books
otherwise valuable, but containing material defects (such as lack of
pages or portions of pages), are thereby very much reduced in value;
in fact, the value of an imperfect book is usually but a small
fraction of that of a perfect example. Not only do these grosser
defects reduce the value, but it sometimes happens that the mere
absence of a half title, or advertising leaves, or even the flyleaves,
will make a considerable difference. Such points also as the size of
the copy, whether it is in original binding or not, or, if rebound,
whether the edges have been trimmed by the binder,--these all have an
important bearing upon prices. As a rule, the nearer the book is to
the original state in which it left the publisher's hands, the more
valuable it will be.
The art of the second-hand bookseller requires a knowledge of the
science of bibliography, and painstaking attention to the details and
orderly arrangement of stock, with a classification by subjects. Other
things are desirable, but these are indispensable. The stock of
second-hand books should be kept in such a manner that any book
inquired for can be instantly located. Nothing is more irritating both
to the dealer and to the customer than an unsuccessful search for a
book known to be in stock. There are probably very few books which at
some time will not be desired by some person; in fact, a large portion
of the books in a dealer's stock would be instantly sold if he could
understand the particular feature which would be of interest to the
possible customer. Usually, the feature is there, and the customer
exists. It is the bookseller's business to find both.
There is no business in which a thorough knowledge of the stock and a
painstaking attention to small details are of more importance than in
the selling of books, and without them the second-hand bookseller's
establishment degenerates to the level of the junk shop.