• Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2019 Issue

Simon Beattie - “The books you never knew you wanted………..”

Simon Beattie is an English rare book dealer who founded the popular Facebook group, "We Love Endpapers."

If there is a trend in collecting nowadays, it is that collectors, more and more, are seeking increasingly obscure material, unique items that no one else has.”

This month Rare Book Hub corresponded with Simon Beattie, 44, an antiquarian specialist based in Chesham, Buckinghamshire in South East England which borders Greater London. Beattie bills himself as a specialist in “the books you never knew you wanted.”

His website displays his talents as a bookseller, translator and composer. It states that after almost a dozen years in the London book trade, he set up on his own in 2010, and two years later was included among the winners of the Smarta 100 Awards for ‘the most resourceful, original, exciting small businesses in the UK’. He is the founder of the popular Facebook public group “We Love Endpapers,which now has over 4,000 members.

Because of the time difference between Hawaii and England RBH conducted this interview via email:

RBH: Can you tell us a little about your career in bookselling?

SB: I began my career as a bookseller straight out of university, in 1998, when I got a job working for Bernard Quaritch Ltd. in London. I set up as an independent bookseller in 2010, so next year will be my 10th anniversary. Having studied modern languages at university, my main interest is European (cross-)cultural material. Another interest is music, as I have sung in choirs since I was eight years old; I now also write choral music. I think the only hobby I have been doing for longer than singing is reading.

I became involved with the world of rare books just as the Internet was starting to have an effect. It’s a wonderful tool, and a rich source of information when doing research. Though I tend to agree with the late Bill Reese’s remark, made in 2009, that ‘in the age of the Internet one has to have the best, the cheapest, or the only copy.’

Although I enjoy the benefits the Internet has brought, I sell almost nothing online. Most of our sales are to people on our mailing list, either by catalogue, or at book fairs. I have no interest in having thousands of books in stock and engaging in faceless, impersonal transactions with people I don’t know. I’m a bespoke bookseller. I enjoy getting to know people, understanding their interests, and then finding books for them.

Although we list our books on third-party websites (such as ABE), I don’t like the lack of control you have over how the books are presented. While social media can be a great tool in developing relationships with customers and colleagues, in a friendly, visual way, right across the globe, I still come back to the traditional catalogue, whether printed or electronic for selling.

We’ve just had a new website built (www.simonbeattie.co.uk); there are no books to browse, and no search facility. What you can do, however, is sign up for our e-lists. That way, you get first notice of new stock, and we have control how the books are presented, in catalogue format.

RBH: Though the Internet is set up for finding books you know you want, Beattie makes much of “finding the books you didn’t know you wanted.”

SB: We have a word, of course, for these chance encounters when looking for books: serendipity. A word which was, incidentally, coined by a collector (Horace Walpole, in 1754). It’s something that humans, by their nature, enjoy; serendipity was voted the UK’s favourite word in the year 2000, and Peter Howard gave his legendary Berkeley bookstore the very same name.

People like browsing. So it’s an irony that we use the word ‘browse’ when looking online. For if you’re searching for books to buy, that is exactly what you cannot do. Book-buying on the Internet requires the buyer to know what it is she is looking for; databases are weak at allowing discovery.

Beattie quoted Mark Forsyth in “The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of not getting what you wanted:”

The Internet is a splendid invention, and it won’t go away. If you know you want something, the Internet can get it for you. My point … is that it’s not enough to get what you already know you wanted. The best things are the things you never knew you wanted until you got them. The Internet takes your desires and spits them back out at you, consummated. You search, you put in the words you know, the things that were already on your mind, and it gives you back a book or a picture or a Wikipedia article. But that is all. The unknown unknown must be found otherwhere.’

When I set up my business ten years ago this was certainly what I had in view. I’ve always enjoyed what you might call footnotes to history. I wanted to offer people things they’d never seen before, quirky stuff, ‘the books you never knew you wanted’.

If there is a trend in collecting nowadays, it is that collectors, more and more, are seeking increasingly obscure material, unique items that no one else has.

RBH: Beattie is well known in the trade as the founder of a popular Facebook public groupWe love Endpapers.” (www.facebook.com/groups/WeLoveEndpapers/RBH sees something interesting on that page almost every day. What gave you the idea? and does it surprise you how rapidly it's grown and the amount of interesting art that it generated?

SB: My only motive, if it was a motive, for starting the group was that I know various people in the rare book world who say ‘those are nice endpapers’, or ‘look at these’ at a book fair or when visiting a bookshop. I thought a Facebook group would be a good forum for people to share pictures of attractive endpapers as and when they come across them. Initially, I intended it to be just for bookseller and librarian friends of mine, but soon opened it up to anyone who may be interested. It’s been fascinating, and was even featured on The Guardian website earlier this year.

Yes, I have been amazed at the response. The group’s just over three years old and we have well over 4,000 members. It may just be eye-candy to some, but it can be educational, too. You can learn about marbling techniques, or how particular kinds of paper were made. Whatever the reason people join, I’m glad they enjoy it. Any book can be posted, regardless of date, and it’s been interesting to see the number of new books featured. Modern publishers have really upped their game when it comes to book design.

RBH: Do you have any thoughts about the UK vs the US book scene? Are there any fairs or annual events you like?

SB: I enjoy coming to the US, and seeing friends, customers, and colleagues there. I don’t have an open shop and exhibiting at a book fair gives me an opportunity to showcase what I have.

Pop-up shops’ are sometimes heralded as the new thing; book fairs have been doing it for centuries. There used to be a rhythm in the international fair calendar, with roughly one a month: Stuttgart, California, Milan, New York, Paris, London. More recently, the fairs have all begun to edge earlier and earlier, so that the year is now somewhat top-heavy.

The proximity of the California and New York fairs, now only a month apart, in the past few years has proved particularly challenging in terms of finding new stock, overall logistics and, put bluntly, cashflow.

For 2020, I have decided, sadly, to give Pasadena a miss so that we can focus on New York, which has always been a highlight. Another difficulty in recent years has been exchange rates, at least for buying. I suppose I’m fairly sanguine about it. Perhaps my margins can’t be what they were a few years ago, but it offers US customers a good deal. Now more than ever is the time to buy British!

RBH: Do you have any current enthusiasms to share?

SB:I follow the various British Library blogs; Medieval Manuscripts, European Studies, and Untold Lives are particularly good. (www.bl.uk/blogs/) In print, I still look forward to The Book Collector (www.thebookcollector.co.uk/) and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv’s Marbacher Magazine, (in German) and have been enjoying the recent series on independent historic libraries in The London Library Magazine. (www.londonlibrary.co.uk/about-us/magazine)

The Women in the Book Trade initiatives, on both sides of the Atlantic, go from strength to strength, and the series of interviews on the Fine Books & Collections website, with young librarians and booksellers, help highlight ongoing vitality in the rare book world. (www.finebooksmagazine.com)

RBH: Anything else you like to comment on?

SB: Going back to what I said earlier, looking for books online can be hard work. You can sift through a lot of dross to find a nugget worth having. I find I return again and again to booksellers I like, people with a good eye for books, and whom I trust. I appreciate things that are well described, with no nasty surprises when they arrive. Sometimes one has to pay a little more, for better material, but I’m happy with that.

Links

We Love Endpapers public group on Facebook www.facebook.com/groups/WeLoveEndpapers/

Simon Beattie website: www.simonbeattie.co.uk

Links to Simon Beattie elists at: simonbeattie.co.uk/bookseller/



Simon Beattie

84 The Broadway

Chesham, Buckinghamshire HP5 1EG

United Kingdom

simon@simonbeattie.co.uk

Office number: +44 (0)1494 784954.

Office and hours: Beattie has an office in Chesham, and it is generally staffed Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, though it’s probably best to make an appointment.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas

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