Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2006 Issue
Bibliography, Bookbinding and Reference from Forest Books
Whole Art of Bookbinding with unknown author's handwritten changes.
Item 45 is a unique and important item for any bibliopegist, if that's a word. It is, The Whole Art of Bookbinding, Containing Valuable Recipes for Sprinkling, Marbling. Colouring, &c. Printed and Sold, for the Author, by N. Minshall. Forest describes this title as, "The first English book wholly devoted to bookbinding..." What makes this copy particularly desirable is that it contains the author's handwritten changes for the second edition. This copy is of the 1811 first edition, but the title has the handwritten notation "second edition, with additions," and many of the holographic changes made appear in the 1818 second edition. Then, you can add some mystery to this book, as the author remains unknown. Forest lists some possible names for the writer, including publisher Nathaniel Minshall, but concludes the most likely suspect is the holder of the copyright, bookseller and writer about bookbinding Henry Parry. The difficulty with this theory is that Parry died in 1814, four year before the second edition was published, but Forest notes that his wife continued in the business until 1819. £6,745 (US $11,986).
When Anderson Galleries sold the Robert Hoe collection in 1911, it was far and away the most valuable collection ever auctioned. It took in almost $2 million, which was more than the next four largest book auctions combined. So, the Illuminated Manuscripts, Incunabula and Americana From the Famous Libraries of the Most Hon. Philip Henry Kerr, the Marquess of Lothian... must have been an extraordinary collection, for Anderson described it in 1932 as "the most valuable and interesting to be sold by auction in this country since the Robert Hoe sales..." It was a small collection, 133 books and 35 manuscripts, but it brought in a healthy $410,000, quite a feat as the nation was then sinking into the deepest days of the Great Depression. Item 178. £85 ($150).
The website for Forest Books may be found at www.forestbooks.co.uk, and their phone number is +44 1949 - 842360.
