Bookstore Volunteer Don Weiss Talks about Vintage Collectables
Tell us about your background in collectables, Don.
About 15 years ago, I volunteered at the Hamilton County Friends in Ohio. I took over the bookstore’s art section after the prior volunteer retired. (I have a fine arts background and taught for several years.)
As my personal library grew with many old illustrated volumes, my interests slowly morphed into out-of-print books and collectables. It takes time to fully understand the research necessary to evaluate vintage collectables.
The Art of The Book by Charles Holme, a review of old paper, rough-cut pages, gilt edges, embossed covers and more, has always fascinated me. I enjoy finding beautiful, old volumes with uncut pages, so many of which are wonderfully gift inscribed in old cursive, but never read.
What makes a book rare?
Rare and collectable are different topics. To qualify as a rare book, it must be quite old and/or from a very small printed edition. We receive few, if any, truly rare books at the Friends of Venice Library Bookstore. But we were able to compile 15 books for our upcoming Silent Auction of Collectables running from Monday, November 18, through Friday, December 2, with something for everyone including two of local interest.
How to add to a collection
Collectors generally ask themselves three questions before adding to their collection: 1) what is the book’s condition; 2) what is the edition (publisher); and 3) how this book contributes to my collection. Buying rare books can be extremely expensive, but they don’t have to be. We can all can build our own collection as long as our selections are meaningful to us as collectors.
The Bookstore’s Vintage?Collectables
When setting up this area of our bookstore, we ran a feature for about one year that similar bookstores may have been missing. Our vintage/collectable selection was never meant to be a large area.
As we don’t know in advance what books would be donated, or when, selections are always hit or miss. For example, we once received a donation from what must have been a nice military history collection. Some were rather rare titles not often found. Unfortunately, most were severely underlined and annotated thus destroying most of their value as collectables.
When watching for books to appeal to the casual collector, I look for a book’s curb appeal – will it look good on the shelf. So, even when the title is not special, the value may be in the cover. (Apparently, sometimes you can judge a book by its cover!) Decorators and designers who want to upgrade a space for a client buy these books. Time is well spent doing subtle cleaning and repair to the books before adding to your collection.