OLD BOOKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1941, Page 8

OLD BOOKS

BRING BRITAIN MORE THAN MILLION DOLLARS. SHIPMENTS TO AMERICA. A few weeks ago a parcel was carefully packed and sent by ordinary post from Berkeley Square, London, to Titusville, U.S.A. In it was a single book, “The Greater American Voyages” by Theo de Bry (1590-1634). In exchange a postal package containing 4,500 dollars will come back to Berkeley Square. The man who sold the book is doing today 350,000 dollars worth of business a year in rare books with the United States alone; and the total annual turnover to Britain from this source is estimated at 1,000,000 dollars. American buyers are of two kinds: public libraries, and rich private collectors. Both categories of collectors will give very high prices for rare publications. For example ,the Titusville collector mentioned paid no less than 7,500 dollars for two leaves of paper. It was an early “broadside” dated 1470.

Libraries commonly list their requirements and state the maximum price. They also acquire, from time to time, items of historical importance. For example Philadelphia Library recently bought for 1,025 dollars the first Bible published in the States, the famous “Aitken” Bible (1782).