Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - March - 2020 Issue

Baedeker and Other Travel Guides from Shapero Rare Books

Baedekers and other guides.

This month, Shapero Rare Books takes us on an international trip. The catalogue's title is Baedeker & General Travel Guides. While not as well known in America, the “Baedekers” have been the most used of travel guides on the Continent and England for almost two centuries. They have been favored since people were getting around in boats, on horses, and on foot.

 

Baedeker is a German firm, established by Karl Baedeker in 1827. While guides were published in Germany, there have been editions in French and English since the second half of the 19th century. They have helped travelers visit places throughout Europe, and occasionally more exotic locations, like India, Egypt, Palestine, Russia, and the United States. The Baedekers are usually comprehensive guides with maps to help tourists get around. They point out the important sites.

 

The survival of Baedeker in the 20th century is in itself a remarkable feat. The firm was doing very well, with its British English-language guides quite popular, when World War I broke out. Those guides would come to a halt, and German tourists, naturally, stopped traveling to English-speaking and various other locales. After the war, resentment made Germany less than a desirable tourist spot, and next came the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism. Follow that up with World War II and the division of Germany into East and West and it was a rough few decades for Baedeker. Nevertheless, the Baedeker family persevered and started up again after WWII. They continued until 1984, when running out of heirs to continue the business, it was sold to corporate owners. It continues today. Here are few selections from the 423 travel guides found in this catalogue, 304 of them Baedekers.

 

After Karl Baedeker died in 1859, management of the firm went to his eldest son, Ernst. Ernst lived for only two more years, but it was during his brief tenure that Baedeker published its first guide in English. The title is Rhine from Switzerland to Holland. That includes Northern Germany and Berlin along with a side trip to Copenhagen. The 260-page guide contains 12 engraved views and 24 maps and plans. Item 52 is a first edition, published in 1861. There would be 18 subsequent editions until the last, in 1926. Priced at £3,000 (British pounds, or approximately $3,984 U.S. dollars).

 

The fourth Baedeker to run the company was Fritz, and his era saw the greatest expansion. In 1893, he published the first guide to America, United States with an Excursion into Mexico. This was the first Baedeker guide originally written in English. The writer was James Muirhead, who would go on to publish another series of well-known travel books, the “Blue Guides.” Item 102 is the first edition, containing 17 maps and 22 plans. £400 (US $527). Shapero also has later editions of this guide, from 1899 and 1909.

 

A year later, Baedeker evidently concluded the French would also like to visit America. Published in 1894, item 121 is Etats-Unis (United States). This one also has the 17 maps and 22 plans. It is hard to find. £350 (US $466).

 

Next is Southern Germany, and the end of the best times for Baedeker. It was published in 1914, the last pre-war edition. It was the twelfth edition of this guide, and only one more would be published, in 1929, just before another disaster hit. Item 55. £80 (US $104).

 

Here is a guide published at a notable moment in time in Germany. It is Deutsches Reich und Einige Grenzgebiete (German Empire and some border areas), published in 1936. It was published in conjunction with the Olympics of that year, a tense event as other nations came to a country controlled by Hitler. A plan for the games was provided in the rear pocket. It contains 33 maps and 75 plans. Most of the town squares, bridges, etc., show the Germanized names given by the Nazi regime. There is also a slip noting the change in the name of Saarlouis to Saarlautern. The “louis” part of Saarlouis was named after French King Louis XIV and the Nazis were not going to accept cities named for French rulers. It changed back in 1945. Item 177. £325 (US $422).

 

This is an atypical Baedeker guide. The title in Generalgouvernement. That was the name given to a part of Poland that was occupied by Germany in 1943. The name went back to Russian days in the territory and was used by the Germans from 1914-1918 during the previous war. The German government requested Baedeker publish this guide for occupation troops. This is the first and only edition, from 1943. Item 179. £250 (US $333).

 

Item 371 is La Belgique et Nassau; ou le touriste continental (Belgium and Nassau, or the continental tourist), published in 1838. This is an “other” guidebook, that is, not from Baedeker. It was published by Black & Armstrong of London. It is a scarce French edition. This copy is notable as it came from the library of Empress Marie-Louise. She was the second wife of Napoleon. He divorced #1, Josephine, because she bore him no children and Marie-Louise was the daughter of the Austrian King, giving the Emperor more of the royal legitimacy he lacked. They were together for a few years, and evidently reasonably happy, but he went into exile, she left France, and remarried after Napoleon's death in 1821. She lived another 26 years, which explains her owning an 1838 guide. £1,250 (US $1,666).

 

Shapero Rare Books may be reached at +44 (0)20 7493 0876 or rarebooks@shapero.com. Their website is www.shapero.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions