Antique Bookmarks
The Last Word on First Editions
By Ben Marks — Strictly speaking, a book’s edition refers to the setting of the text. So the first time you set the text and print a book with it, and then sell a bound book that you’ve just printed, that’s the first edition, first printing. If you use the same setup of text and print it again, that would be the second printing—a printing is therefore a subclass of an edition. The printing is also called the impression, as in first or second impression. In general, the first edition, first printing...
To Catch A Thief: A Rare Book Expert on His Literary Obsessions
By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway — I don’t remember a time when I didn’t read books. In grade school, I devoured library books. I also loved comic books, and was wheeling and dealing them as a child—buying them for a nickel, sell them for dime. Bertrand Smith let me into the rare book room, and I bought a Maxwell Parrish "Arabian Nights." I bought an just for the illustrations. At the time I had no idea the artist was a Welsh woman named Gwynedd Hudson. Turns out she only illustrated two books—Alice and Peter Pan. I fell...
Silver Bookmarks Made By Gorham, Kirk, and Fabergé
By Maribeth Keane — I’m a packrat, so in 1995, I was itching to collect something. I went around to local flea markets here because they’ve got the Rose Bowl Flea Market and the one in Long Beach. I bought a few of those Russian lacquer boxes, but then couldn’t figure out the value or if they were real or what was going on with them. So I wanted to collect something else. Later that year I went to my cousin’s 25th wedding anniversary. Another cousin was there and I told her I’d been going around to the local...