Collecting books
The gift of a well- chosen vintage novel will be cherished for years to come. Follow our guide for book- buying success this Christmas…
BUYING TIPS CONDITION
This is very important when you’re buying vintage or antique books for investment, so buy the best quality you can a ord. Watch out for tears, rubs on bindings, cracks to inner hinges, bleaching and damage to spines, and spotting of pages due to storage in a damp atmosphere. All of these will a ect value.
DUST JACKETS
If you’re interested in collecting modern first editions in hardback form, don’t be beguiled by books without their covers. The dust jacket and its design are the holy grail for serious collectors, and a jacketless book will be nowhere near as valuable as one with a wrapper.
INSCRIPTIONS
Written messages by authors inside copies of their own creations will at least double a book’s value. So next time there’s an author book- signing session at your local bookshop, get down there, especially if you have a hunch that a tome will be collectable in the future.
LEATHER LOOKS
Wonder why 18th and 19th- century books all look so similar? Works of this time were bound with boards to keep the dust o , with the expectation they would be rebound in leather or cloth by the buyer to match their library – this is why you see ranks of leather-bound tomes in historic houses. The elaborate cloth and leather bindings of the 1850s and ‘60s were often gilded and are known as ‘ Sixties’ bindings. Ironically, if you come across a book still with its original board bindings unchanged, you could be sitting on a gold mine as they are extremely rare and hunted by antiquarian book collectors. Illustrative paper dust jackets were introduced in the early 20th century.