Rare Book Monthly

Articles - February - 2017 Issue

Edward Eberstadt & Sons: a story by Michael Vinson

Edward Eberstadt. 1883-1958

Edward Eberstadt. 1883-1958

Edward Eberstadt & Sons was in the 20th century, to quote William Reese who wrote the forward to Mr. Vinson’s interesting book, Edward Eberstadt & Sons, Rare Booksellers of Western Americana, “the largest and most influential dealer in important books and manuscripts relating to the American West.”  The firm, which was organized in 1908 would continue through two generations of Eberstadts ending in final disposal in 1975.

 

Many of the firm’s important catalogues were reprinted as a set in 1965 and today these records are included in search results in the Rare Book Hub Transaction Database.  Not many dealer catalogues have made this cut.*

 

Michael Vinson, the western Americana specialist, has written a book about the Eberstadts and in particular Edward Eberstadt.  He was a dealer and market-maker in a category of Americana that became a specialist area during the years he was a dealer in New York.  He handled very good books with the aplomb of a storyteller who knew both how to regale and sell.  He was a master and Mr. Vinson has brought him back to life based primarily on his correspondence that was given by his family to the Beinecke Library at Yale after his death.  This is a book well worth the read.

 

Mr. Eberstadt always wanted to be an honest man but when that failed he became a bookseller.  He wasn’t a crook and no, he wasn’t dishonest.  Not at all.  Rather he mastered the arts of finding the best material and charging the highest prices; something that would be harder to do today when copies and prices can be evaluated on the Internet.  So he checked other dealers’ catalogues and bought aggressively.  As I recall we have in our records the simultaneous catalogue runs of Midland Notes, Goodspeed’s and Eberstadt.  And when I looked at Goodspeed’s and Midland a few years ago you could see their copies moving into the Eberstadt stock.  And now it's clear where they often went:  into the best collections at the highest prices. 

 

As to how the Eberstadt descriptions and their determinations of importance have held up we now know for even under the intense scrutiny possible using the Internet, their references still appear.  But all skill sets have their day and the Eberstadts’ are most powerful when seen through the lens of a rear view mirror, the very mirror Mr. Vinson’s has provided.  Here’s how.    

 

Great dealers often have exceptional memories and Edward’s was among the best.  They are also sometimes graceful correspondents.  He was both.  The principal collectors and institutions in the category collected books and papers as well as the conversations, bon mots and ideas of the acknowledged master of the trade.  In some sense, if you were a great collector in his category in the day, you wanted to buy from him.  He was that good and it confirmed your connection with him.

 

His customer list would, in time, include many of the great collectors.  Huntington, Wagner, Streeter, Coe, the Beineckes, Graff, and DeGolyer, all of them serious players, all his customers as were many, perhaps most of the important collecting libraries of the era. 

 

The Eberstadt correspondence with institutions also suggests acceptance by scholars of his scholarship.  That is rare, possibly rarer than any of the books he sold them.

 

He and his sons, Charles and Lindley, today are remembered particularly for having produced extraordinary catalogues that became, even in their own time, essential documents for collectors, dealers, and institutions.  Not many dealers’ catalogues reach memorable status as theirs did.  Interestingly, Argosy, in New York, still has three complete sets of the 1965 collected reprint.  Serious collectors of the American west will, as five generations of readers already have, find them to be a powerful learning tool.

 

How and where to find this book?  On Amazon or Oak Knoll.

 

If you would like to contact the author here is his phone number and email address:

 

Michael Vinson Americana

P. O. Box 608

Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

 

307.654.1185

 

m_vinson@silverstar.com

 

Or, meet Michael at the ABAA Fair in Oakland, California February 10 – 12.  He’s at booth 813 and will have a dozen or so copies with him.  Obtaining a copy at the show guarantees your show experience will be a success.

* RBH members, using the advanced search, can select Eberstadt in the Source section to see 21,456 original listings 

Rare Book Monthly

  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
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    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
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    July 8, 2025
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    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
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