Bloomsbury Auctions and Dreweatts Forge Alliance with Germany’s Hermann Historica

The brilliant new affiliation between Bloomsbury Auctions, Dreweatts and Hermann Historica offers HH a permanent presence in Bloomsbury Auctions’ Mayfair premises in Maddox Street, as well as representative offices in both New York and Rome,

Dreweatts will establish a branch in HH Munich headquarters with the intention of developing a strong foothold in the German-speaking European market.

This exciting news coincides with Hermann Historica’s appointment of Nick McCullough as an international consultant. Nick, with 32 years experience in the trade, was former head of Christie’s international Arms & Armour department.

Wolfgang Hermann, founding shareholder and partner in Hermann Historica, spoke of the alliance as only a positive move forward. ‘Like Bloomsbury, we deal with clients at the very pinnacle of our area of specialisation; the quality and location of their London, New York and Rome premises generously expands our options for future sale locations.’

Stephan Ludwig, Dreweatts’ Executive Chairman, added to this, ‘Hermann Historica is a highly regarded specialist auction house. I look forward to exploring the many potential business opportunities that a strong presence in southern Germany offers both Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions.’

May this alliance prove to be more than just a marriage of convenience. Good luck!

A fine set of 35 letters written by Charles Dickens has been added permanently to the Huntington Library’s collection. The letters, penned between 1838 – 1869, address a variety of people including John Leech and Hablot Knight Browne who were both illustrators for Dicken’s books, and Robert Lytton, Charles Ollier and Mary Nichols.

The collection was built by a New York rare book and manuscript dealer for his personal collection over a period of 40 years and has not been for sale until now. Only eight of the 35 in the group have been published.

Sara S. “Sue” Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at The Huntington, explains, “It is nearly unprecedented to see such an extensive group of Dickens letters available together from a private source. In 30 years as a curator, I have never before seen a collection like this offered.”

For more info, please visit: http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=596

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

reviewed by R M Healey

The notorious book thief William Jacques was arrested on Christmas Day 2009 after two years on the run. He had been caught walking out of the Lindley Library with £50,000 worth of rare horticultural books under his jacket. Earlier in the decade he had been sentenced to four years for stealing £1m worth of books from various libraries, including the Cambridge University Library. How long will this pest be locked up this time—a year, two years?

Whatever the length of sentence, Jacques will be free again long before someone who steals from a little old lady or a bank is released, even though the harm such white-collars offenders do can be more serious, but in a wholly different way. Money or objects  can be recovered and pensioners comforted, but when stolen books are damaged or fail to be recovered, obvious harm is done to our intellectual heritage; unfortunately all the legal authorities see is someone guilty of the distinctly gentlemanly crime of purloining books. Such a character is John Gilkey, the central figure of Allison Hoover Bartlett’s racy narrative.

But Gilkey didn’t steal from libraries and was different to Jacques in a number of other ways. His main modus operandi was to steal credit card details while working as a sales assistant and to pass himself off as the cardholder while ordering rare books on the phone. He would then supply the name of a hotel as an address. Sometimes, a member of his family would collect the books from the dealer on his behalf. He was usually successful. Rarely has book thieving been so easy. Apparently, technologists can bring us the Internet, but no-one has worked out how to prevent thieves from using it and the telephone to deprive dealers of their valuable stock . In this respect Gilkey—a college dropout from a family of kleptomaniacs—proved himself to be possibly more intelligent than many of the absurdly trusting dealers he defrauded. But Gilkey didn’t steal to sell on. Unlike the profit-motivated Jacques, an Oxbridge graduate born with all the advantages that this status suggests, Gilkey though dirt poor, only sold books he didn’t want to keep, and then only out of desperation for ready cash. All he ever wanted was a private library of mainly modern firsts that would prove to the world that he was a worthwhile, cultured person. When asked by Bartlett if he was aware of the harm he was doing to the livelihoods of the dealers he swindled in pursuit of  his dream his response was always the solipsistic ‘How  can I acquire a library without these books ? Though aware of the moral dimension of his crimes, he never lost any sleep over it.

Bartlett’s story is mainly devoted to Gilkey, but the minor characters, principally Ken Saunders, the self-styled ‘bibliodick’, an aging hippy bookseller from Salt Lake City determined to snare the miscreant---and the various West Coast dealers, Gilkey’s victims—flit in and out of the narrative, which is also peppered with juicy anecdotes of treasures discovered in book barns and in the drawers of bureaus. And there is the ever present voice of Bartlett herself—a rare book virgin less that a decade ago, who by the close of her story has become a devotee. And as dealers rarely seem to ask themselves why they continue to pursue such a comparatively financially unrewarding trade ( especially with people like Gilkey around ), her voice—the voice of the tyro—probing, questioning, sometimes incredulous at what she finds, deserves to be heard. Psychological profile, detective story, philosophical investigation. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is all these and more. It deserves to become as classic of its kind.

An exceptional copy of the Shakespeare’s second folio will go under the hammer at PBA Galleries on February 8, 2010.

The “tall” well-margined edition was rebound in full morocco in the middle of the 19th century by the firm of J. Leighton for the owner, Robert Curzon, who was the 14th Baron Zouche, a noted traveller, scholar and collector.

The gilt arms on the morocco front cover reads: “What Curzon Helde. Let Curzon Holde,” and “R. Curzon, Parham” is written on the front flyleaf.

Aside from some minor restoration to the title-page and final leaf, this is a very fine copy in collectible condition.

The Bard of Avon’s second folio has an estimated sale price of $200,000 - $300,000.

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