Early Mormon material, and records pertaining to Texas, Michigan, Colorado, Virginia, California, etc., are in active demand, thus enabling the average dealer to place them without difficulty almost as fast as received. Furthermore, whereas a collector may become discouraged in buying a complete set of Signers because of the super-rarity of a few names, there is little difficulty in obtaining the two or three Signers belonging to the collector’s home state, to say nothing of famous Generals, literary lights, composers, etc.
The one, almost unchanging code of the collector should be to buy hand-written letters of good date, and of unusual, historical, or otherwise excellent content. Fine items seem to hold their value pretty well, even in times of financial stress, and with the years should edge upwards in price. Less desirable items will fluctuate considerably. To sum up, good autographs provide the best expectation for at least a fair dividend on the money invested. On the other hand, common items that have little to recommend them except cheapness, are almost invariably a disappointment as far as the hope of satisfactory returns, are concerned. There are occasional exceptions but this rule holds true 98% of the time. In closing, may I also stress the importance of being sure that what you purchase is genuine. Unless you are an expert yourself, the safest way is to acquire your pen treasures only through a dealer on whose reliability and experience you can absolutely depend.
Walter Hart Blumenthal, rare book specialist at 1775 Broadway, New York, is frequently called upon to contribute articles on odd books, such as for example a Shorthand Bible, a Latin Life of Washington, “Alice in Wonderland” in Esperanto, and a book bound in human skin. Shortly THE COLOPHON will present an article by Mr. Blumenthal on books in which the text and illustrations are pierced into the vellum, letter by letter, the pages being backed by colored silk. In all the world, only seven such early volumes are known, he states.
Rare book dealers should make good chiropractors because they know so much about “spines”.... To make Book Week successful, avoid displaying Weak Books.... It requires no earthquake to produce “shaken” books.
WANTED
AUTOGRAPHED
FREE FRANKLED ENVELOPES
WARREN L. BARR
420 21st St., N. W. Canton, Ohio
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