Book keeping
Their pages hold stories that are treasured by generations of readers – but some books are more valuable than others Words: Virginia Blackburn Photography: Corbis, Mary Evans, Getty Images Reading is meant to improve the mind but if you choose your books carefully, it can enhance your bank balance, too. Collecting antiquarian books – and [...]
Their pages hold stories that are treasured by generations of readers – but some books are more valuable than others
Words: Virginia Blackburn
Photography: Corbis, Mary Evans, Getty Images
Reading is meant to improve the mind but if you choose your books carefully, it can enhance your bank balance, too. Collecting antiquarian books – and modern ones – has never been more popular. The result is that even fairly recent publications can now be worth a great deal of money. Should you be fortunate enough to lay your hands on a fi rst edition of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, for example, you will be in possession of something worth at least £16,500 (and possibly several thousand pounds more). Only 300 copies of that fi rst edition were printed when it was fi rst published a decade ago.
“Books have always been collectable but before the invention of printing they were so expensive that they were only available to very few,” says Peter Miller of Yorkbased
book dealer Ken Spelman. “Dukes would commission ‘books of hours’ [illuminated liturgical manuscripts], and collect them and even when printing started, texts
remained very valuable. It wasn’t until the 19th century that books became cheaper and more available to a wider market, and that was also the time that collecting books became a pastime in which the wider public could indulge.”
The most popular books with collectors today are modern fi rst editions. James Holgate of Lucius Books, also based in York, points to a number of factors that increase a book’s appeal. “In the fi eld of non-fi ction, it is books that changed the way people think,” he says. “These would be science books, such as works by Charles Darwin. When it comes to novels, books are popular either because they’ve been fi lmed or televised or if they are now perceived to be modern classics. James Bond fi rst editions are extremely collectable. Depending on its condition, a copy of Casino Royale would be worth £10,000 to £25,000. Only 4,000 copies were printed when it came out in 1953 and Bond books were not collectable until the 1970s. Since then, there have always been more collectors than copies to be had.”
alt="A fi rst edition of book one from the Harry Potter series">
Unsurprisingly, the book’s condition makes a huge difference to its value. A book that was published with a dust jacket it no longer possesses will be worth far less
than one still all covered up; so much so that in some cases dust jackets are worth more than the actual book itself. Stains, tears and damp, either to the book or its
jacket will reduce the price. On the other hand, something in pristine condition could be extremely valuable.
alt="A fi rst edition of The Hobbit signed by the author J.R.R. Tolkien">
“Dust jackets fi rst emerged in the 1930s but many people took them off and threw them away because they liked to have shelves of cloth bindings,” says Holgate.
“That means they are very rare.” As an illustration, he points out that a fi rst edition of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf in perfect condition with its dust jacket
intact would be worth £25,000 to £30,000, while a poor quality copy with a damaged dust jacket or one that had gone missing would be worth much less at £3,000
to £4,000. The tidy 1930s’ book enthusiast was actually throwing something away that is now very precious.
Another hugely popular fi gure with book collectors is J.R.R. Tolkien. A fi rst edition of The Hobbit would be worth £12,000 to £25,000, depending on its condition and dust jacket status. If it has been signed, another factor that increases a book’s value, it would go up to £50,000. But fashion can be fi ckle. The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes in 1954–5, and when the fi lms came out, the price for a good fi rst edition complete set shot up to £35,000. Since then the value has receded slightly and the trio would now cost from £5,000 to £20,000.
alt="Sir Arthur Conan Doyle">
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fetches even higher prices. His fi rst Sherlock Holmes’ adventure was A Study in Scarlet, originally published in a magazine called Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1885. Should you get your hands on this book in its original wrapper, then place it immediately in the nearest safe as it’s worth between £75,000 and £125,000.
On a slightly less grand scale, P.G. Wodehouse is also very popular. Given that his writing career spanned from the 1900s to the 1970s there is a lot to choose from. His very early books are worth from £10,000 to £12,000, while fi rst editions of his works featuring Bertie Wooster and Jeeves go between £10,000 and £15,000. He was also marketed to America and Australia with dust jackets that are now period illustrations and as such, treasures in their own right.
alt="James Joyce">
Sometimes, the circumstances surrounding a book’s publication can have something to do with its worth. Ulysses by James Joyce was fi rst published in paperback
in Paris in 1922. There were 750 regular copies, of which Joyce signed 100, and some presentation copies. Any of these are now worth astronomical sums: at least £80,000 to £100,000. Recently, a copy that Joyce had inscribed to his brother went for a phenomenal £225,000.
But book collecting can also be done on a much more modest scale. Addendum Books, based in Langport, Somerset, specialises in mostly 19th-century children’s
books which are broadly divided into two camps: decorative (illustrated, sometimes including pop-ups or panoramas) and ephemeral (archives, diaries, almanacs and so on).
“My favourite books are hand-coloured books, from the early 1800s,” says Frankie Ashton, who runs Addendum Books. “Many publishers worked in St Paul’s Churchyard
[in London] alongside pamphleteers, until there were so many of them that they began to spill out down Ludgate Hill forming the beginnings of Fleet Street. One of these
publishers was John Harris, who produced children’s stories, including some we’d know today such as Humpty Dumpty and various early nursery rhymes.
“They were mass-produced but hand-coloured by a group of teenagers who would sit around a table passing round the blank engravings. One would colour in red, the
next blue and so on. They have a real feel of history to them.” Nor are they particularly expensive, ranging from £45 to £250. Ashdon currently has a coloured Aesop’s
Fables from 1830: at £250, it’s a relative snip.
Where to buy
- There are specialist book dealers all over the country. Try Ken Spelman (70 Micklegate, York, + 44 (0)1904 624 414;
www.kenspelman.com), Lucius Books (41Fossgate York, + 44 (0)1904 640 111;
www.luciusbooks.com) and Addendum Books (The Lodge, Pitney, Langpost, Somerset, + 44 (0)1458 259 279). - There are specialist auction houses, too. Two of the best-known are Dominic Winter Book Auctions (Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Nr Cirencester,
Gloucester, + 44 (0)1258 860 006; www.dominicwinter.co.uk) and London-based Bloomsbury Auctions (Bloomsbury House, 24 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London, + 44 (0)20 7495 9494; www.bloomsburyauctions.com), which also has sales rooms in New York and Rome. - An excellent way to collect books is by attendin g book fairs. The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association runs a website listing fairs and contact details at www.pbfa.org or you can contact it on + 44 (0)1763 248 400.
- The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers is another treasure trove of information; www.ilab.org
- One of the best-known websites that deals in antiquarian books is Abe Books at www.abebooks.com
- fi nally, befriend your local bookseller. It can be diffi cult for an amateur to identify a fi rst edition – different publishing houses have different rules –
so bring in the experts instead.
