Thursday, May 21, 2015

Antiquarian Book News

Blackwell's Rare Books

Blackwell's Rare Books seeks an experienced rare book dealer for a leading role at their shop in central Oxford.

More details can be found here or contact derek.walker@blackwell.co.uk by May 26th 2015.

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From the National Library of Scotland: Callum Macdonald Award winner

One of the longest running small publishing houses in Scotland — Mariscat Press — has swept the boards at this year's national competition that recognises excellence in poetry pamphlet publishing.

Mariscat Press, which has been run since 1982 by Hamish Whyte, won both first and second place in the 2015 National Library of Scotland Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. There were thirty-one entries.

The winning pamphlet is ‘Prodigal’ by Jim Carruth, the current Glasgow Makar, and the runner-up is ‘A witch among the gooseberries’ by Ian McDonough. Both are published by Mariscat Press.

The annual Callum Macdonald Memorial Award was established in 2001 in memory of Callum Macdonald MBE, Scottish literary publisher and founder of Macdonald Publishers and Printers. Its aim is to encourage, recognise and reward the publication of poetry in pamphlet form.

Mariscat Press has built up a reputation as a high quality publisher and has worked with leading writers including Douglas Dunn, Edwin Morgan, Janice Galloway, A L Kennedy, Brian McCabe, Stewart Conn, Diana Hendry and Gael Turnbull. It previously won the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award in 2011. The award carries a first prize of £800 and £400 for the second.
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Inscribed Peter Pan

One of the highlights from this year’s London International Antiquarian Book Fair will be a first edition of Peter Pan which J.M. Barrie dedicated to the woman he clashed with throughout his life. Barrie rarely signed his books but this one is an exception and signed for the nanny to the boys who inspired the work. The inscription reads: “To Mary Hodgson with kindest regards from JM Barrie Jan 1907.”

Los Angeles-based rare books dealer David Brass discovered the book in January and is now offering it for sale for £20,000. He said: “It is a fascinating story. Mary Hodgson had such an important role in the thought process behind Peter Pan. In the book the children’s nanny became a Newfoundland dog called Nana. It is felt that Hodgson had a difficult relationship with Barrie but she kept the copy of Peter Pan in good condition, putting her own cover around it.
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War of the Worlds illustrations sell


A drawing of a Martian from HG Wells’ War of the Worlds sold for $32,500 at Heritage Auctions in California on Thursday 14 May 2015.

In the book the Martians, beginning in Horsell Common, in Woking, Surrey use tripod fighting machines to blaze a trail of destruction through the countryside. The depictions were the work of Brazilian artist Henrique Alvim Corrêa, commissioned for the 1906 edition of the novel.

Other highlights from the collection of thirty-one original drawings included a pencil and ink drawing of an invasion, featured as the title page of ‘Book I: The Coming of the Martians’, which sold for $21,500.
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From the British Library

Thefts of rare books, maps and manuscripts from national libraries have sparked such alarm that international experts are joining forces to stop any further vandalism to the world’s cultural heritage.

Lawyers and librarians, booksellers and auctioneers will descend on the British Library next month for a major conference whose title — The Written Heritage of Mankind in Peril — conveys the seriousness of the problem.

The first conference of its kind follows a series of devastating thefts from libraries. The losses include volumes created hundreds of years ago, some mutilated by having single sheets brutally removed with scalpels.

Tens of thousands of historic books and manuscripts are thought to be missing, according to a leading art lawyer, Chris Marinello, head of Art Recovery International, in London.

He believes such thefts are increasing because criminals are seeing prices for legitimate sales soar into seven figures. The 1640 Bay Psalm Book was sold by Sotheby’s for a record £8.73 million.

Marinello said: “In the past, libraries were aware of the value of their books, but not necessarily [their] contents … That material was never really catalogued or scanned.” Thieves with razors and scissors have been able to walk away with extremely valuable objects. He added: “Library security has to improve. They’ve been kind of shocked into that.”

The conference takes place on June 26. The keynote speech will be delivered by Professor Norman Palmer QC, one of the UK’s foremost legal experts on cultural issues. He said: “We hear a lot about the theft of art and antiquities. Less prominent are illegal takings from libraries. Books, manuscripts and archives have tended to be — certainly in terms of legal scrutiny — a bit of a Cinderella.”

The loss of cultural heritage is “devastating”, according to Howard Spiegler, a prominent American lawyer and one of the conference organisers. His New York firm, Herrick, Feinstein, has handled major cases involving the restitution of cultural property from sovereign nations.

The British Library has had its share of thefts, including a 1520 map which was recovered after it was stolen by Edward Forbes Smiley, a smartly dressed dealer who also targeted American institutions. His crime spree came to an end after he left behind his razor blade in 2005.
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