Should You Judge a Book By Its Cover?

9 April 2021

Changing fashions and global events: the antiquarian book trade is subject to many factors.

Richard Smyth

Richard Smyth is a writer and critic. His last book, An Indifference Of Birds, was published by Uniformbooks in 2020. His novel The Woodcock will be published by Fairlight Books in July, 2021.

Dr Seuss, Sleep Book, published New York: Random House, 1962.Image courtesy of Peter Harrington. — Dr Seuss, *Sleep Book*, published New York: Random House, 1962.
Image courtesy of Peter Harrington.

Lost in the musty gloom of an antiquarian bookshop – or more likely, at present, scrolling the endless pages of an online secondhand books trader – it’s easy to forget that these places aren’t museums. Yes, there’s a lot of ancient wisdom held in store here, cloth-bound, leather-backed. But these are businesses, and they trade in a dynamic market.

‘Fashion is king (or queen) in used books, as in anything else,’ says Robert Brown of Winchester Antiquarian Books. ‘But fashion is quirky.’

There are a lot of variables in play where used and antiquarian books are concerned. On the one hand, there are the classic fixations of the collector: what does it look like, what sort of nick is it in, how is it bound (questions liable to bring out the dusty jargon lovingly lampooned by the humourist Ronald Searle: foxed throughout, slightly sprung, one corner barked, and so on). More pointedly, how rare is it? And what is it worth?

Then there’s the small matter of what lies between the covers. What’s the book about?

Buying trends in the reference book market naturally follow other kinds of market trends. Fashions among art collectors in Russia, for example, powered an upturn in sales of books about Art Nouveau and the Impressionists (at least until the Russian stock market crashed in 2008). The point is, in a globalised books market, the savvy trader has to keep an eye out for fads and fashions far beyond their immediate circle.

The trade in fiction, too, feels the knock-on effects of fluctuations beyond the books business.

‘Fashion ramps up fashion,’ says Robert Brown. ‘This is particularly true of children's books: Tolkien, Rowling, CS Lewis. And film tie-ins: Ian Fleming, for example.’

“Art Nouveau Knives, Forks and Spoons”, by B. Grotkamp-Schepers and R. Sanger, published Arnoldsche, 2000.Image courtesy of Don Kelly Books. — “Art Nouveau Knives, Forks and Spoons”, by B. Grotkamp-Schepers and R. Sanger, published Arnoldsche, 2000.
Image courtesy of Don Kelly Books.

Rowling’s books, with their titanic spin-off movie franchise, of course fall into both these categories. Perhaps this is why a first-edition Harry Potter recently managed to break all the classic collectors’ rules – it was, of all things, a paperback, and not a particularly pristine one at that – and fetch £8820 at a Sotheby’s auction.

But even those time-honoured ‘classic’ values of the antiquarian collector are liable to drift and change. Robert Brown talks me through a few of the ways in which fashion has altered our appreciation of books as objects.

‘“Modern first editions” have been collected for about a century now,’ he says. ‘The value and reputation of authors changes over time – Kipling and Galsworthy used to fetch respectable amounts in the 1930s, now they are two-a-penny – but so does the condition of the artifact. Fifty years ago a modern first edition without a dust jacket was a saleable item; now the dust jacket is essential to get real money.

‘The Victorians liked finely rebound books: full morocco, calf, gilt and gilt edged. Modern collectors want the book in the original cloth. This is in pretty much all areas: fiction, travel, science. Fine travel and exploration books in their original state are particularly sought after at the moment,’ he adds, ‘as are science books.’

Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World, illustrated by Thomas Fogarty and George Varian, published New York: The Century Co., 1900.Image courtesy of Peter Harrington. — Joshua Slocum, *Sailing Alone Around the World*, illustrated by Thomas Fogarty and George Varian, published New York: The Century Co., 1900.
Image courtesy of Peter Harrington.

Of course, the trade has been seriously shaken up by two recent global changes – one hopefully transient, and the other very much here to stay. Covid-19 and its associated wave of lockdowns has wreaked havoc with ‘real world’ retail – but, as a curious corollary, the market in high-value rare books has actually experienced an upturn. All online book sales at Christie’s during the pandemic have surpassed their low estimates; a Heritage auction of books from the library of Otto Penzler doubled its estimate. ‘We’ve seen an uptick in participation and enthusiasm,’ Heritage rare books director James Gannon told Bloomberg. Darren Sutherland, a rare books specialist at Bonhams in New York, added: ‘People simply have more time and space and the wherewithal to pursue collecting.’

The internet, meanwhile, has allowed booksellers to extend the reach of their businesses – but has transformed the concept of a ‘rare’ book. Historically ‘hard-to-find’ editions quickly became surprisingly easy to find; prices by and large plummeted, although, Robert Brown points out, extremely rare books quickly disappeared off the market, and paradoxically became more difficult to find – and more expensive to buy.

This is, remember, a market in erratic motion. The books may be hidebound, but change is a constant. What sells and what doesn’t, what fetches a high price, what drops abruptly out of style – these are surprisingly complicated questions, and, however well a bookseller knows their trade, a surprise can always be right around the corner.

- With thanks to Don Kelly, and Robert Brown.