London Lessons: Exploring London’s Rare Book Shops

When exploring a new world, blend in with the natives; in this case that meant starting my exploration of London’s rare book world wearing standard-issue Bibliophile uniform: tousled hair, abundantly pocketed clothes, and the standard issue Some-Lit.Fest-I-Was-At tote bag. The goal of my visit to London was to answer two questions: Who Buys Rare Books? and, What Makes a Rare Book Worth Buying? As you’ll see, the answers to both these questions turned out to be pretty intuitive.

The time constraints of my visit limited me to the Grande Dames of central London - Shepherds (leading bookbinders), Hatchard’s (contemporary and rare books), Heywood Hill (rare books and manuscripts), Peter Harrington (rare books and manuscripts), and Maggs (rare books and manuscripts) - but it was plenty to get started. What quickly became apparent was that the world of rare books has something to offer for every budget, that it is not a snobby world, and that booksellers are a wonderfully quirky, eclectic, and welcoming bunch. As Ben Houston of Peter Harrington told me: “We’re always looking to attract new and young collectors who will keep the trade alive.” Whilst sadly no longer qualified to be called young, I am a new collector and the booksellers I met with certainly drew me further into the world of rare books. Here are some of the things I learnt.

Who Buys Rare Books?

The first category of buyers are collectors. This doesn’t mean collectors with a capital C, it means anyone, professional or amateur, who’s interested in rare books. Although the types of people who collect is varied, you can usually identify the professionals by the people who ask for specific themes and authors or who when they pick up a rare book go straight to the copyright page, where much of the book’s key information is found.

Opinions varied about the direction of collecting today, with some lamenting the diminution of collectors, some optimistic about the growing number of young collectors, and some reminding me the staying power of rare books as works of art. One thing everyone I spoke to agreed on is that collectors rarely buy for future profit - the existence of multiple copies at publication makes rare books by definition less rare than art. My own views are that the absence of an investment market doesn’t stop rare books from holding value and, like most things worth collecting, the most important thing is loving what you’re collecting.

The second category of buyers are bibliophiles and, again, there’s no magic to this word; it’s simply a catch-all for anyone who likes a good read or takes pleasure in the look, touch, and feel of
 a book. Encompassed in this category are browsers who stumble on a rare book that catches their attention, browsers looking for a special gift, or aesthetes looking for a rare book as a piece of art. For some booksellers these generalist bibliophiles are top of their list of favourite customers: “Generalist bibliophiles” said Andrew McGeachin, head of rare books at Heywood Hill, “are the most interesting clients because it’s fun trying to find what they might like.” As I discovered time and again, this enthusiasm among booksellers to help customers find their passion is pervasive. As Harris Lechtzier of Hatchard’s put it: “The best thing . . . is a relationship between bookseller and collector. I do believe in the industry, and in bookselling.”

The third category of rare book buyers we can bunch under the heading, professionals. This category includes institutions (universities or libraries looking to fill gaps in their collections); corporates (professionals looking to decorate their offices according to their profession), and large private homes (homeowners or interior designers looking for a readymade library - everyone likes to look clever!)

What Makes a Rare Book Worth Buying?

This is the intuitive part I mentioned. As one might expect, and as the experts agreed, things to look for in choosing your rare book are, in no particular order: (1) physical condition, (2) first editions, (3) absence of annotations, (4) scarcity.

The physical condition and first edition points are anchored on the view that those two aspects make the book as close to its original state as possible. Like any piece of art, it makes sense to enjoy a book in the condition it was intended by its creator and publisher to be received. Of course, if a book is extremely scarce then the bar for physical condition can be a bit lower and even repairs or rebindings can be acceptable. On this latter point, Alison Strachan of the London bookbinder Shepherds reminded me when I met her that, however well repaired a book is, a bookseller must always declare that it’s been repaired - so, buyers, remember to ask about rebinding when picking a book.

Regarding the importance of rare books being unannotated, there’s one exception: if the annotation or dedication is made by either the author of the book or a famous person then those markings may in fact add value. “Provenance can be very interesting and make a book more sought after,” said Benjamin Brown of Shakespeare and Co. in Paris; “the more you can learn about the book’s provenance the better.”

In addition to the above consensus points, some of the experts I met mentioned other considerations to keep in mind. I found most interesting the importance of dust jackets - apparently their presence alone adds value and even more so if it or the books’s content is illustrated by a well-known artist. If you don’t believe me, have a look at the online bookselling platform Abe where a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, illustrated by Henri Matisse and signed by both of them is currently available for almost EUR30,000. Further to the question of selection criteria, the celebrity of an author or title is relevant but is not a major factor - just as value collecting is limited by the multiple copy nature of publishing, so too the more famous an author or title, the easier they will be to find. Scarcity matters.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning the pros and cons of buying online versus buying from bookshops. Setting aside the very real importance of supporting brick and mortar booksellers for pleasure and posterity, balancing efficiency, caution, and enjoyment seems to me the best way of ensuring that online and on street can happily cohabitate. Online purchases are an efficient way of getting your hands on a rare book you’ve researched or even held in your hands but that is no longer available near where you live. As with any item though, long distance buying calls for caution. Andrew McGeachin put it best, saying, “The advantage of buying in person from a bookseller is that [even established online platforms like Abe, ViaLibri, and Biblio] are not exclusively populated by experts and are not regulated by the ABA [Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association] so there’s sometimes a credibility concern. Also, you don’t get the buying experience online - touching and seeing the book, having a conversation with an expert.”

At the end of the proverbial day, the most important takeaway for me was what all the wonderful and welcoming booksellers I met with agreed on and that Harris from Hatchard’s summed up:

“Look for a book that’s going to mean something to you,

not something to put in a safe.”

Yours Truly,

Thomas (unedited)

Top Tips:

(1) Appearances can be deceiving. The intellectual looking, bespectacled, cardigan favouring wells of knowledge seated behind wooden desks in book-lined rare book departments are almost without exception warm, quirky (in the best possible way), and eager to help you.

(2) Educate yourself. As Sam Cotterell of Maggs, advised me, “read lots of rare book catalogues to learn about the market and pricing - these catalogues are free at bookshops and auction houses.”

(3) Rare book collecting is affordable. Step into any bookshop or browse online and you’ll quickly see that the range of prices is huge so it’s just a matter of learning enough about what you like, about what is correctly priced, and then establishing a budget.