Acquisitions 2021

Might as well start up a year-appropriate thread!

Thanks to the stimulus I finally got 5 of the 6 remaining Series 1 books I need heading my way! I did not grab Gulliver yet, but I have these coming:
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving/Frederic Goudy
Undine by Friedrich de La Motte-Fouque/Allen Lewis
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe/Edward A. Wilson
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe/Rene Clarke
The Travels of Baron Munchausen by Rudolphe Raspe/John Held

Condition varies a bit on these, but I am hopeful that all will arrive in very good condition.

>1 WildcatJF:

Do not have the Rip Van Winkle--looking forward to that!

>1 WildcatJF: Since I don't have any of Series 1, I'm especially jealous :) I've had too many acquisitions this year to list to anybody's interest, so I'll just highlight two:

1. Gargantua and Pantagruel, Near Fine condition. Getting it for much, much less than the Folio Society LE costs only adds to my pleasure. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

2. The Book of The Thousand and One Nights, also Near Fine but lacking its slipcases. Not a huge factor for me as I enjoy making cases. Besides being in outstanding condition, it came with the unexpected revelation that it was once owned by a minor celebrity from my hometown of Chicago. The revelation aspect was the cool part, as it came in the form of a telegram tucked inside a volume. I love surprises like that :)

>3 AMindForeverVoyaging:

I think you will enjoy the Rabelais: the translation by LeClercq is the best in that it really finds an English equivalent for Rabelais' double entendres and puns.

>3 AMindForeverVoyaging:

If you like good deals on Rabelais, may I also suggest this edition?

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8798292232&searchurl=bi%3D...

200 copies, 3 large volumes on great paper. All the extant works including Gargantua and Pantagruel. With the caveat that not everyone finds Alexander King to their taste. Perfect for Rabelais though.

Interesting thing about the above edition is that apparently the publisher also released 1,300 more copies of this, same binding (different color spine), same text and typography, but with a different illustrator and published in the same year...I don't think I've ever heard of a publisher doing that before. I'm basing this on listings. Haven't seen a copy of the other "edition" in person.

>5 MobyRichard: Goodness, that is tempting. Thank you for the food for thought. Rabelais + King might prove impossible to resist ...

Alas, the copy of Undine I ordered was canceled; apparently the seller forgot to remove it from their inventory. I'll probably hold off on a reorder for a little while until some others show up at a good price. Abe is not my preferred means of ordering LECs and this is why lol.

Well, I decided to look around and found another copy of Undine on Amazon for like half the price I paid for the one that was canceled. So I wandered around and found a couple fairly cheap LECs to make up the price difference. I don't typically like shopping on Amazon for LECs as their listings are ALL OVER the place and can be difficult to parse, but I did find a set of Evergreen Tales (the 2nd with Beauty & the Beast, Dick Whittington and his Cat, and St. George & the Dragon) and the 1933 Lyrics of Francois Villon for remarkably cheap, and seeing as those don't have Heritage reprints I decided to pull the trigger and see what happens. Hopefully I won't run into any more issues and snagged a few deals!

Good luck with those purchases. I know from experience Amazon can be treacherous for LECs. I had ordered The Voice of the City, advertised as the LEC and even with a photo, and instead received a 1970 version that some corporation handed out as a Christmas gift. It was in a slipcase and limited to 1,500, so I can see why the seller was confused lol

I have my first Series 1 coming my way - The Decameron! Some checking revealed that, other than the Shakespeare series, this was the only series I didn't have a single title from through Series 49.

Picked up a few LECs so far this year, my favourites being:
Les Miserables
Dubliners
Heart of Darkness (1969)

Also picked up a copy of the Heritage Press Romeo and Juliet (1937), which is a great little book.

>10 EdmundRodriguez: Quite the haul, those are some nice books, the HP Romeo and Juliet is a gem. Les Mis is large but I feel that Lynd Ward's illustrations work well. The LEC Dubliners is a really good size match for the Folio Society Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. I never picked up a copy of the LEC Heart of Darkness after acquiring the Chester River Press edition, what do you think of it?

I finally snagged the HP three volume "Arabian Nights" (Angelo illustrations) in great condition, with slip cases in great condition, and a Sandglass insert.

>11 kdweber:
Heart of darkness only arrived today, so I'll have to wait until I've read it to give a full assessment. However, first impressions are good. I like the illustrations (particularly the double page spreads) and the paper seems nice. Probably not up to the level of the Chester River Press version, but definitely still a high quality edition and sufficient for me!

I got a Quarto-Millenary!

I read this site religiously, but seldom post, as I feel like the country mouse.

There was a Quarto-Millenary I had been eyeing on Abe for quite a while. It was an ex-library book in "good" condition going for $20. After I placed my order, I was asked to approve an extra $2 over the $5 postage (Don't they KNOW this in advance? Why do they say, "MAY require extra postage"?)

The book arrived in a bubble-wrapped envelope that had been punctured, resulting in an inch-long gouge on the back board. Additionally, there were huge coffee stains on several pages (not my idea of "good" condition).

Fortunately, the seller gave a complete refund because of the damage and let me keep the book. So while the coffee stains make me wince, I DO now have a copy of this wonderful resource.

>14 maisiedotes: It'll cost you! Most of us buy a bunch more LECs after getting a copy of the Quarto-Millenary.

>14 maisiedotes: Oooof, that's the sort of horror story I wince about. At least the seller let you keep the book and refunded you though. It's a marvelous book and an incredible enabler hahaha.

Three of my books arrived today! The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is in excellent shape; just some slight sunning to the spine and the slipcase is darkened, but internally it's near perfect and the boards are still nice and shiny. Definitely got a bargain on this one. Rip Van Winkle is in pretty amazing condition considering most of the spines I've seen for copies were demolished; this one has a bit of a scratch on it but otherwise is sound and intact. Interior is good, too. No slipcase, but I took a gamble on it and came away aces. My 1st series Baron Munchausen was the biggest risk I took as it was noticeably cheaper than other copies, and...it's not in the best of shape. It has a ton of flaking to the spine leather, a fair amount of foxing and the boards are dulled. It's lacking a slipcase, too. But, for now, it will suffice and I can always replace it down the road.

>11 kdweber: "I never picked up a copy of the LEC Heart of Darkness after acquiring the Chester River Press edition, what do you think of it?"

Ken, if I may throw in my 2 cents worth, I am a huge fan of the 1969 Heart of Darkness (and abhor the later version with Sean Scully's textile designs). The binding design has just the right sense of eeriness. Richard Ellis's overall design is faultless, the Monotype letterpress is exquisite, and the paper is very, very good though not up to the luxurious standards of the top Limited Editions Club papers.

Special notice must be given to Robert Shore's illustrations: I find them wonderful, and a wonderful concept on the illustrator's part: he used sheets of plywood with very strongly-figured grain patterns, and then used semi-transparent paint, which let the grain show through the color. Thus the grain creates ripples in the water, the actual deck planking on the riverboat, cloud striations, heat waves, and the silk moiré of a dress. Some may say it's a gimmick, but when it works so effectively, how is it less a gimmick than van Gogh's blobs of paint creating a three dimensional effect?

I don't have the ML for the LEC so I am unable to provide more specifics than what appear in the colophon, but I still have my New York HP from when I was in the Heritage Club and it is also very desirable--I swear, if it were published today by the Arion Press as an exact duplicate, it would be considered a triumph for that institution (and would probably cost $500).

>14 maisiedotes: Hide your wallet!

Tracking shows that my Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus has just landed in my hometown. Probably one more week (our postal system is terrible) and I will be holding it in my hands. My first LEC book!

>15 kdweber:
>16 WildcatJF:

I'm exer...cising ... self-......con......trol.......

Speaking of replacing: how does one go about selling? How do you make it worth the effort?

Wildcat, enjoy your new acquisitions. I've read with envy your treasures unearthed in bookstores. I only became acquainted with "old books" during the pandemic. I'm in Northern California, and I hope to browse in a store or two once things open up (I don't know any locations yet!).

>18 Lukas1990: I'm glad my husband can't view my Abe account!

I hope you'll describe what it's like receiving your first LEC.

>20 maisiedotes: Just my three cents: (inflation, you know). The bulk of my LECs have been purchased through eBay. I much prefer it to ABE, primarily due to the fact that a good seller will include a number of photographs of the book visible at near full size. Also, it is fairly easy to ask questions or make an offer (even when one isn't solicited). Many of the sellers are established booksellers as are on ABE. You can tell by the other books they have.
And then there are auctions. I just got two very nice LECs for $29.95 (the starting bid) where I was the only bidder. Because it is easy to see what other copies are on offer at a given time with the search engine, you can get a good idea of going prices.

>19 maisiedotes: I haven't got that far in terms of thinking of how to sell Baron; I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon. I rarely sell books, but if I do, there's a store I go to in Monterey, CA that I trade in Heritage Press titles for. They offer decent credit and I usually can find a book or several to spend it on, haha. For LECs, I've only had experience trading one in to a different shop in Monterey that specializes in rare books, and it was fine, but I didn't get a lot for it.

>21 laotzu225: $29.95 for two very nice LECs should bring a smile to one's face! How does buyer protection compare on eBay vs. Abe?

>22 WildcatJF: I'll put Monterey on my excursion list.

The rest of my Series 1 orders rolled in today! My Undine is BEAUTIFUL. The biggest issue is a small chip is missing from the top and bottom of the spine, but the interior is vibrant and sharp and the boards are exquisite. The slipcase is a little banged up so it did its job!

Robinson Crusoe has some severe sunning and a bit of staining to the spine, but otherwise it's marvelous. And to be honest, given the binding style for this book, which reminds me of a nautical journal, it sort of works, haha. It's a shame Grabhorn had such a fallout with Macy following this, as it's a very nice edition! No slipcase on this one, but it was a good price.

I'll hope that the other two random LECs I ordered turn out well too!

>24 WildcatJF:

Jerry, although I like a lot of things about the Defoe book, some things bother me, as I'm sure they bothered Macy:

1) Grabhorn cut up the elaborate title art Wilson did because he thought it was too busy. Macy later used it as Wilson created it for the HP, and I think it works just fine. (Wilson was apparently VERY upset, not only because Grabhorn never consulted him about modifying it, but because the way in which he removed the top part was very clumsy.

2) The Colt Armory press as set up for this book had such a deep bite that the indentation shows through on the reverse of the page. I know many here are very fond of that style of letterpress, and I do prefer a bite impression to a kiss impression, but when it can be felt and seen on the other side--well, save that kind of impression for books in Braille. (Incidentally, when I worked in a print shop in college, the Heidelberg Windmill press thy had made several study texts in Braille for our sight-impaired students.)

3) The paper chosen has so pronounced a texture that the reproduction of the illustrations exhibits a marked "saltiness," which again may be appropriate for a journal by a mariner, but I prefer the smooth areas of color in the HP versions.

All in all, I still think the book is a beautiful book, probably the most beautiful in Series One, but I don't think two strong-willed, opinionated people such as Macy and Grabhorn could have ever worked together--financial considerations aside.

>25 Django6924: All fair points, but having not seen the Heritage, I'm pretty contented with it all things considered. It definitely is a "salty" book, haha.

It's wild to have 11 of the 12 books in Series 1. This is the closest I've ever been to a full series! Kind of blows my mind haha.

>26 WildcatJF: What are you missing?

>27 kdweber: Book #1, Gulliver's Travels. It's averaging $150-200 at the moment, so I'm going to wait a bit to pick that up.

>28 WildcatJF:
Indeed I just paid slightly more than that for it NF! Should probably have exercised patience, but that’s one competitor out of the way when your 100 USD Mint copy turns up!

Other recent acquisitions:
- The Golden Cockerel (thanks in no small part to a post of Don’s on this forum)
- The Frogs - also quite lovely
- the earlier (BR) Shakespeare’s Poems, second attempt to get one without foxing...
- Tartuffe (1930)
- Suetonius, sadly Like New except - a big exception - two fully broken hinges. Full refund, but it’ll cost me more to fix. Only such issue with an OB/SV Mardersteig book so far at least.
- Nostromo, annoyingly somewhat damaged en route

And The bridge of San Luis Rey on the way.

I’ve been unlucky in picking up a couple of LECs with foxing, particularly Shakespeare’s Poems (twice now) and Tartuffe. Whether foxing spreads feels like a question of fact rather than opinion, but I struggle to read my way to a fact-based view. I value your judgements - do you shelve separately, encase/entomb, destroy by fire or treat like normal books with mild foxing?

Struggling to find a nice 3-vol Brothers Karamazov at any price and a number of wishlist LECs at reasonable prices. Looking forward to spending a decade searching.

>28 WildcatJF: It's been a few years since I collected the first series, then expanded my goal to the first 50 LECs after I picked up the first 50 Monthly Letters LEC. I'm not a big fan of the Alexander King illustrations. Bought without a slipcase or Monthly Letter, it is now housed in the second slipcase I ever made. Of my five copies of Gulliver's Travels, my favorite is the first HP edition illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg. I had to replace a later reprint of the HP after I found out about it from Robert (>25 Django6924:). Beautiful paper and a great binding. It looks like the price of most LECs are increasing at the moment. While I was picking up most of my collection they appeared to be going in the other direction.

>29 GusLogan: You've been busy!

>25 Django6924: I acquired Robinson Crusoe this year and really love it. All of the points you mention are true but the only one that really bothers me is the butchered title art. It's so clumsy and obvious and just so unnecessary. But I actually really like everything else about it. It all somehow seemed so right for the type of book it is and the story it's telling. I love the texture of the paper and the way the illustrations appear on it. It's one of my favorite LECs that I've gotten so far.

Other acquisitions:

- The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (LEC)—this would probably be considered a more run-of-the-mill LEC but even those are just so much nicer than anything you can get nowadays without spending hundreds of dollars. It was my first time reading it (or anything by Henry James) and I loved it. James invests the common intercourse of everyday living with all the tension of a hostage negotiation. It was a wild ride.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Heritage)—again, I know this one is pretty divisive with the shiny plasticky orange binding but I loved it as well and thought it was very appropriate to the story. Again, somehow I'd never made it around to reading this and it was a great read although depressingly prophetic.
- The Wall by John Hersey (LEC)—I love the production and illustrations. I haven't read it yet but it looks fascinating albeit very grim.
- A Lost Lady by Willa Cather (LEC)—another beautiful little production and a really beautiful and nostalgic story.

I also picked up some books last year that I didn't add to the 2020 thread:

- The Odyssey of Homer (the Enschede press one)—it's too beautiful and I'm too nervous to read it. It also has uncut pages and I'm too nervous to cut them.
- Zulieka Dobson by Max Beerbohm (LEC)—I love the design which seems to fit the book so well, and what a strange little book it is.
- Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (LEC)—lovely design, haven't read it yet
- I Promessi Spossi by Alessandro Manzoni (LEC)—beautiful in every way. The story is amazing, the design is impeccable.
- The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper (LEC)—I love the illustrations in this and the story is great
- The Decameron by Bocaccio (LEC)—another stunning book with amazing paper and the stories were pretty wild. Apart from all the sex, it has death, and beatings and accidental cannibalism—I'm surprised there's not more interest in the classics these days.
- Salammbo by Flaubert (LEC)—this also has an incredible amount of violence and death and sacrifice and sex—again, why are more people not reading these?
- The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (LEC)—the grandaddy of mystery novels doesn't disappoint
- The Diary of a Country Priest (LEC)—a beautiful book with some of the nicest paper I've ever touched. The story was brutal and I'm still deciding what I thought about it.
- The Diary of Benvenuto Cellini (LEC)—another stunner and holy cow, Cellini is hilarious. He will freaking kill you if you steal his saddle or his girl and he casts a pretty darn good Perseus and is not at all shy about letting you know it.

Good news on my random Amazon books:

* The Lyrics of Villon is practically like new. The book still had the glassine and the interior, outside of the prints bleeding onto the opposite page, is perfect. The slipcase is a little banged up but I couldn't be happier about getting a book from 1933 in this condition.
* My 2nd series of Evergreen Tales was truly the bargain, though. While the spines are sunned and the slipcase is split, the interiors of the three books are excellent as are the boards.

Both run me $20 each, so I can't complain one bit!

>32 WildcatJF: Only three more Evergreen sets to go. The Villon can usually be found for a good price. I assume your copy exhibits the usual heavy offsetting from the illustrations?

>33 kdweber: Well, I have three other sets (1, 3, and 4), so I just need the last one to have them all now.

And yes, that is definitely how I would describe the Villon. Pretty much each illustration is transposed on the other page.

I recently relocated to NC and haven't had much time to add to my collection. Well, the last couple weeks have been very good to me. I purchased a good copy of the 1934 1001 Nights illustrated by Valenti Angelo w/ all 3 slip cases in good condition. A good copy of 1932 Droll Stories with a good slipcase and an excellent copy of Le Morte D/Arthur.
Still on my wish list is the Count of Montecristo....

>35 jpinomaha: Just this past couple of months I read all Dumas published by the LEC, except the Man in the Iron Mask and really enjoyed them. Today, I am half way through The Count Of Monte Cristo but it is a struggle. It is so much different than the Musketeers romances. Will see how I feel once I finish it.

>35 jpinomaha:

Count of Monte Cristo is very difficult to find in decent condition for less than stratospheric pricing.

Picked up a nice copy of the HP Valenti Angelo illustrated Shakespere's Sonnets for the wife's birthday. She was tickled.

Picked up the LEC - Brothers Karamazov !

>38 Glacierman: Lucky wife! How wonderful that you two share a love of fine books. Valenti Angelo's illustrations are a picker-upper.

So far, for me 2021 seems to be leaning toward exploring mostly post-Macy LEC offerings.

• The Flounder (1985)


• The Adventures of Simplicissimus (1981)


• The Dead Sea Scrolls (1966)


• The Masque of Comus (1954)

All of these seem like tremendous deals based on the quality of the productions, though I think I paid around current individual sale market rate for fine condition in all cases (considerably less than 100 USD each with the exception of The Flounder, for which I paid less than 200 USD).

Shiff sure did like to make large form factor books.

The Flounder is probably the strangest of these. The quality and thoughtfulness of almost all the elements are remarkable, especially for the price it seems to go for now. Excellent presswork, one of my favorite bindings (quarter eel skin that feels supple and, perhaps surprisingly, durable), excellent paper (with a very faint blue green hue that evokes water), three volumes (I prefer long novels to be broken into multiple volumes generally), signed and illustrated by a winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, and the art actually functions well both as book illustration and fine art (unlike some of the livres d'artiste Shiff produced). Despite all that acclamation, Ben Shiff did make some questionable choices in the design. The shape of the books is horizontal, more landscape than portrait, though not quite as wide as full landscape. I think this choice is supposed to evoke roughly the pancake shape of a flounder, but the primary practical effect is absolutely huge outside margins which seem ostentatious for all pages that lack illustration. Additionally, while the presswork is flawless, paragraphs lack both indentation and noticeable leading, which to my eye is a design mistake.

Comus hasn't actually arrived yet, so perhaps I am jumping the gun, but hopefully it arrives soon and as described.

The 1933 Brothers Karamazov actually would have been on my list of 2021 acquisitions as well, but the USPS lost the package! The shipment was tracked and the seller was professional, so no loss on my part. It was insured, so presumably no loss on the seller's part either, but the copy was in good condition given the age; for the state of LEC books in the world I hope someone finds it at some point and treats the set well.

>41 abysswalker:
If you get no other early Shiff production, you must have The Secret Sharer (1985). It’s just about perfect, in all respects, and can often be found in Fine condition for under $100.

>41 abysswalker:

The Flounder is really odd: not only the story, and not only the LEC design, but the fact that the signature of the artist/author/Nobel Prize Winner is usually found for such low prices. One would think it should sell close to the 4-figure range. I like it very much, but I have always been a big fan of Grass.

>42 kermaier: The Secret Sharer looks delightful; thanks for the pointer.

I now have a near pristine copy of the 1953 LEC edition of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers on the way. Already have the 1932 edition, also in excellent condition, so it will be nice to have them side by side.

>45 Glacierman:

I think you will find the 1932 edition the preferred version. The illustrations are a tossup as both are wonderful, but I prefer the 2 volume treatment of the 1932 version to the later edition, and have always had an (unreasonable) aversion to double column text layout.

>46 Django6924: Yes, we absolutely adore the 1932 edition. Everything about it is wonderful: the design, binding, paper, printing and illustrations. Just fabulous. Got the later one to have both editions. I'm a collector at heart, so that idea appeals to me.

Thanks to recommendations made in this group I am currently reading two marvellous LEC books from the 1930s: The Pastoral Loves of Daphnis and Chloe, and The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard. Although different in their subject matter, these two books share some features which really appeal to me. Both have bindings which are in harmony with the contents. Both use very good quality papers. Both contain illustrations which, for me, exactly capture the spirit of the books. And both are enjoyable to read. (I am embarrassed to admit this is my first introduction to the writings of Anatole France. I am greatly enjoying his company).

The reproduction of the Sylvain Sauvage watercolours in Sylvestre Bonnard is very finely done. I could almost believe that the artist had hand-painted each copy.

My copy of Daphnis and Chloe includes a letter from George Macy to the original purchaser of the book, dated 12th September 1934, extolling the virtues of the LEC edition of The Arabian Nights:

"This is the most important publishing venture of our career." "… an edition of The Arabian Nights which is (this is a fact) the biggest book bargain of the century, and (this is pure opinion) one of the loveliest books we have issued."

>48 edgeworn:

The LEC Arabian Night is a very interesting story and there were 3 Monthly Letters connected with its issue. What was, at the time, "the most important publishing venture of our career was, in fact, an act of desperation due to the fact that Frank Hill had not finished his Modern English translation of the Canterbury Tales which was to be the 11th book in that Series and T.M. Cleland had not finished illustrating Tristram Shandy on schedule. Since Club members had been promised these books in the Prospectus and had paid in advance for them, Macy had to use all of his salesmanship to avoid the potential loss of membership.

Edited to correct my computer's Auto-correct....

>48 edgeworn: Great reads. I just recently reread the Sylvestre Bonnard after reading about it here (LibraryThing). Would you consider scanning your Macy letter and posting it? It's always fun to find a treasure like this among one's purchases. Since the letter was with your Daphnis and Chloe (1934) I assume he was talking about the 6 volume The book of a Thousand and Nights and a Night (1934) a beautifully done edition illustrated by Valenti Angelo. Truly a steal when published at $10 even accounting for inflation. Amazingly, still a steal when I picked up my NF copy for $280 back in 2015.

>49 Django6924:

You use the word "steal" advisedly, Ken. You'd be lucky to get an Acceptable copy of this today for that price whilfe a NF or Fine copy could set you back $500--$1000.

Can you believe there were apparently several Club members who either refused the substitution or sent back their copies?

>50 kdweber: Would you consider scanning your Macy letter and posting it?

My pleasure. A scan of the letter here:

>52 edgeworn: Thank you. My bad, I see the set went for $30 ($5 a book). A quick check of an inflation calculator shows $30 in 1934 worth ~$589 (~$100/book). Not a steal, but a fair price. My price, still a great value.

>53 kdweber:

What are the bindings like on your set? Over the years I've seldom see a set where the bindings weren't either browned or where he leather was deteriorating.

>54 Django6924:
This one’s Fine and knows it - look at that price...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303921163957

But even there, look closely at the first volume - isn’t that a split in the leather at the top/crown?

One sold in Germany not long ago for about 30-40 USD as I recall, but the leather was badly and unevenly browned and several hinges busted.

>54 Django6924: Seriously NF, my spines look great, no discernable browning, no tears, only very minor wear on some of the spine edges. Surprising since there was no slipcases when I bought the set.

trop cher pour cet ensemble. You can do a lot better. Be patient.

>55 GusLogan:

The price is Very Fine (for the seller), but if I were selling that set, I would describe it as Near Fine. In addition to what does look like a split, the bindings have uneven browning and the slipcase seems to show evidence of waterstains.

>56 kdweber:

Great--you were very lucky to get it for that price--even without slipcases

>57 Sport1963:
c'est vrai.

I'm in trouble. This week I went to the library bookstore for the first time since the pandemic and found five HPs. The manager said that he has six crates of HPs; would I like to look at them?

Of course I would like to look at them. The thornier question is: how will I sneak six crates of hardbacks into the house?

>58 Django6924: "... I would describe it as Near Fine. In addition to what does look like a split, the bindings have uneven browning and the slipcase seems to show evidence of waterstains."

The split on the spine alone would, IMHO, knock it down to Very Good, especially if the slipcase is waterstained and the spines are unevenly aged. I know -- some of you don't care about the slipcase and that would not be a problem for you, but in describing it to the world at large, that needs to be considered and the description down-graded a bit. The uneven aging on the spine is cosmetic, to be sure, but to many collectors, a severe flaw. The split/tear at the spine, however, is a serious flaw for a collector, so the grade needs to reflect that. The potential buyer can decide whether or not it matters, but the seller should err on the down side in describing a book's condition.

I speak both as a former mail order bookseller of twenty years and as a collector.

I have always described any book I sold as completely as possible and used a grade (Poor, Good, Very Good, etc.) as a summary indicator. Grades such as VG+ and NF to me are waffle grades. It is either VG or it is Fine; the description should tell the tale. Even with photos, a full written description is desired. So many would-be booksellers today are too cavalier. Makes me crazy.

Ultimately, as a purchaser, only you can decide what flaws are acceptable to you. The seller needs to as fully inform you as possible. Clear photos, if possible, can be included as part of the description, but written description should go beyond the photos. Of course, the more valuable a book, the more detailed the description. A $10.00 book does not warrant the sort of detailed description a $1000 book would, but still, it should tell you all you need to know about that book before buying it.

Sorry for the digression.

I return you now to the regularly scheduled discussion.

Tough customers! True, the slipcases aren’t great (one’s been repaired, I see now), but I’ve not seen spines like those in several dozen sets observed, and I have to say to me they display the natural variety of organic materials rather than uneven sunning, but it could be my small phone screen... Academic, at this price, to be sure.

(Always a delight to learn from you all, I don’t want to suggest I didn’t just adjust my VG/NF/F boundaries...)

>60 Glacierman: I always rate the book and slipcase separately and I notice many booksellers do the same. It doesn't make sense to me to give a book and slipcase one grading. A Fine book in a poor slipcase would be an easy buy for me (assuming there weren't lots of copies with nicer slipcases for the same price) while I would never buy a poor copy in a Fine slipcase (unless the price was so cheap that I'd toss the book and buy solely for the slipcase). Without info on both the slipcase and the book and solely a four level rating system, I'd never buy a used book. Thus, I disagree with your "waffle grade" approach. Book condition is obviously a continuum and non-discrete. We arbitrarily digitize the information and thus loose "quality". Compare the quality of a letter printed from an old dot matric printer, an early 150 dpi inkjet printer, 300 dpi laser printer, 1000+ dpi HD printer and letterpress from metal type. The resolution varies quite a bit. Now we can divide the quality of these letters into 4 categories, 6, 8, 10... you name it. Four categories for books doesn't provide me with adequate information, especially since half the grades (poor and good) are worthless to me. Since my buying decision is based on a range of VG+ to mint I'd prefer more discernment within that range.

>60 Glacierman:

Your point about the split being a flaw that would downgrade the rating to Very Good is well-taken; however, in seeing the overall condition and comparing it to other sets of this work I've seen, I would have to say it's closer to the best I've seen rated Fine than to ones rated Very Good, so I tend to grade on the curve (hey--I used to be an English teacher, after all!).

But Ken's point I think is one that needs to be considered when buying for one's own personal use and enjoyment without taking into account some potential resale or investment value--which I never do. A single, or even a double rating--one for book and one for slipcase--can't hope to do justice to describing a book to the buyer for pleasure as opposed to the collector. I have seen--and purchased--several books which had sunned spines or stained or scuffed covers but the internal contents were Like New and unread. I purchased new a copy of Rex Stout's Fer-de-lance from the First Edition Library several years ago as all I had was a shoddy, 50 year old trade edition with the brown wood pulp paper breaking off when I turned the page. When I finally got around to taking it from the publisher's shrinkwrap recently and re-reading it, I was totally surprised by the ending: the last signature was missing and the next to the last signature duplicated! And now I don't remember how Wolfe solve the mystery of the deadly golf club and who substituted it!

Nothing beats a full, honest description of a book for sale, warts described as well as beauties--but you have to keep in mind most sellers are not book readers and aficionados, but people whose concerns are of a more commercial nature; and I would bet many of them would have, quite correctly, described my Nero Wolfe book "As New" and priced it accordingly, never having opened it.

>59 maisiedotes: You've hit on a a great situation! I'm envious.

And assuming there are some duplicates you may only have to figure out how to sneak three or four crates into the house.

>59 maisiedotes:

A word of advice: make sure the books you are interested in show a New York address on the title page, and unless you're desperate for it a particular title, eschew any that have a Connecticut address; that may also cut down on the number of crates.

>64 literatefool: Haha! Yes, that'll pare things down to 3-4 crates.
>65 Django6924: Thanks for the tip. Down to 2-3 crates. I could secrete them in my trunk, bringing the occasional selection into the home.

I should have plenty to keep me reading for the rest of my days.

Our library system is reopening at the end of this month. I could have cried when I read the announcement. Library visits were a huge hole gouged away from normalcy.

One additional consideration regarding book condition........

It is important to compare apples to apples, i.e., compare the copy of the book you are interested in purchasing to other copies of the same LEC book, both past (offered previously for sale) and present (currently available for purchase).

Some LEC books are notorious for always appearing with flaws, e.g., Moby Dick (2 volumes), the Analects of Confucius (1933) in the special Chinese redwood box, Kwaidan, Hiroshima, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, etc. I do not expect to see these books ever appear for sale in fine condition. Consequently, I am more forgiving with regard to condition with these titles. Conversely, other LEC editions are readily available in fine condition and for these titles I will insist upon a copy in same fine condition.

More important than assigning a subjective grade, e.g., fine, near-fine, VG+, etc., which many booksellers do, I've found it is far more important to ask specific questions, obtain a detailed description of any flaws, and have this followed with high quality photographs that I request. For inexpensive LEC titles this may be going overboard; however, for expensive LEC or other private press books, this is essential and far more useful than an arbitrary grade the seller assigns.

>67 dlphcoracl: "More important than assigning a subjective grade, e.g., fine, near-fine, VG+, etc., which many booksellers do, I've found it is far more important to ask specific questions, obtain a detailed description of any flaws, and have this followed with high quality photographs that I request. "

Exactly, which is why I consider the G/VG/F, etc, grade a summary. Nothing beats a full complete description. When listing a book for sale, I always assumed that the interested buyer would be a picky collector and described it accordingly, listing all faults, even on the less valuable items in my stock. Took time, but it paid off. The only return I ever had was due to circumstances beyond my control.

I have just received my first LEC book - Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. What a beautiful book! I have to agree with Books & Wines that this book is underrated and undervalued (their review of the book: https://booksandvines.com/2012/04/02/the-life-and-journals-of-christopher-columb...

I have a dozen cheap Folio Society books, a couple of Heritage Press books and find them all fine but the LEC is another league. There's a lot of illustrations in the book by Lima de Freitas (65 b&w and 5 hand-coloured double-page ones) which perfectly reflect the atmosphere of Columbus' times. The binding is tight and firm. My only dissapointment is some yellow spots throughout some of the pages. There aren't many of them but still...

Just ordered my second one - Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar. I bought it for only 40$ and it is described by the seller as VG. I received some photos of the book and it looks OK. It even has a dustjacket so I guess the spine will not be sunned. The slipcase has some wear but it doesn't bother me. The possibility of owning an Officina Bodoni book (though a very modest one) designed by maestro Mardersteig is thrilling.

>69 Lukas1990: Welcome to the group - I’m certain you will have many more positive impressions of LECs as your collection grows.

As far as my collection goes- my acquisition count has gotten a bit out of hand so I’m going to need to put on the brakes. Based on my reading speed- I’ve got 10 years of catch-up to do to get through my existing collection, so I’m limiting myself to 1 addition per month and have a friend holding me accountable. If this sounds like an addiction, well, here’s my latest addition which speaks to it:

>69 Lukas1990:

I would consider The Gallic Wars a very underrated Limited Editions Club book. I have the Heritage edition which I got as a member of the Heritage Club and liked it so much that when I had the opportunity to buy an LEC copy, I jumped at the chance. As good as the Heritage edition is (I still have it), the LEC is something else: luxurious paper, beautiful binding (but with a flaw), and Mardersteig's typically excellent printing. I find the text fascinating--I mean, these are Caesar's own words! albeit translated--and Bramanti's illustrations are just superb.

The only flaw is one in common with many post-war Mardersteig books--cracks in the front and back hinges. The boards are still attached but one day I will need to get some tape from Talas and reinforce them.

>70 BionicJim:

It's a shame Zhenya Gay didn't do more books for Macy; I wish she had illustrated Frankenstein for the Club.

>69 Lukas1990: I just bought The Gallic Wars (HP) over the weekend. It's not the kind of material I usually read, but I am enjoying thumbing through it.

>70 BionicJim: Books have been my pandemic panacea. I've been buying out of boredom, but I've limited myself to country-mouse prices. I hope I don't find myself needing to off-load a whole lot of unwanted books when we can get out there again. Every day I pick a book to keep by my side to stare at during working hours. I read in the evenings.

>71 Django6924: Right! Hard to believe these are actually Caesar's words!

>70 BionicJim: "Welcome to the group".

Thank you!

>71 Django6924: The seller didn't mention any cracks in the hinges so I hope there won't be any. Can't be sure as they didn't provide any pictures of the interior of the book. I have already googled Talas and will ask you for advice on how to reinforce those boards if needed haha. A week ago I used some superglue on a HP volume of The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire and it worked pretty well but I am not sure how long the glue will last. It is obviously not a good solution for such a book as The Gallic Wars.

>72 maisiedotes: History of Ancient Rome/Greece is my hobby and it seems to me that George Macy also had an interest in this topic judging from the variety of HP and LEC books on Rome. The HP edition of The Gallic Wars looks great! Enjoy! BTW, my HP The Praise Of Folly still hasn't arrived from Canada. At least I have the Sandglass.

>73 Lukas1990: I'm guessing it's been about two months since you ordered The Praise of Folly. Is that inordinately long for delivery from Canada and is it pandemic-related?

Let me know when you get it, and we can read it concurrently!

When do you expect to receive The Gallic Wars?

>74 maisiedotes: that is inordinately long for most shipping methods. I am in Canada, and over the past 4-5 months I have had two secondhand book orders lost in the post. In both cases, the sellers were professional and reimbursed the order. If it has been two months I would follow up.

>75 abysswalker:
>74 maisiedotes:

There could be several reasons why the delivery took so long.

I ordered the book on Abebooks on February 6th and the estimated delivery date was April 7th. There aren't many flights to Lithuania during these pandemic times so international orders usually take a couple or even more weeks longer than estimated. In addition to that, our national post was the last post in Europe which did all the processing of parcels by hand and only recently they modernised it and now use robots but it took them longer than expected to adjust. This means that a lot of parcels are stuck in warehouses here in Lithuania waiting to be processed and delivered to their final destinations. I had some orders reimbursed these last months (from major booksellers like Discover books or Thrift books) but the books still arrived sooner or later. I don't want to ask the small Canadian bookshop to reimburse the order of The Praise of Folly yet. A total of 35$ is a considerable amount of money for them. I'll be patient and hope to get the book soon.

The Gallic Wars is expected to arrive by May 26th. But the book is subject to customs taxes which means additional processing so it may take muuuch longer for me to finally hold it in my hands. I am also waiting for a couple more books... It is hard to be a modest book-collector in Lithuania.

>74 maisiedotes: I will definitely inform you when I get The Praise of Folly ;)

>42 kermaier: thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

I picked up a copy and concur with your assessment.

The story contained is rather short, but it is such a pleasure to read in this format.

The binding is also handmade silk from Thailand, which is a nice touch given the setting of the story.

>75 abysswalker: I, too, have had quite a few books get damaged in the mail during the pandemic. It's sad because these items are out of print. One big seller that I've reached out to refuses, in the name of eco-consciousness, to pack with anything more protective than a single-ply plastic (there was a fancy name I don't remember) envelope. I won't order from that seller again.

>76 Lukas1990: What a journey for your books. (If only they could talk!) I imagine that after the long wait, receiving the books feels all the more rewarding.

I purchased a book from Wales last year and was hoping that the envelope would sport something distinctive to its place of origin. No such luck. It arrived dusty and nondescript.

>36 BuzzBuzzard: Stich with it! Very satisfying as it develops.

>69 Lukas1990: It was your mention of this book being ordered pls some pictures i saw online which led me to order a copy. I hope it will be in similar condition to yours.
>70 BionicJim: Jim, I have that edition of Confessions. Recently, I found an un-slipcased LEC version online at a reasonable price and ordered it. It did have some smoky smell but I seem to have gotten rid of it with a little time in the garage and used dryer sheet. But it is a very large book. I would not feel comfortable sitting down and trying to read it. But of course, I wanted Zhenya Gay's large "lithographs on the stone" and signature, which I now have.
But I like the HP version better.

>80 laotzu225: I'm sure you'll like it! It is one of those rare (?) books that were originally planned for the LEC.

If there are any similar non-fiction books in the LEC catalogue, please inform me.

>79 laotzu225: Final stretch - book four! So different from the Musketeer romances. Hard to believe it is written by the same person.

Finally was able to find a very nice copy of the Count of Montecristo with a solid slipcase and the Cricket and the Hearth. This completes my Dumas and Dickens collections. Now will continue to search for a copy of Ulysses and Lysistrata.....(I can wish, right.) LOL.

>83 jpinomaha: All it takes is money.

My Gallic Wars have just arrived and I am amazed at the quality and minimalistic aestethics of the book! I got it for a great price and would rate it even better than very good. Even the hinges are quite solid (see pic).

Looking forward to getting more Officina Bodoni/Stamperia Valdonega printed books. Trial and Death of Socrates or Orations of Cicero are just what I need!

Just acquired the 1933 edition of the LEC Don Quixote printed and published in Spain on the other-worldly Guarra paper. I am probably in the LEC George Macy minority but I greatly prefer the wood engravings of Enric-Cristobal Ricard to the Edy Legrand illustrations in the LEC 1950 edition.

>86 dlphcoracl: I like them too but they are only a handful! This particular edition had a troubled history with illustrators.

>86 dlphcoracl: agree strongly. And yes that paper is amazing.

>86 dlphcoracl:
I strongly prefer the Ricard illustrations, and yes - the paper is amazing.

Just received One Hundred Years of Solitude. Very nice production, had been looking out for a copy for a while. Relatively minor sunning of the spine (compared to some of the other copies I've seen online at least).

I'm new to the group & happy to have found this resource. A few weeks ago, I went to an estate sale and found a number of books in slipcases. My first conscious exposure to HP. I bought Bleak House and Sense & Sensibility. $4 each and in very nice shape. My curiosity picqued, I learned about George Macy & LEC. So I'm laying the groundwork to start a collection of LEC books.

My only other foray into book collecting has been the Oz books - of which I acquired all 40, plus several related volumes, all either 1st edition or very early. Had a blast putting it together & have been itching to find another outlet. I've enjoyed reading through the group archives - advice & suggestions welcome!

>91 ChrisG1: It can be a very addictive pastime.

>91 ChrisG1: I just started LEC collecting a year ago and there are some resources you might not be aware of that I use frequently:

https://www.majure.net/LECLISTOFTITLES.htm

https://georgemacyimagery.wordpress.com/

There is also a Google Drive that contains dozens of Monthly Letters but I'm not sure who the current contact is for access permission.

As for books, you might want to acquire a copy of the Quarto-Millenary. It can be pricy but affordable copies show up fairly often. Same with The History of the Limited Editions Club, which was published a few years ago.

It's become a fun pastime for me. The quality of these books never ceases to amaze and the value usually can't be beat among fine press publishers.

>91 ChrisG1: Welcome! Rueful gives a few great sources (including my blog, the George Macy Imagery) that I totally second. I love collecting these books and there's a bevy of variety to explore and discover! And congrats on finding an Austen! I still have yet to see one haha.

>93 AMindForeverVoyaging: Thanks for the info! Learning is at least half the fun.

>95 ChrisG1: 'Tis a long and winding road you have embarked upon, and you may never see the end, but it will be a wild and fun ride! Welcome to the LEC!

>91 ChrisG1:
Welcome and good luck, here’s hoping we’re not after the same books ; )

And in acquisitions, after a particularly tough spell at work and not much spending because of the pandemic I rewarded myself with a copy of the LEC War & Peace. My remaining grail (for now) is a NF or better 1 001 Nights that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg - my third top trio pick being the Shakespeare set. Clearly I like multi-volume LECs.

A Divine Comedy slipped by me on eBay a few weeks back, that still smarts - but warm congratulations if the buyer hangs out here!

>86 dlphcoracl:
Was it the copy from Different Drummer Books by any chance? I looked long and hard at that but decided against since I own the later edition and am nearing shelf crisis!

>94 WildcatJF: At $4 a pop, I wish I had picked up more! But that'll leave more shelf space for the LECs.

>91 ChrisG1: All the above sources are great. I also recommend https://booksandvines.com/ There are lots of reviews of books by the Limited Editions Club. And also some exclusive books by other publishers.

>91 ChrisG1:
There are some fun threads here on themes/thoughts behind collections - Macy years only, particular series etc. - but I think most of the contributors are here because they like the range the LEC (and HP/HC) offers. Which is to say I don’t really see anyone posting that their angle on collecting LECs is to amass the great novels written in English (or French), or just the poetry, or the plays. Or just the European works, or the relatively few works written by women, etc. A selection effect, perhaps.

I’ve resisted the temptation to impose any (purchases-driving) logic on my collecting other than that of buying only books I want to read that I also find attractive and can afford… and staying reasonably close to the ”Greats”, which Macy of course made easy. The idea I got closest to was collecting the first series, and if it were cheaper to do so I probably would. Once you pick up the Quarto-M (or Bibliography) you can collect by designer (Rogers, Meynell?) or publisher (Officina Bodoni?) or even by paper!

Edit: I, for one, boast a complete collection of the titles produced by the Grabhorn Press for the LEC…

>102 GusLogan: Thanks for the books and vines link - I'll be dipping into that a good bit, I can see. I've got my eye on a few titles on ebay right now, but a local store here in Portland has one I want to go see next week. If I pick it up, I'll post pics.

>103 ChrisG1:
That one wasn’t mine, but I second it, having spent much time there!

>102 GusLogan: "Edit: I, for one, boast a complete collection of the titles produced by the Grabhorn Press for the LEC…"

Which would consist entirely of Robinson Crusoe.

Well, I said I'd post about my first LEC acquisition & here it is. It turned out quite differently than I expected. I went to a local store to see their "Complete Andersen" set listed on their website & it had sold. However, the owner referred me to another local shop that had obtained a number of LECs from the same estate and....let's say I got a bit carried away. So, here is what I purchased:

The Fables of Jean De La Fontaine (1930)
Troilus & Cressida (1939)
Carmen (1941)
Tartuffe & the Would-Be Gentleman (1963)
Two Plays For Puritans (1966)
Poems of John Donne (1968)
Poems of Robert Browning (1969)
Ah, Wilderness (1972)

Except for the Fables, they are all poetry & drama, so I expect to look for novels & histories next time I buy. They were all in at least Very Good condition & only Troilus & Cressida was missing the slipcase.

>106 ChrisG1:
Congratulations on a chunky haul! The other thread will soon double the price of the John Donne : )

>107 GusLogan: Lol - thanks! I was delighted to see the article - both the content and the coincidental timing.

>102 GusLogan: can you post a list of those-the Grabhorn LECs?

>106 ChrisG1: You don't seem to do things in small steps!

>109 laotzu225:
See >105 kdweber: above - it was a little joke, as Macy and Edward(?) Grabhorn fell out and didn’t work together again… sorry : )

>110 laotzu225: Yeah, nothing like finding a bunch of them in one place & money burning a hole in my pocket...

>111 GusLogan: NOW I recall that fact after you explained it. Good joke though.

>99 GusLogan:

Hi Gus.

Yes, I purchased the 1933 LEC Don Quixote from Different Drummer books. It was as nice a copy as I have seen in many years, with only minimal sun-fading at the spine and without slipcase.

Incidentally, with regard to "shelf crisis", to quote one of our former illustrious presidents: "I feel your pain". My book collecting has slowly crossed the line into obsessive-compulsive behavior and pathological hoarding resulting in complete absence of shelf space and books now being "stored" on the floor in inconspicuous parts of the house that are not directly visible, something I find more than a bit creepy. My resolve going forward is to aggressively discard books that are less valuable and/or no longer wanted to liberate enough shelf space to properly store these books and clear the floor space. Needless to say, I will only acquire 1 or 2 books for the next year or two going forward until this issue is successfully resolved.

>101 Lukas1990:
>103 ChrisG1:
>104 GusLogan:

Regarding the Books and Vines (B&V) website as an invaluable source of information for LEC collectors:

Chris Adamson owns the complete bibliography of BOTH the George Macy and the Sidney Shiff LEC books. He reluctantly was forced to discontinue this site because of legal issues revolving around copyright law and posting extensive sets of photographs for the LEC articles he was writing. Chris did not have a specific legal problem, i.e., he was not being sued, but he was strongly advised by legal counsel he consulted with to discontinue the B&V website in its current form. Chris tried writing and posting a few articles with those new constraints but it was not aesthetically satisfactory.

Incidentally, the photographs in the vast majority of the myriad B&V articles have an unusual and wonderful feature. If you left-click once over a photograph it will enlarge. If you then left-click AGAIN - a 2nd time - over the already enlarged photo, it will enlarge even further giving you a macro photo view which provides extraordinary detail with regard to the quality of the letterpress work, the wood engravings, other illustrations, and the various hand made papers.

Try it - you'll like it!!

>111 GusLogan: I, too, am numbered amongst that august company. :-)

On a more serious note, I just acquired a very, very nice copy of Zadig. Lovely production, excellent illustrations/design by Sylvain Sauvage, but the paper is a bit thick, more like thin cardboard. Still, well worth obtaining.

>117 Glacierman: I’m actually in the middle of reading that right now. I don’t love the story (it’s fine, just not a favorite), but the design of the book is fantastic.

Well, today I visited the Post Office and picked up a copy of the LEC Essays of Sir Francis Bacon (#157,1944). Marvelous book! This is one of the LEC that were issued in a smaller edition, 1100 copies to be precise. In brief, it was designed Bruce Rogers and bears his signature. The introduction is by Christopher Morley, whose book The Haunted Bookshop is a classic biblio-book. There is also a bibliographic note by Dr. A. S. W. "Rosy" Rosenbach, a noted bookman of the time. Dr. Rosenbach's books (Books and Bidders and A Book Hunter's Holiday) are also worth reading. A feature of this book I particularly like is that it comes, not in a slipcase, but in a clamshell case. The paper is a special paper by Worthy, and it was very nicely printed by Wm. E. Rudge's Sons. The original Wm. E. Rudge of note (1876–1931) was a noted printer of his day and his sons (Wm. E. Rudge III and Frederic Gould Rudge) carried on the family tradition and excellence as Wm. E. Rudge's Sons.

I was tickled to discover that my copy is unread, and has numerous unopened pages, which I will have to deal with when I get around to reading it. The top edge is gilded and others are untrimmed, thus the uncut pages.

I forgot to mention that the HP edition is well-covered here.

And note the use of the long 's' on the title page, often mistaken for the letter 'f'.

>119 Glacierman: "This is one of the LEC that were issued in a smaller edition"
Yep, the war years were tough on the LEC.

>119 Glacierman:
I finished reading my copy of the essays a couple of months ago, and I had to cut numerous pages to read the book. It was part of the fun for me!

>119 Glacierman: Always something to learn. Your nice commentary on the Bacon made me pull down my copy. All the wonderful names contributing to this book, Rogers, etc. make it an especially prized possession for me.
It is one of the books I store horizontally, along with Emerson's Essays. A fairly short (in height) top shelf works well for this.
I see that it still has some uncut pages! I have an HP edition from the Norwalk CT period which is nicely made and which I have read. The bonded leather binding is quite attractive. The HP has red initial letters in each essay which the LEC does not. I wonder if that was BR's decision.

>122 laotzu225: Bruce Rogers wasn’t adverse to red letters to enhance the black type. However, he is pretty opinionated that alternative colors should be limited to red, and a particular one at that:

“Red is the most satisfactory secondary color with black, and you will often find it is better to use just one spot of color on the page. In using red for an occasional display line, blue-red or purple-red or orange-red should be avoided. A red such as the early printers had, a full-bodied, rather dull vermilion, which will hold up well with the black, is the most successful.”
-Paragraphs on Printing - William E Rudge’s Sons, 1943

>123 BionicJim: Jim, thanks for that. As it happens, I have the book you took the quote from (among a large number I haven't read). Do you also have the book? My copy has some letters and tributes tipped in and bookplates of distinguished bibliophiles on the endpapers. But I don't know its provenance.

It remains interesting that the Initial letters were not red in the LEC

I think I’ll start a new topic on Paragraphs in Printing as I am definitely interested in your copy and want to show-off mine :)

However, here’s a photo from from a 1926 colophon that illustrates the last comment regarding the use of red:


Not purple-red; not blue-red; not orange-red!
A full-bodied rather dull vermillion.

My newest LEC just arrived - a fine copy of The Cid by Robert Southey, illustrated by Rene ben Sussssan. I'm thrilled with the condition (online purchases always have some risk). I wish I knew how to post photos, or I'd share.

>126 ChrisG1:
If you don't mind me asking, would you PM me the purchase price? I've had my copy listed for almost a month and there seems to be no interest.

$53.95 including shipping.

>128 ChrisG1:

Thanks!

How about an almost-acquisition?

I was in Half Price Books a couple of days ago and came across The Call of the Wild (HP). I loved the illustrations by Henry Varnum Poor but couldn't bring myself to buy the book because the story makes me flinch.

Three days later, Call is still calling my name. Does anyone buy a book just for the pictures?

>130 maisiedotes: All the time. I don't like Henry James but his LEC of The Ambassadors} is gorgeously illustrated by Leslie Saalburg whose paintings are tipped in to the book. Saalburg, among his other work, was an illustrator of men's clothing styles of the 1930's and beyond for Esquire and Apparel Arts magazines. (I am something of a foppish dresser myself.)

>131 laotzu225: I just looked up The Ambassadors on George Macy Imagery and I can see why the illustrations would be a selling point!

If the copy of Call of the Wild came with the Sandglass, I'd race right on back to the store.

>130 maisiedotes:
I will buy any book illustrated by Boardman Robinson (if I can afford it), Valenti Angelo (illuminations more so than illustrations), Arthur Szyk (a controversial choice, I know), Agnes Miller Parker (and I'm buying the Hardy novels just because of her illustrations), Sylvain Sauvage (Zadig is far from Voltaire's best--but the pictures!), and Lynd Ward.

>133 Django6924:

I am a huge fan and collector of Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward, the two most influential artists in the evolution of the wordless novel. Although not an LEC or letterpress book, the Library of America publishers created an exceptionally attractive and well thought out collection of all six of Lynd Ward's wordless novels (see link). It is currently being offered directly from the LOA website at -40% discount and it is highly recommended to LEC-ers and anyone interested in the genre and evolution of the wordless novel and the serious comic, e.g., Maus, etc.

https://www.loa.org/books/337-lynd-ward-six-novels-in-woodcuts-boxed-set

>134 dlphcoracl:

Agreed, the 2 volume set of these wordless novels is a must for anyone interested in the graphic arts, in the technique of wood engraving, and/or who shares Ward's egalitarian sensibilities.

Two new LEC arrivals in the last few days. First, The Travels of Baron Munchausen from the first series in 1929:



Wear at both ends of the spine and missing the ML, but otherwise a nice copy. Very excited to add this to my collection.

Second, The Life & Voyages of Christopher Columbus



My first book still in the original glisine (sp?) and just in spectacular condition. Quite a beautiful book!

It's hard to find that Munchausen looking so nice. Great job! Just the other day I got the other, more affordable, Munchausen but I probably would prefer your version.

>136 ChrisG1: Yes, that is a superb Baron. Mine is NOWHERE as nice, haha.

>136 ChrisG1: To answer your implied query regarding the spelling of a word, it is 'glassine.' Cheers!

>136 ChrisG1: Congrats! Your Munchausen is better shape than most copies (and nicer than mine).

>140 kdweber:
Ditto--that's the best copy I've ever seen!

After waiting for 4 long months I have finally received The Praise of Folly, by Desiderius Erasmus (Heritage Press). What a long journey from Canada it has been! I am really impressed by the quality of the book - the letterpress on rag paper feels great and the illustrations by Frans Masereel look sharp and surreal. Wish my copy didn't have two ex librises and the Sandglass glued on the endpaper...

>142 Lukas1990:
Is that the one with the Frank Masreel woodcuts? It's a great one, which I acquired in preference to the LEC Praise of Folly.

>142 Lukas1990: >143 kermaier:

Both editions are wonderful. In another thread, we discussed the probability that the Masreel-illustrated version from van Krimpen was originally intended as an Limited Editions Club, but the war prevented that and the LEC printed it in the US with Lynd Ward's illustrations.

>143 kermaier: Yes, that's the one. Hope my newborn son will enjoy it too one day :)

I wouldn't mind owning the LEC version! Love the cover design and all those marginal illustrations by Lynd Ward. Though there's some mystique about Frans Masereel woodcuts. They are really unique and, as I understand from the Sandglass, very on-topic.

>144 Django6924: I collected a fair amount of that discussion in my post on this edition: https://georgemacyimagery.wordpress.com/2017/07/30/heritage-press-moriae-encomiu...

>146 WildcatJF:
Thanks, Jerry--it was a very interesting discussion!

Yesterday Franz Masereel's woodcuts in the HP Erasmus made such a huge impression on me that I woke up at 3AM and ordered a book with a lot more of his woodcuts (I hope so). It is called 'Gesang des Lebens. Das Werk Frans Masereels'. Looks like a nice book and it shouldn't take long for it to arrive from Germany. Time to renew my German. I used to live in Germany when I was 2 to 5 years old :D

>145 Lukas1990: Congratulations on the long-awaited book and baby!

>133 Django6924: Ha, so now I have permission to buy The Call of the Wild. Of the artists you mention, I only have Valenti Angelo and Lynd Ward, so there is lots more to discover (indulge in)!

>149 maisiedotes: Thank you! And excuse me for not being able to provide instructions on how to post a photo as I promised... Having a newborn son means much less time for reading but I noticed that he likes to look at my bookshelves which could be a good sign for the future - hopefully he will read and continue collecting :D

>148 Lukas1990:

For Frans Masereel fans, of which I am one, the following may be of interest - a high quality YouTube link showing all twenty-five images from arguably his most famous work: Die Passion eines Menschen (1918).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPINngUibbM

>152 dlphcoracl: Thank you for the link. The images look great on a wide-screen TV!

>151 Lukas1990: No worries about the photo-posting instructions.

Your being up at 3AM ordering books reminded me of how I, as a mom of little ones, used to wake up in the middle of the night TO READ! I was so hungry for book-time.

Here's to your son inheriting your love of books.

As for Erasmus, I've pulled it off the shelf . . . .

I've just acquired The Flowering of New England by Van Wick Brooks (1941) in very good shape, with only a little edgewear at the open corners of the slipcase.
Since I spent more than 7/8ths of my life in Boston, I looked forward to getting this book. The Introduction is by M.A. (Mark Antony) De Wolfe Howe, a prominent and distinguished Bostonian historian and biographer. R.H. Holden's illustrations are absolutely evocative.
Sadly it is missing the Monthly Letter (it's not on the drive) and if anyone can spare a copy I'd be grateful-and perhaps can provide one back.

I figured a Fine copy of Vanity Fair with a split slipcase, announcement card and monthly letter was worth 250 dollars plus transatlantic shipping. The photos made it look Fine+. More fool me. Foxing top, bottom and side… Same shipment: I’d bought the 1 001 Nights looking nearly new in photos and described as Excellent, sans slipcase and ML, but on close inspection every volume has a few tiny insect holes in the spines. Not visible on the shelf, but the day my children want to sell it…

It’s enough to make one want to pack it all in and collect brand new fine press books, expensive as they are.

>156 GusLogan: Sorry to hear that - online ordering can be a real crapshoot. Punish the seller in the ratings & don't order from them again.

I received an order over the weekend of 3 LECs of Jane Austen - Emma, Persuasion & Northanger Abbey. They had been offered as a lot on Ebay. Very pleased with the condition. Only Emma came without the glassine & there are no major flaws. None with MLs.

>156 GusLogan: if you're uncertain whether you want to bother with a return and refund, one thing I occasionally do is to write the seller, explain the situation, and ask them how they would like to deal with it. Something like:

I just received the books X, Y, and Z. The books were described as {whatever; exact quotes are good}, but upon examination I discovered {problems} (see attached pictures).

What do you think would be the appropriate way to deal with this?

The highest caliber professional booksellers will immediately offer a full refund and cover the return shipping, or propose some other potential solution. Sellers who might get their back up if you demand something specific right away will instead be placed in the position of needing to decide what is fair. And most sellers will appreciate being asked about how they want to proceed.

There are always less reputable or disorganized sellers that will still ignore you, but I find this approach is still a good first step, especially when on the fence about dealing with the hassle.

>159 abysswalker:
Very sage advice. I have proceeded in a similar way on several occasions, always with good results, in one case another book being sent without returning the original as they had two in stock and sent the inferior one by mistake.
Always pays to ask nicely.

>158 ChrisG1:
Good haul! I only have Sense and Sensibility, but it's a nice production.

>156 GusLogan: Such a disappointment!

>160 wcarter: Let me guess. It was Oak Knoll.

>162 BuzzBuzzard:
No, George Agvent.

>163 wcarter: Happened to me with the same seller (if you mean Charles Agvent?)

>164 gmurphy:
Oops, yes, Charles!

>164 gmurphy: My experience with Agvent: Over-priced and books not accurately described. Not a good combination. Definitely a thumbs down from this collector.

I've been on a bit of an acquisition binge of late. Here's the latest - The Possessed by Dostoevsky, glorious illustrations by Fritz Eichenberg. The books are in fine condition, came with glassines for both volumes, but no ML. The slipcase is Near Fine.

Beautiful

>159 abysswalker:

Thanks - also to >157 ChrisG1:, >160 wcarter: and >162 BuzzBuzzard:. I was offered a 75 USD partial refund and then stonewalled. I made my fewlings known and will not be buying books from this seller - who has several expensive and seemingly Fine LECs for sale on US eBay at the moment, numbered twelve dozen times ten - again.

>169 GusLogan:

Please share the name of this seller. This site has a large number of potential buyers and I think a caveat emptor would be appreciated.

>170 Django6924:
I felt subtly noting the limitation number, 52 short of Columbus’s year of discovery, was within the bounds of politeness (though perhaps too cryptic!). I doubt they’ll ever sell a book without noting foxing again, but I feel they treated me badly indeed.

>171 GusLogan:

Oh, 1441. Right?

"In 1493, Columbus sailed the deep blue sea"

>172 Django6924:
Best avoid the whole 1400s, I think! Better safe than sorry.

I heard it as "In fourteen hundred ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

>174 Glacierman:
I’m not American, but I think you’ve pinpointed the joke, which even to me was funny!

”In fourteen-hundred ninety-five, Columbus crossed the Pond alive.”

>176 GusLogan:

🥳

>156 GusLogan:

Ultimately, the only protection one has is to know and have prior experience with the bookseller. It is OK to take a flier on an inexpensive book when buying on eBay, Amazon.com or from an individual seller on Abebooks but expensive purchases should be restricted to professional booksellers with well-established reputations.

The following are booksellers I am personally familiar with that sell LEC books and all are highly recommended:

1. Mark Post
2. Different Drummer (Tom Toth)
3. David Brass Rare Books
4. Buddenbrooks (Massachusetts)
5. Bromer Booksellers
6. the Veatchs
7. Phillip Pirages
8. Sophie Schneideman (London)
9. James Cummins (NYC)
10. Jeffrey H. Marks
11. Swan's Fine Books

>178 dlphcoracl: Excellent list!

>178 dlphcoracl: Ooh, aah! I live ten minutes away from one of those stores and went to visit it for the first time recently. Quite intimidating, as I'm not a collector of that caliber. But nice to know that a bookstore in my little town is on this list!

>180 maisiedotes: I wish we had these booksellers in Lithuania. In a few days I should receive my copy of LEC The Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi and I am very excited! So excited that I even think about building a custom slipcase myself.

>181 Lukas1990: Send pictures of your book and your custom-made slipcase when done!

>181 Lukas1990:

An extremely beautiful book--I can't help thinking it is Mardersteig's finest achievement for the Club.

I’ve been resisting acquiring a copy of The Master of Ballantrae for a while now, since I already have the Everyman’s Library version and try my best to avoid having multiple copies of the same book.
Anyway, I finally caved and I received it today. It’s just the kind of book I like, lovey cloth boards, nice feeling paper. The inside looks new! I really like the illustrations and look forward to starting on it in a couple of days!

>184 RRCBS: Congrats! Great edition and story.

I need to start collecting these after starting more than 11 years ago and buying a significant portion from Robert (Django6924) when the currency USD/DKK 50% the value today. Those were the times.

I finally took some books out from the moving boxes after purchasing a set of bookshelves and I must admit that I love the LEC books more than anything. I was reading out loud the Monthly Letter for the 1939 version of Hamlet from Google Drive (what a great resource) to my sister (she’s not a reader as she other finds the Classics difficult - I read Melville’s Moby Dick and had to give it up) and she never had so much fun. Now she’s hooked on LEC. She much enjoys that I read out loud and explain her the context. The same with my niece Isabella. Some people learn differently and need a helping hand. My sister quite enjoyed the reading and remarked what a wonderful way to be introduced to a work of literature, being informed before reading it.

>186 ironjaw:

The Google Drive is a great resource, indeed, and we all you thank for putting it together (twice!). When I was first a Heritage Club member, then when I started collecting Limited Editions Club, I found the Sandglasses, then the MLs, not only gave me all the information I really wanted about a book before reading it, but also taught me about the Art of the Book--something I had never realized before.

>187 Django6924: you’re more than welcome, Robert. I must say that I’ve become more intrigued by the Heritage Press books when I compare it to the books that are out there now retail. If shipping cost were not prohibitive I would buy more LEC and look much deeper into Heritage books. I’ve bought many fine press books No Reply Press, Thornwillow, TOC Berlin (printed Letterpress, signed, mechanically bound so not fine press) and always find myself falling back on LEC. Slipcase is definitely something that I enjoy staring at and the letters are a joy to read. It’s beginning to become a more family oriented reading exercise now that I also have Encyclopaedia Britannica, Great Books of the Western World collection as well I’m trying to finish up finding the rest of the Great Ideas Today volumes, I find that any companions or guidance acts as a instructor or teacher to your reading. It’s also the reason I am considering buying the Roman Roads DVD collection for my niece Isabella. Sadly the teaching today is subpar to my own standards when I went to school. Sometimes I feel frustrated with what’s happening but I need to take more of an active stance on her education and spend more time with her to teach her.

I was able to pick up two excellent additions to my collection via online auction, both in near fine condition:

First - The Leopard. Nothing prepared me for the heft of this volume, easily the largest single volume book I have. 10"x14"x2" Includes ML





Second, The Journals of the Expedition of Lewis & Clark. Also hefty, but in two volumes & loaded with illustrations and maps, as you might expect by the subject matter. Beautifully done! Missing ML

>189 ChrisG1:

'The Leopard' is an example of a book from the Sidney Shiff LEC "Sweet Spot", i.e., LEC books issued during the transitional period when Sidney Shiff acquired the LEC from indifferent corporate hell and slowly transitioned it from the George Macy model into giant folio-sized books with illustrations and photography from internationally known artists, with prices to match. The Sweet Spot books (1979-1988) combine exceptional quality - fully reflecting The Arts of the Book - with very reasonable prices. My personal favorites are listed below and (imho) should be aggressively sought and acquired by the LEC faithful. You will not be disappointed.

1. The Adventures of Simplicissmus. Splendid wood engravings by Fritz Eichenberg.
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
3. Poems and a Memoir by Seamus Heaney.
4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. Poems of the Caribbean by Derek Walcott.
6. Hiroshima by John Hersey. One of the finest LEC books regardless of time period. Expensive.
7. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
8. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
9. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. Illustrated by Sol Hewitt. A perfect pairing and an exceptional book.
10. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe.
11. The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad.
12. In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka.
13. Dubliners by James Joyce. Illustrated with haunting photogravures of Dublin by Robert Ballagh. An
exceptional LEC book.
14. The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke.
15. The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
16. The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson. Illustrated with photographs by Alfred Eisenstadt.

>190 dlphcoracl: In addition to your excellent list I recommend The Circus of Dr. Lao. It's a fun and sneakily thought-provoking read, but the design and illustrations are very much the star. A highlight in LEC history in terms of visual and textural appeal.

>115 dlphcoracl: I am a bit surprised by this. I don't know the exact situation in the US, but in the UK reproduction of copyrighted works is permitted under fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review (which I guess covers the material on B&V). There's no precise legal standard for what is allowed but there is a test of whether the amount of material reproduced is reasonable, whether it is surrounded by original critical text, and whether the reuse of material has a limited effect on the rightsholder's revenue (which should be the case for out of print books of defunct publishers!) Perhaps it was the ultra high-resolution images on B&V that were the source of concern?

I should defer to the expertise of the lawyers, of course, but I don't feel particularly exposed with the pictures on my own blog.

>115 dlphcoracl:
>192 ubiquitousuk:

Very disturbing...I don't know about the law for review websites, but I do know companies like Disney lobby like crazy to change, for example, copyright and public domain laws solely for their own benefit (never mind that the actual creators are too dead to care...the corporation lives forever!).

>190 dlphcoracl: Thanks for the list - with hundreds to choose from, it can be hard to know where to go next.

>192 ubiquitousuk: it is the same in the US.

I am not a lawyer so don’t listen to me but my guess is that the advice given was overly risk-averse.

It is also unclear what entity would bring suit and it seems like a bad trade for any of the players that might conceivably care about the Books & Vines content. Easton Press, because they hold rights to some of the IP from Macy? Some tiny still operating private press? Seems unlikely.

Just to say, I haven't had any issues myself, but it's a reason I didn't do macro photos or a lot of images of the books for my blog. I'm probably one of the biggest sources of overall content on the LEC and Heritage Press at this point as well. Can't speak for Chris for B&V, but it's unfortunate.

As you may be aware, I have done over 200 reviews of Folio Society books on the FSD forum, and irregular reviews of fine books on this forum. I contacted the FS after I had done a few dozen FS reviews, and they replied that they were delighted with the reviews and had no problems with my continuing, and were happy for me to do reviews of current publications as well as those out of print.
Different publishers, different attitudes.

I’m a lawyer and no right-minded lawyer will ever bring an action against anyone without any financial gain. A cease and desist order could be issued ie in the case of stopping a behaviour such as sharing copyrighted material but that’s always used with regards to pirated music and movies. A simple disclaimer will do but book reviews, come on we are engaging in constructive discussion and more likely than not adding interest and popularity for buyers to go ahead and purchase books more than anything else. it’s picture of one’s own book collection that is being shared in a forum with enthusiasts and collectors alike.

With regards to Chris, I do remember his website and do remember him going overboard as he was worried but I wouldn’t have advised that course of action rather a simple disclaimer for education and personal purposes. Any right minded lawyer will always (to protect him or herself) advise to the positive action as their is always a potential for such to happen but the likelihood is far to remote and what’s the commercial purpose? Is he making millions for sharing these pictures of a defunct production only available on secondhand market? It’s not proportional I would rather wait for actual communication from legal advising me to stop but that would also me something that would be so surprising to receive. EP doesn’t even publish LEC books anymore in the same format. You are not eating into EP’s royalties.

As they say in the U.K. it’s all bonkers

>190 dlphcoracl: Thanks for this list. I have only a few of this group But The Secret Sharer ranks high among my favorite LEC productions of any era.

The Faerie Queene (1953). Perfectly (to my eye) illustrated by Agnes Miller Parker and printed on an all-rag paper. It’s been on my radar for a while, but I was finally prompted to pick up a copy after seeing renewed feeding frenzy for the Folio Society LE (another attractive edition, but inferior to the LEC, in my opinion).

The copy I got had some sunning to the dust jackets, and a touch of wear to the edges of the slipcase, but the books themselves look good as new, including the buckram bindings, so the jackets did their job admirably.

According to the monthly letter, this was (at the time) the “biggest and heaviest” book the club had so far distributed. It did claim a substantial portion of my shelf real-estate.

>200 abysswalker:
Much as I hated to, that shelf space issue (since I am downsizing my living quarters) prompted me to sell my Limited Editions Club FQ. I still have the HP, still in the glassine and in a single volume, but I confess I miss the LEC.

Purchased a lot of LECs at an online auction, which arrived yesterday, including The Chimes, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Captain James Cook in the Pacific, and The Innocents Abroad.

I have finally found and ordered what looks like a near fine copy of The Froissart's Chronicles (LEC). Thank you, dear group members, for providing pictures and even articles which enabled me to get the book!

>203 Lukas1990: Aaaand my order is cancelled... The bookseller from US asked additional 65$ for postage and I rejected it. I knew there will be problems with such a big book. Oh, well...

>204 Lukas1990:

Was it an actual business or an individual bookseller? It's not really about the weight for the individual seller :). That's how much international shipping from the U.S. to other countries costs even for relatively light books. The U.S. doesn't really have cheap "surface mail" rates available to individuals. Not that I know of anyways. So at the cheapest you have to pay for USPS airmail (starting from $37.60 according to website). Many LECs aren't even worth shipping from the U.S.A. to other countries sadly, not unless you want to squeeze the book into a flat rate box with no room left for packing materials.

>205 MobyRichard: It's a business. I have been searching for an affordable copy for a long time and it is very disappointing that shipping costs more than two times as much as the book itself. Unfortunately The Froissart's Chronicles are almost impossible to find in the European Union. I had some previous success with buying great LEC's from EU sellers.

>206 Lukas1990: You might want to try Alibris. They often don’t have much to offer, but cheap shipping rates. I got my Froissart’s Chronicles from there a few months ago.

>207 RRCBS: I ordered the same book from the same bookseller on Alibris. Will it work? :)

>208 Lukas1990: it might…they have sellers ship to their US warehouse and then forward them on. It often takes a bit longer than advertised. Fingers crossed for you!

>209 RRCBS: Thank you for the advice! I really hate that all these platforms can't show the exact shipping cost when I am placing an order and then booksellers have to ask for additional payment. In case of my order Biblio.com even calculated the VAT correctly. Why is it so hard to calculate the right shipping cost?

>209 RRCBS: It worked! The book has been shipped! For only 13€ instead of 75€! So strange that the bookseller didn't inform me that I should choose Alibris when they cancelled my order via Biblio. I am used to lazy Lithuanian businesses not willing to earn money but didn't expect the same from US ones.

>212 Lukas1990: That’s great! It might take longer to arrive. I just ordered The Flounder via Alibris…I basically only order LEC books via Alibris now because of the shipping cost.

Not an acquisition, but I thought I was SO close: I was visiting (a California beach town) yesterday when I saw on the website of a nearby bookstore a listing of Michael Bussacco's Annotative Bibliography of the Heritage Press and Heritage Press Sandglass Companion Book. When we had had our fill of beach time (foggy!), we drove to the store, only to be disappointed.

Of the two books above, the one I really want is the Sandglass Companion. Is it a reprint of all the Sandglasses? Does it contain any other information? As it is out of print, are there legal ways to get creative about accessing the contents?

I understand that Mr. Bussacco is a member of this group - https://www.librarything.com/profile/HPAuthor. I have no idea if he's active on LT but you could try PM'img him or writing him at his address on his member page and seeing if he could help you out.

>215 AMindForeverVoyaging: Your response is appreciated, but I've PM'd Michael Bussacco twice over a period of months, and not received a response.

I haven't snail-mailed him, but think I will!

>214 maisiedotes:
The Sandglass Companion was issued in 2 volumes: Heritage Press Sandglass Companion Book: 1937-1959 and Heritage Press Sandglass Companion Book: 1960-1983. I have the Companion which covers the earlier years and have not been able to purchase the one covering 1960--1983.

The Companion volume I have reprints most--but not all of the Sandglasses issued in this period. It reprints the ones from Mr. Bussacco's (and his twin brother's) personal collection. Although it is by far the most comprehensive collection of these to be found, it would be almost impossible to have a copy of every single Sandglass--especially considering the bewildering variety of re-issues and special issues.

As for accessing the content, while I'm happy to scan and upload to the Google drive any Sandglasses I possess, I would not scan and upload, or share via PM, any in the Sandglass Companion which I did not own. That would seem to me unfair to Mr. Bussacco, who after all spent considerable time and money collecting these books.

You might search the online booksellers for a second-hand copy someone may be selling. I would hope that Mr. Bussacco may make it available again--pehaps through one of the Print-on-Demand services.

>217 Django6924: Thanks for the information, Robert. I've looked on Abe, Alibris, Amazon, and Biblio and not found any listings, so I guess I'll have to do without.

Am I missing any other major online sellers out there?

I know that some Sandglasses are available on the Google drive, but it's nice to have them in a book (we are book-lovers after all!).

Newbie serendipity! (Please don't laugh! We all have to start somewhere!)

I only became aware of Heritage Press during the pandemic and although I did acquire a Quarto-Millenary several months into my journey, I decided to hold off on LECs for the time being.

Well, a few weeks ago while I was in the storage room of a local bookstore looking through 18 crates of Heritage Press books—and trying hard to whittle my choices down to a fraction of what was available—I picked up Green Mansions. It looked distinctly different from the copy I already owned, so I decided, yes, this would make it into my pile of buys.

Only when I came home and had time to look through the book did I discover that it was an LEC, signed and numbered.

So I inadvertently broke my rule about sticking to HPs, but hope this doesn't lead me down a rabbit hole (yet).

>219 maisiedotes: Always fun when that happens! I've come across a few LECs scattered in with the Heritage selections, and it brings a smile to my face each time!

>219 maisiedotes: Unfortunately or fortunately, I got so hooked on LEC books that I have already bought four this year. Which is a lot for me. I used to have a rule that I can only order books which cost up to 10€... At least all my LEC books are well sought after and not thaaaat expensive :D

>220 WildcatJF: Lucky finds! You've mentioned a bookstore in Monterey a few times and I'd still like to go there. Are you revealing your sources? (The beach town I reference in >214 maisiedotes: is not Monterey, nor did it have any HPs.)

>221 Lukas1990: "I can only order books up to 10€." Am I allowed to laugh (even though I asked you not to laugh at me)? May I ask if you found any surprise treasures in that price range?

Some time ago, I contacted Mr. Bussaco by E-mail to enquire as to whether he was going to issue the last volume of his HP bibliography. His answer was brief. In essence, no. He further indicated his health was not good. Several subsequent attempts to contact him remain unanswered. It is entirely possible he has expired, or perhaps his health is such that he is no longer communicating electronically.

>223 Glacierman: Thanks for letting us know about your communication with Mr. Bussacco. Whatever the scenario, it's a loss.

>219 maisiedotes: There's four bookstores in Monterey proper: Bookbuyers, Old Capitol Books, Old Monterey Book Co., and Carpe Diem Rare Books. For Heritage collecting, the first two are going to be of interest. Old Capitol relocated over the past year so I'm not 100% sure what their stock is as of this moment (I'll be visiting later today), but Bookbuyers had probably a good 50 books behind the counter when I stopped in yesterday. Old Monterey is owned by a pretty cranky person and has dodgy hours, but there could be a few Heritage titles there (that may be overpriced; it's been years since I visited). Carpe Diem is the most expensive of the bunch and is by appointment only, and would likely have only a couple Heritage books as that is not their focus.

>225 WildcatJF: Ooh-aah! Thanks for those leads. I'll see if I can swing a trip to Monterey, although I really shouldn't buy anything else for a l-o-n-g time.

Surely you acquired something today???? Do tell!

>226 maisiedotes: Haha I didn't actually make it over to the book store today. Maybe tomorrow?

I've been enjoying my recently-acquired copy of Ah, Wilderness. It's a Connecticut HP printing, but still very attractive with the red-white-and-blue fireworks and decorations.

All was well until I couldn't find the beginning of Act IV, Scene II. My book is missing pages 131-134! (No, nothing has been torn out. All the sewing is intact.)

Can anybody confirm this of their own copy as well?

>228 maisiedotes: That’s certainly frustrating!

If you would like me to send you scans of those pages, let me know. I have the LEC edition so would need to confirm the last dialog sequence on 130 starts…

“Richard (his eyes shining)…”

And the first line on Page 135 begins…

“Was all painted up…”

>229 BionicJim: That is SO kind of you to offer to scan those pages—and thoughtful to check the dialog sequence. The pages do match. I was, however, able to find the play on Project Gutenberg Australia, so I read the four pages digitally.

I had been warned to stay away from the Connecticut printings, but didn't think the quality issues extended to missing pages!

>230 maisiedotes: I was a "subscriber" in last days of the Connecticut based "Heritage Club" (this was how I learned about the LEC). While many of the books-to a newbie-seemed quite acceptably done, toward the end I began to see several examples of what you described.
I would be unlikely to buy any CT published Heritage today.

>231 laotzu225: That makes sense.

I've had a chance to see a title in its NY and its CT printing, and even my unartistic eyes were able to discern that the CT illustrations were a big step down—smaller and black-and-white as opposed to color.

Ah, Wilderness!, though, is happy candy to my newbie eyes. The fireworks and the bright red "marquee" on every page perfectly fit the ultimately upbeat theme.

I know it's not LEC or HP related but I really wanted to share with you (my most favorite LT group) my latest purchase - an ex libris by the very talented Sepp Frank. I wish he had illustrated a LEC or HP book.

>233 Lukas1990: also one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing. His Faust is magisterial. Falls afoul of my personal rule to only buy books I can read (no German, unfortunately), not to mention being pricy. But maybe someday someone will release a nice translated edition that uses his illustrations.

>233 Lukas1990: I feel like a dummy asking this, but if I don't ask, I don't learn, right? Isn't an ex libris the label that a book owner glues to the front page and states the equivalent of "This book belongs to ____"?

I guess I'm confused by the size.

I'd love to know more about this drawing.

>234 abysswalker:

For more of Sepp Frank.........

1. https://booksandvines.com/2011/11/02/hamlet-by-william-shakespeare-1920-edition-...

2. https://booksandvines.com/2011/12/08/faust-by-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe-from-ju...

Note that an unusual feature of the photographs in the Books and Vines articles and reviews is that if you left-click once over a photo it will enlarge. If you then left-click again, i.e., a second time, over the enlarged photo it will enlarge further, giving a macro view with exceptional detail for viewing both the illustrations, the typeface(s), and the qualities of the handmade papers and letterpress/handpress printing.

>235 maisiedotes: Ex Libris means from the library in Latin. It is often used on a book plate followed by the owner’s name (e.g. from the library of John Doe). As a general term it refers to books that were formally in a library. This implies heavier usage, Dewey decimal characters on the spine, possible library stamps on multiple pages. I never almost never buy ex libris books for my library. I might buy a really cheap former library book to read on a trip or at the beach and then donate it back to the library when I’m done (most libraries around here have shops or periodic sales where they sell donated books to raise money for the library).

>235 maisiedotes:
>237 kdweber: I thought only personal collections, not public libraries, had book plates. Are we talking about two separate things? I'm still confused -- not trying to be stupid on purpose!

>238 maisiedotes: ex libris from a library usually doesn’t have a book plate. Individuals commonly use book plates with ex libris on it but they don’t have to. If you’re buying a used book from a public library or a university library etc. they probably won’t have a bookplate (more likely multiple pages stamped) but they are considered ex libris. Technically, if you’re buying a used book from anyone’s library it’s ex libris but commonly the phrase is not used that way. Ex Libris does not mean book plate.

>235 maisiedotes: It is really a very big ex libris. The picture itself is 18x14 cm and the whole page is like 28x20 cm (sorry, I'm too lazy to turn it into inches :D). Unfortunately it is a bit too small for my standart A4 size picture frame.

>234 abysswalker: A publisher called Griffel Verlag published a downsized facsimile of Faust with Sepp Frank's illustrations in 1925. Check it out! It is inexpensive (I'd even say cheap) and I'm considering getting it as soon as my wife allows it :D

>239 kdweber: Thanks. I just found Ex Libris: the Art of Bookplates in the library catalog, so I'll check it out learn some more. Cue song (A Whole New World) . . . .

>240 Lukas1990: Ha, I don't generally speak centimeters, but I can picture what 10cm looks like because I used to own a set of 10cm sticks and 1cm cubes with which I taught my children addition and subtraction.

>241 Lukas1990: I came across the books from the Griffel Verlag multiple times while searching for the orginals, and was always a bit concerned about their quality due to the very low price point. However, I saw a listing describing the paper as "Buetten-Art", so similar to mould made. Also, there is one listing on ebay.de with pictures, and the paper looks pleasant enough, although the binding doesn't appear to have held up well in most cases.

I have now ordered a Griffel facsimile copy of Goethe's Balladen (also illustrated by Frank), as those are extremely inexpensive (single digit amounts). If it indeed arrives from Germany, I will post a quick comparison against the Paul Graupe Verlag original. I will probably put this on the fine press forum, though, as it would be off topic here.

>243 teppi2: Thank you for the reply. I'll be waiting for your post. I don't expect much from such cheap editions but they might be good enough to read and enjoy.

A good collecting day! Received the HG Wells set, Our Town and the seemingly unpopular Ah! Wilderness following my question here about small-town Americana, a NF Aesop’s Fables lacking SC and ML (but what a book!) and some MLs lacking from previous purchases.

In another thread transatlantic forwarding services were discussed. Stackry remains expensive, but after a first telling off they have packed my books carefully and delivery has been safe and swift via FedEx. I no longer feel I really need to pay extra for insurance. I would therefore recommend them, though eBay’s global shipping programme is clearly better when offered.

>245 GusLogan:
Congratulations, particularly on the Aesop — it’s a beautiful book (of course, it’s a Bruce Rogers production).

Picked up the 1995 LEC Microwave Cooking: With Full Instructions for Combination Ovens by Felicity Jackson for a pittance on Abebooks! Haven’t seen this one mentioned on here, pleased to see the Club found a way to build on the previous publication of The Physiology of Taste.

>247 GusLogan:
Heheheh!

>248 kermaier:
I figured I can’t be the only one who keeps running into it!

Just received a copy of 1954 LEC "The Arabian Nights Nights Entertainments" illustrated by Arthur Szyk. Slightly disappointed that it isn't signed but the illustrations are incredible.

Waiting impatiently for the copy of the 1950 LEC "Sherlock Holmes" (3 volume set.)

>250 jpinomaha: Since Szyk died in 1951 it would have been tough for him to sign the 1954 edition.

A more mixed day of collecting. A few books arrived with somewhat greater wear than expected. I’m also not at all sure why I ordered Jurgen! At least it looks near new. Still, a lovely copy of Utopia arrived, as did The Travels of Marco Polo - I’m very fond of the non-huge multi-volume offerings, and the slipcase is very sturdy. Django has sung the praises of the illustrations better than I can. The Spoon River Anthology to complete a theme. And the ML for The Song of Roland. Bringing a ML ”back” together with a book is a good feeling for me.

A couple more LECs inbound, then I’ll need to take a break for the rest of the year…

>252 GusLogan: Frustrating to get less than you bargained for, but still sounds like some fine additions. I've got a dealer about to send me a 10-book lot, which I'll report on when it arrives. Like you, I'll probably do little else the remainder of the year - the spousal unit is getting a bit gruff. I'll need to do some divesting of other books.

>252 GusLogan: Argh, commiserations on the books that arrived not in the condition you expected. But, congratulations on the Marco Polo. That's right near the top of my wish list. A couple of times i've almost gone for the HP edition and then more recently missed the Folio Society edition with the Duc de Berry miniatures (now out of stock). But, so far, i'm holding out for the LEC edition if I can find one in excellent condition.

Do you have any thoughts on the translation used in the LEC? When I was looking at the FS editions I read some of the new Nigel Cliff translation, as well as some of the Ronald Latham from a previous edition. I only read a chapter or so, but I felt the Latham was just as easy to read but a touch more eloquent.

>253 ChrisG1: 10 books - that'll be a fun day!

A recent acquisition highlight for me was a Fine unfaded copy of The Pilgrim's Progress. I had pondered the FS Limited Edition but am really pleased to have the LEC (and at less than a third of the price of the FS edition). Quite a spartan binding, which I like, and the Blake illustrations seem well reproduced. Overall, i'm delighted with it.

>251 kdweber: Ahhhh....wasn't aware of that. Learned something new. Thank you.

>254 GardenOfForkingPaths:
For what it’s worth I ended up spending 125 USD plus shipping for a Fine-in-glassine Marco Polo with a VG- but structurally sound slipcase, no ML. Hardly a bargain. I’ll get back to you on the translation unless someone else chimes in.

My PP is faded, well found!

>252 GusLogan: Give the Jurgen a chance. I had never heard of the book until I bought the LEC and quite enjoyed the story.

>254 GardenOfForkingPaths: I went the other way and bought the FS LE of Pigrim's Progress.

>252 GusLogan: Online there are fan-made notes on Jurgen (https://davidrolfe.github.io/cabell/jurgen.htm) that I wish I had found before I read the book. There were so many references in the book that were over my head that the notes would have made a world of difference. Some day I'll have to do a re-read :)

>256 GusLogan: Thanks! $125 for Marco Polo Fine in glassine doesn't sound too bad at all to me for books of that quality. I hope you get a chance to reunite it with its ML one day (I agree on the joy this brings!)

As a relative newcomer to the LEC, i'm quite surprised when reading through old threads and seeing the much lower prices that some books used to go for. I guess we're in different times now. But still plenty of bargains to be had it seems.

>257 kdweber: The FS Pilgrim's looked like a really lovely edition. Are you pleased with it?

>259 GardenOfForkingPaths: I'm pretty new to LEC but it seems to me that pre-Internet Revolution the prices were generally much higher than they are now, especially judging by all the inflated prices scribbled inside the books by booksellers (@%!^&$ - don't get me started on that). Then there seemed to be a crash in prices when so much product flooded the market. And I would say things have been stabilizing in more recent years as an accurate market has developed. But yes, I would say the Aughts were probably a golden decade for collecting LECs.

>258 AMindForeverVoyaging:
Thank you for that link!

>260 AMindForeverVoyaging: Interesting. That makes sense and certainly more nuanced than the idea that things were always better for the LEC collector in the past!

>262 GardenOfForkingPaths:
Re: bargains I did a quick check of my records and found about ten mostly F or NF LECs bought at around 30 USD/EUR each or less over the last two years. But also some purchases my significant other will never be fully briefed about…

Edit: The best lesson I’ve learned from the wise people here is the value of patience. Many times I’ve bought an expensive LEC it’s turned up in like condition cheaper soon afterwards, or at least within a year or two. It’s taken me a couple of years to internalize this.

>260 AMindForeverVoyaging:
Less craziness during the pandemic than with Folio Society books at least… I’ve sold several at 3-400 % of what I bought them for to put money into LEC:s instead.

I just received a copy of Rubaiyat, a gift from a very observant, kind devotee!

>265 maisiedotes:
A wonderful edition that doesn’t contribute much to shelf space crises!

I gambled on an ex-library copy of the LEC The Grapes of Wrath for 200 USD. I think it worked out! (The cheapest copy I can see for sale right now is 500 USD.) I’ve put some photos in my junk drawer. Mottled but otherwise looks great to me. No ML (maybe there isn’t one since it’s a special series?) but the one-pager on caring for the binding. Two ”For reference” stickers on the front boards came off easily with no trace. Quite a few internal stamps and library references in pen and pencil I’ll have to attack in due course. Also bookplates.

The spine stickers left a shadow on one volume, but I’m hopeful it will fade a little when I rub the spines with ledervaseline. I’ve seen discussions here and elsewhere on LT regarding this, so I’m a little nervous, not least because of the silver print. The rawhide certainly seems more dry/hard than supple. Do please let me know if you think I’d be nuts to apply anything at all…

https://www.librarything.com/pic/8521962

>254 GardenOfForkingPaths: One of my few recent purchases of current Folio Society books is the Marco Polo and I am quite pleased with it. I was able to get it on sale ($100 instead of $125). It must have been a popular item.
I have a Heritage Club edition from the Norwalk period (so not the best reproduction) and also an Easton Press edition which is a real disappointment. It is actually narrower than the Heritage so the margins on the pages are also narrower. The illustrations (each a single color but of varied colors throughout the book in the HP) are reproduced in grayscale in the EP.
Were it not for having the FS, I'd probably also look for the LEC. Just sharing the vagaries of book collecting.

>268 laotzu225: Thanks for sharing your experiences with the different reproductions of the illustrations. All noted for future reference. The earlier HP Marco Polo looks like a lovely binding (I was looking at WildcatJF's excellent review of it earlier (https://georgemacyimagery.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/heritage-press-the-travels-of-marco-polo-1934/) but once I'd seen pictures of the original LEC illustrations that use multiple colours in each illustration, I decided to try and hold out for that one.

>267 GusLogan: Congratulations on the Grapes of Wrath - that looks to be a fantastic deal!

>267 GusLogan:. The rawhide binding is anything but supple. I have never tried to apply any kind of dressing to the leather, but from frequent visits, it must have picked up some oil from my hands as there is more mottling now than when I purchased it. I can't say it bothers me--in fact I kind of like it. I would say you scored an outstanding bargain: My copy cost me slightly over $1000 15 years ago and the HP edition in leather binding--one of the rarer HPs--can cost almost as much as your LEC.

Yes, no ML for this book but in addition to the pamphlet on caring for the leather, there was a booklet "Why John Steinbeck Wrote The Grapes of Wrath" which also included essays related to other books issued outside the normal series: the second Decameron and one by A.A. Milne. I never felt the need to acquire this booklet but it is available online.

>270 Django6924:
Thank you, on several points - I see the booklet is readily available for reasonable amounts but it’s a relief not to be looking for a ML that doesn’t exist for the next twenty years!

If it isn’t meant to be supple I suppose I’ll leave it as is for now, if it starts flaking I guess I’ll address that.

>270 Django6924:
A really rather nice slipcase-less copy of the LEC The Grapes of Wrath just turned up on Abebooks for 400 USD, for anyone interested…

>266 GusLogan: So true!

I went to Moe's in Berkeley today for my first look at some LECs. The ample dimensions of those books would definitely exacerbate shelf-space crisis!

A peek at Grapes of Wrath ($500) was the extent of my experience with the two volumes. I opened the covers just enough to glimpse inside and run my fingers over the letters. The rawhide didn't seem too cooperative, and I didn't want to find myself subject to the china-shop dictum: "You break it, you own it."

>241 Lukas1990: thanks for the pointer to the Griffel Verlag Faust.

I found a copy for $20 USD that shipped from Germany for only an additional $10 postage.

It arrived today (only took a week to cross the Atlantic). It often costs me more to send a book within Canada! International shipping is strange.

As it turns out, the book (printed 1925) is in almost perfect condition. I would say near fine; there is some wear to the corners of the paste paper over the boards, but the interior is pristine, and most of the gatherings remain unopened! Had the binding been half cloth rather than quarter cloth, it likely would still be in fine condition.

The quality of the Sepp Frank illustration reproductions is mixed. Some are decent while others are pretty muddy. But overall I'm pleased, even though I can't read German.

It does feel like I crossed some bibliophilic (bibliomanic?) Rubicon with this purchase, as this is the first book I have bought purely for the appearance without the intent (actually without the ability) to read it. No complaints though; I have something like four different editions of Faust with various translations into English already, and the baroque gothicness of the blackletter typeface is itself almost illustration...

>274 abysswalker: I'm glad you liked it and will search for a copy right now! My Rubicon was crossed earlier this year when I bought a German language book on Frans Masereel work (the book mostly contains his woodcuts not much text). It is not hard to use programs like Google Lens to translate it. I guess it would be much harder for the program to recognize that Gothic type of Faust :D

Edit: the copy I've just ordered is this (I can't see any cloth):

>275 Lukas1990: this is the version I got:

>275 Lukas1990: "... programs like Google Lens ..."

I tried Google's translate app on my phone. I find the result amusing:

>276 abysswalker: Ahhh! So much Fraktur! That is, I fear, more than I could take. But, as long as you enjoy it, it doesn't matter what I think!

I acquired a copy of Quarto Millenary. I haven't taken the time to read any of the articles yet, but it's nice to be able to leaf through the exemplar pages and get some ideas for the future. It's a shame that the example bindings images are all black and white, but I guess this was published in the 50s.

>267 GusLogan:

The same ex-library collection also yielded me a copy of the 1933 Don Quixote for 80 USD. It’s gotten pricey recently so I’m OK with some stamps and bookplates (edit: someone just listed an ex-library copy on Abebooks for 425 bucks to underline this - that’s not going to sell…). Expensive shipping, though!

(For what it’s worth - I prefer the paper in Confessions of an English Opium Eater, but the fact that the pages are larger probably plays some part.)

Just had delivered today a 10 book lot, all of which are at least in near fine condition & all but one had the ML

Short Stories - Anton Chekhov
The Mill on the Floss
Madame Bovary
Short Stories of O. Henry
Tales of East and West
Resurrection
A Tramp Abroad
Tono-Bungay
The House of Mirth
Winesburg Ohio

I chose to focus on books that: 1) I want to read, and 2) are modestly priced. I'll post photos on at least some of these.

>281 ChrisG1: Good haul! Photos of the Bovary (whichever of the two it is) would be particularly welcome in these quarters.

>254 GardenOfForkingPaths:
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30994123340&cm_sp=snippe...

Hurry!

>283 GusLogan: Thank you! I owe you one! Slipcase seemed to be in better than usual condition too, which is a bonus. The seller had it listed on Biblio so I was able to purchase it there and get 10% off.

That makes for two very exciting purchases in the last couple of weeks, the other being a lot of 84 Monthly Letters!

Thanks again :)

>284 GardenOfForkingPaths:
Excellent, my pleasure!

I wandered into a favorite used bookstore last month and happened upon Erewhon by Samuel Butler sitting in among the other fiction for the ridiculous price of $11. Not having a slipcase, I guess they hadn’t realized it was the 1934 LEC edition signed by Rockwell Kent so it was my pleasure to bring it home. Besides a bit of foxing on the silk boards and spine (not inside), the book was in very good condition and I was interested to read the story and learn more about Rockwell Kent.

The story starts out as an adventure tale that we’ve all read before as a lost civilization is discovered high in the mountains or beyond. This frames the real meat of the book, which is a satire/philosophy that turns British culture on it’s head. Apparently, Butler had written and published much of these as articles in magazines and worked it into the book that was released in the 1880s.

Though some of it was a slog to get through, overall I enjoyed my read of this early “Utopian” tale and it made me wonder about the original use of that word - Utopia, which apparently was coined by Sir Thomas More for his book. Obviously, my next purchase was to be the 1934 LEC edition of Utopia signed by Bruce Rogers, the designer. The Very Good edition I acquired cost much more than $11, but that is how rabbit holes work, right?

As for Rockwell Kent’s art in Erewhon, I appreciated the art-deco style he is known for. The two-color full-page illustrations he provided have an interesting conceit in that they illustrate the literal concept in the story with a smaller image framed in the bottom with the modern “real” version of that concept as represented in 1934. For example, totem poles that sing in the wind are to warn enemies away from the land of Erewhon, where the modern image is a large cannon.



Besides the full-page illustrations, Kent also created a line-drawing and initial letter for each chapter. Here’s an example:



…and another of the full-page illustrations…


I just discovered that the word “Utopia” actually means “Nowhere” in Latin, so these two books being published the same year by the LEC was not just an accident. I’m looking forward to my reading of Utopia this month and comparing it to Butler’s version 350 years later.

I just received Aesop's Fables (1933), designed by Bruce Rogers and printed by John Johnson at the University Press, Oxford. The price was less than $50 USD. This wasn't even on my radar, but I noticed a listing by chance and made an impulse purchase due to the beautiful style of marbling and the pedigree of the various people involved. The book design was inspired by a 16th century Florentine edition (more catnip for Mr. Walker in Abysses) and features 46 recreated original woodcuts, so more than 1 in 4 of the 190 fables are accompanied by an illustration.

The monthly letter tells me that the type used on the half-title was owned by Benjamin Franklin. The rest was printed in Fell types, unique to the Oxford press, on Barcham Green hand-made paper. While I am not all that particular about bindings most of the time, there is a subdued elegance to half-vellum with marbled boards that makes it one of my favorite styles, simultaneously archaic and modern. It's like the Barcelona Pavilion of binding styles.

I feel like I'm writing marketing copy at this point, but pretty much every element of this production seems like it was tailor-made to personally delight me.













The only downside to this purchase was that the slipcase was missing, which didn't really put me out given the rough condition at present of many LEC slipcases of the early 1930s. By chance, the monthly letter even includes a salve to to ease this minor shortcoming:

... It is only in America that the outside trappings of books are so meticulously attended to. In most countries, the producers of books feel that books are friendly things, that the binding is intended to protect the book and that outside trappings come between the book's owner and his friend, the book. Here in America, of late years, publishers have wrapped the books in all kinds of fancy papers and have made all kinds of expensive flannel lined slip-cases. ... Since then, we have been assured that both slip-cases and labels were a silly expense, that most people throw the cases away as an unnecessary affront to the book. We have continued to go to this expense only because we have been afraid to risk the displeasure of the members. ...

And the condition was in any case fine, apart from the standard vellum age toning, which I actually enjoy (creates some depth and texture).

Less than $50!

>286 BionicJim:, >287 abysswalker: quality posts! I am still waiting for a couple of LEC books and will try to post some pics when (if...) I get them. It is a bit of a lottery when you live in Eastern Europe.

Abysswalker, I think I am getting enabled. I love lots of illustrations. I own a Folio Society version of Aesop's Fables but I find them too 'English'. I mean those fables are adjusted to Victorian (?) England (the characters are etc. coalminers and so on, nothing Aesop could have written) and I am more interested in the original fables. I guess the LEC version is more faithfull to the original.

Since today was errand day and we were in town with a little extra time, we dropped by the used bookstore owned by a good friend of mine of long standing. The store is jammed with used paperbacks and hardcovers of all sorts crammed into every nook and cranny. Not an antiquarian shop by any means, but interesting things do pop up from time to time, such as a fine first in d/j of Ian Fleming's The Man With the Golden Gun some time ago. He gets Heritage Press books in with some frequency, usually a bit worn, but occasionally in fine condition. Today, I found Stevenson's "Master of Ballantrae," printed on a lovely laid paper, with Sandglass and Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil", also with Sandglass. Both are Fine in VG+ slipcases. I bought both of them and a nice Folio Society book for $30.00. Color me happy. 😁

Here's a pic of my recent lot posted above. Also pics of Madame Bovary, as requested:

To all who posted pics recently:
Bee-yoo-tiful!
Drooling!
Rejoicing with you!

>290 ChrisG1: I appreciate seeing the LEC of Bovary; I didn't know the woodcuts of Brissaud's watercolors were...colored in the LEC! They're just black and white in the Heritage, and don't really do them justice. This just shot up my list!

The Georgics (LEC) is on it's way from US. Also still waiting for the Froissart's Chronicles (LEC). It's already one and a half months since it was shipped. I hope it arrives by my birthday which is on 26th September. I'm done for this year :D

>293 Lukas1990:
Are you taking bets on sticking to your last sentence?

>294 wcarter: haha! Maybe I should take that sentence back...

>287 abysswalker:
Truly a wonderful book, and I recently paid more than twice as much - congratulations!

Took another chance on Ebay and finally got myself a Heritage Press "Book of Job". Incredible condition. Even the slip case. And the Sandglass is in almost pristine condition.

>297 literatefool: You can't just post a message like that and tempt us without a picture!

>297 literatefool: This is a great book. Congrats on finding one in such good condition. I was very impressed with the content of this book as well as the design and presentation. The introduction by Mary Ellen Chase was informative and enlightening, which is what I wish all introductions could be.

>279 ubiquitousuk: It really is a wonderful book to have! It is useful for some research on G. Macy era books. But having the scope of those foundational publications in one handsome volume is a pleasure.

>284 GardenOfForkingPaths: Please consider supplying copies to the Google Drive of MLs which aren't there!

>286 BionicJim: Jim, I have this book but haven't read it. I bought it for the Kent illustrations. Your review and expressions of delight have impelled me to start reading and enjoying it.

>298 ironjaw: I just got my hands on it! I'll post pictures as soon as I get some good ones.

>301 laotzu225: I'd be delighted to.

I received the package of MLs a few days ago and have been enjoying going through them all, uniting them with books I already own and plotting which books are yet to be acquired :) Very easy to just get lost in reading them all.

The cost (with Biblio discount) was just over £90, which seemed incredible to me. I was a little worried about the condition but, with just a few exceptions, they're all in excellent shape. They are from the period 1954 through to 1970. There are only 84 so nowhere near a complete run, and of course not as hard to come by as the earlier MLs, but I'd be pleased to help fill in any gaps if there are any.

Do I need to speak to ironjaw about access to the Drive, or should I just post a list of what I have and see if any are required?

>290 ChrisG1: thanks for posting the MB!

>304 GardenOfForkingPaths: I haven't looked at the group for a week so a delayed response. Check with ironjaw and django6924 as to who has upload access to the drive.
As one who is missing a number of MLs myself, i have a selfish interest in encouraging this.

In my struggle to stop buying LECs (with a few wishlist exceptions) for a while - until I buy a bigger house - I have cannily channeled my funds into buying nineteen(!) MLs I’m missing from a (the?) prominent LEC historian, with whom it was a pleasure to deal. The 1933 Don Quixote, earlier Brothers Karamazov and One Thousand and One Nights stand out as joyous finds!

Edit: >304 GardenOfForkingPaths: congratulations on that price!

On the way is a pretty decent copy of the LEC Last Days of Pompeii that cost me a sum total, including shipping, of $13.00. Still has the d/w and the slipcase is in pretty good shape. Spine a bit sunned, but hey, at that price, I'm not complaining!

I couldn’t resist Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man, seemingly Fine at 18 USD with free shipping, despite the missing ML.

>309 GusLogan: Can't beat that price!

A tear drops from my checks at those prices. Oh, America

My LEC 'Georgics' arrived today with this... :(

>312 Lukas1990: Is that mold? So sorry to see that!

Over the weekend, I went to see The Winter's Tale at a local Shakespeare company. I had never read the play, so upon coming home, I pulled my HP Comedies off the shelf. I had acquired it recently for $4 from a thrift store.

The good news: the book came with a Sandglass.

The bad news: scrawled on the Sandglass was "Where in (College Town X) is (my brother) going to live?"

But wait, there's good news again! There was another—clean—copy of the same Sandglass!

The first half of The Winter's Tale is so tragic, I wasn't sure I'd find it among the Comedies, but there it was.

>313 maisiedotes: I'm not sure but it looks bad. Maybe I should use a cloth and some alcohol and try to clean it? The bookseller offers a full refund if I return the book but I don't want to risk it being lost in transit so I asked for a partial refund. If the seller declines I hope Ebay can help me.

>315 Lukas1990: The eBay Money Back Guarantee would protect you in this case since it looks like the seller failed to disclose condition information. You can learn more here: https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-b....

>316 AMindForeverVoyaging: Thank you! There's a 10-hour time difference between my hometown and the place where the seller is located so I'm still waiting for his response.

I managed to find a rather nice copy of the 1940 Decameron for $150. The slipcase is torn but the original glassine was still on. Likely these were never read.

>318 BuzzBuzzard:

Spines look great, much better than usual there.

I personally slightly prefer the older LEC Decameron but both are winners.

Another recent acquisition that turned out to be a page turner, which I can not say for Erewhon.

>320 BuzzBuzzard: Ha ha! As I said in my review above, some of Erewhon is a trudge to get through as it shows that it was clearly a group of essays Butler had re-packaged with a framing story. I’ve yet to read The Way of All Flesh, but will now look forward to it with renewed interest.

>318 BuzzBuzzard: >320 BuzzBuzzard: Beautiful condition for both books, congrats!

>315 Lukas1990: Alcohol might kill the bacteria, but I am not sure if it would clean any stain to the cover. Probably it would have something to do with how long the this has been on the book. Sunlight can kill mold, but it can be harsh on the binding and cause warping. I keep saying I am going to try a UV light, but I am a little afraid of them. To get one strong enough to kill mold, you have something that is not safe for people to be around while it is running. There are different types of UV light, and not all types will kill all germs.

>323 Bernarrd: Thank you! I got a partial refund of 25% from the sellernand will leave the book as it is. I call those spots The Little Signs of Time...

I just bought Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi (HP) over the weekend. I've never read it, nor have I any idea of the content, but the illustrations were what persuaded me.

Also, I was in a brick-and-mortar store and all the HPs were up on the tippy-top shelf where even on a step-stool, I couldn't reach the books. The cashier kindly brought down a dozen HPs for me, and I felt that I owed it to him to buy something. Ever reading Shaun Bythell's Diary of a Bookseller, I've had a soft spot for independent booksellers. One HP equals three Peets coffees, and I'll take the book anytime.

>181 Lukas1990: Didn't you get Little Flowers in June? How do you like it? How's that slipcase coming along?

>325 maisiedotes: I love everything about The Little Flowers! You would really like the wonderful papers by Magnani with a watermark. Here's some photos:





The HP edition (as many HP reprints of the LEC books, in my opinion) of the book looks great, I am sure you'll enjoy it! I've been a fan of Officina Bodoni/Stamperia Valdonega since I received my copy of The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar. In addition to The Flowers and The Gallic Wars I've also got The Georgics by Virgil. Another perfect job by Mr. Mardersteig and Bruno Bramanti. I am so happy being able to acquire these books.

I broke my promise not to buy any more books this year and ordered The Orations and Essays of Cicero printed at the Stamperia Valdonega for the LEC. Like my copy of The Flowers it also doesn't have a slipcase. My experiments with building my own slipcases continue. I bought some cardboard which turned out to be too thin, then I bought some more which was way too thick and now I discovered a shop on the other side of my hometown which sells the perfect cardboard so I will have to go there and get some. I've had problems using glue with the slipcases (I either use to much or too little of it). That's why I might try some tape. Will update you on my achievements :D There's sooo little time when you have to take care of a seven month old baby...

>326 Lukas1990: Whatever board you use for your slipcases, you must make sure it is acid free!! I recommend binder's board obtainable from TALAS.

Just ordered a copy of the LEC The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, fine in slipcase, chemise and still in glassine d/w with ML & prospectus for a very reasonable price. I eagerly await its arrival. I already have the HC version, obtained years ago when I was a member. A comparison will be interesting.

>326 Lukas1990:

Good Choice (Orations/Cicero). While far from being the fanciest LEC binding, there's a special solidity to it. Sometimes I'll just take it off the self and turn it over in my hands and then reshelve without reading it.

>326 Lukas1990: Don't use tape. It's ugly and will deteriorate. Stick with a non-acidic PVA glue. Listen to >327 Glacierman: and make sure your boards are acid free. I buy lots of slipcase materials from Talas.

>326 Lukas1990: My HP is very nice, but your LEC paper looks . . . almost irresistible. You've almost pushed me over the edge.

>326 Lukas1990: Could you add a picture showing the watermark?

>327 Glacierman: and >330 kdweber: thank you for the slipcase-building tips. I realise all the materials have to be acid free. I would prefer buying them locally as shipping anything from US to Lithuania costs a lot. There's also taxes. In addition to that, shipping can take months and it is not rare that the parcel gets lost in-transit as had recently happened to my beautiful copy of LEC's Froissart's Chronicles...

>329 MobyRichard: I chose a book in a decent condition, judging from the couple of pictures the seller provided, but without a slipcase. Will take a month or so to arrive. As a Roman history geek and a lawyer I am very interested in that kind of literature.

>331 maisiedotes:, >332 maisiedotes: Here you go! Now make that order! You can use the HP as a reading copy and the LEC as a decoration :D

>333 Lukas1990: I need to spend less time in the company of enablers and more time with my books.

Thanks for the picture. Watermarks on paper are a fairly recent discovery for me.

Do many LECs have watermarks? Are they on every page?

I've never seen a watermark on any HPs, but I've noticed it on every page of a book by Doubleday and a translucent dust jacket by George H. Doran Company.

>333 Lukas1990: Ahh, yes. Living in Lithuania makes a difference, for sure! I would suggest then that you contact The Vilnius Bookbinders' Guild. I'm sure they can help you. Good luck!

>336 Glacierman: Thank you very much! That's my hometown! Never heard of the guild though.

I recently picked up the LEC version of The Rise of Silas Lapham in near fine condition for $5 plus $4 s+h. I know it’s not one of the fancier LECs but man, that’s the best deal I’ve ever gotten on a book. I’m really enjoying the story so far!

>338 JedediahG: My kind of prices!

Today, my copy of the LEC The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter arrived. A Fine copy, essential As New, in intact glassine wrapper, with the chemise also As New. The slipcase has some weird minor damage to it which looks like it could be from bookworms (beetle larvae) and which is primarily cosmetic, not affecting the soundness of the structure. ML and prospectus included. Lovely copy.

I had received the HP edition long ago while I was a member of the Heritage Club. I enjoyed the story, and found the HP production most attractive. However, the LEC is a definite improvement, as it is printed letterpress on a wonderful rag paper from Curtis, and the reproduction of the watercolor illustrations is magnificent. It also has the perk that it is available in similar condition for ±50 bucks, US. I paid $40 for my copy, postage included.

Very nice book. And the binding has beveled boards, which is, in my opinion, a very nice touch of elegance.

>340 Glacierman: Congrats and enjoy! One of the joys of collecting LEC books is the realization that one can pick up a letterpress printed book on rag paper signed by the illustrator for ridiculous prices. I bought my pristine copy of The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter complete with glassine, monthly letter and announcement 10 years ago for $25. I know of no better way to get introduced to fine press books.

>341 kdweber: I cannot but agree! It is a grand way to begin for those who have not had the good fortune to have encountered them otherwise as I did.

I had the privilege of working in the acquisitions department of the William Robertson Coe Library at the University of Wyoming many years ago which gave me access to their rare book room wherein I had the joy and pleasure of perusing several Kelmscott Press books as well as several other press books. Needless to say, I was bitten very hard by the bug and am still suffering from the effects of that bite! The first actual press book I owned was obtained from the Coe Library duplicate/reject sale. It was a copy of Stephen Berg's Bearing Weapons printed by Harry Duncan at the Cummington Press which is, sadly, no longer in my collection as some years ago I found it necessary to part with most of my books at that time. Much of what I disposed of has never been replaced, and that book is one of them. I must confess, however, that I haven't really tried to replace that one. Ah well, I now have things which I did not own then, so all is well.

>309 GusLogan:
I’ve now received both the Sassoon and Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady. I expected the latter to be taller - both hit my size sweet spot, very nice to handle.

I’ve just received my last LEC before I self-impose the rule that until I move to larger dwellings I can only acquire a single volume from each of the 14th and 36th series (recommendations welcome) to achieve my current arbitrary goal of having a book from each Macy series... And it’s Simplicissimus - I add my praise of it to that of others here (despite its size!). Wonderfully illustrated. And published in the year of my birth!

>344 GusLogan: I had the same arbitrary goal of having a book from each Macy series. My second arbitrary goal was to collect the first 50 LECs. Both goals accomplished and not adding too many more LECs these days.

>345 kdweber:
Did your ownership of or desire for The Brothers Karamazov lead to the first 50 cutoff, or was it just a round number combined with the fact that many very expensive club publications are in the next 50?

>340 Glacierman: On iThe Monk...i, your entry was very helpful. This is one of the books where I have the HP (Conn era) and wondered if I should seek out the LEC. Like many, I've discovered that the HP is a wonderful volume, especially compared to the general run of books, but generally can't match its "big brother".

>346 GusLogan: I picked up the First Fifty Monthly Letters book and decided to get all the books referenced. It helped that Ulyssesand Lysistrata were in the next fifty. I also picked all the volumes in my birth year and anniversary.

Happy Anniversary to me! I joined LT exactly one year ago today and I want to express my appreciation to all you devotees. Your warm welcome and willingness to educate kindly has been a tremendous blessing. I don't live with bibliophiles, so you are it!

Sorry this is off-topic, but I wanted my thanks to reach as many folks as possible.

>349 maisiedotes:
You are very welcome, and I am sure all members are as delighted as I am that you are enjoying this friendly bookish place as much as the rest of us.

I've been collecting LECs for a year and a half, but in the last few months i've been trying to focus my collecting only on books that are on my Wishlist. The trouble is, there are 200+ on the list! Some highlights from the last few months:

- The Works of Epicurus
- The Voice of the City (1935)
- Plato's Republic
- Typee
- The Peloponnesian War
- Travels of Marco Polo
- The Mayor of Casterbridge
- History of The Conquest of Peru

Also incoming: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.

The quality and value of LEC books continues to amaze! I am incredibly thankful for all the information on this forum.

My latest purchase was Crime and Punishment. Very pleased to have now completed my collection of LEC's Dostoevsky works with that one (excluding the earlier Brothers Karamazov, I just picked one version of the novel).

Haven't bought much in the way of LECs lately until the recent Oak Knoll sale. I replaced my EP edition of Pygmalion and Candida with the real thing (not a very impressive edition but $36, how could I resist) and picked up the complete Sherlock Holmes (3 sets, 8 volumes) which has long been on my wish list. Beautiful Fine copies with the glassine still intact (yellowed and ugly as hell but pristine spines hidden behind them).

>353 kdweber: Congrats on the Holmes!

Filling gaps in my collection. Excellent condition, average price $50. All except one came with glassine that I have since replaced. Unfortunately no monthly letters. Clearly unread, which I plan to rectify. The binding for The Sea Wolf and The Journal of The Plague Year are controversial but I like them a lot!

>355 BuzzBuzzard:
Quite a haul!

>355 BuzzBuzzard: All look to be in great condition. Twelve books for the price of one new fine press book. Nice!

>355 BuzzBuzzard: Nice haul indeed! The only one I have is the O. Henry SS volume, which I haven't read yet.

>344 GusLogan:
OK so I self-imposed a rule and then made some exceptions for, um, Gawain, Argonautica, The Federalist Papers (for 45 dollars, decent even if it turns out to be only VG), the Oresteia, the first and second series prospectus(es? prospectii?), Memoirs of an Infantryman and the Gallic Wars (which has looked expensive for as long as I’ve searched for it but turned up at a good price). I’m sure I’ll be much more disciplined in December, unless I’m feeling festive.

>359 GusLogan: Very nice! Sometimes it's just the perfect storm of price, availability, condition, and shipping such that the greater folly would be to let these deals pass by! At least that's how I justify it :)

A question for >355 BuzzBuzzard: (a wonderful haul!), or for anyone else that makes mylar covers for their LECs: What thickness of mylar do you use? I'm looking at a UK website that stocks rolls in thicknesses ranging from 12 microns upwards.

>360 GardenOfForkingPaths: I use Dura-Lar .003”

>361 BuzzBuzzard: Thank you! It looks like that is equivalent to the 75 micron thickness I can buy here.

My Orations and Essays by Cicero are finally here in snowy Vilnius, Lithuania. The mould-made paper made at the mill of Cartiere Enrico Magnani looks and feels nice. How much would it cost to print such a book now?

>363 Lukas1990: Lovely! I'm envious of the book and the snow

>363 Lukas1990: Methinks I spy a rubber duckie in the background. Oh wait, we're discussing Cicero.

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing your good news.

>365 maisiedotes: It's a wooden giraffe :)))

>360 GardenOfForkingPaths:
Thank you for your moral support in these difficult times!

>355 BuzzBuzzard: Enjoy your books. Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man is a beautiful volume to see and hold. I only wish Memoirs of an Infantry Officer had been published in a matching quarter leather over linen binding, and that they had published the third book in series with these two. Alas!

Just added a copy of the LEC The Queen's Necklace. Will have all four of the Dumas volumes eventually. I like the stories.

This week, I received a lovely copy of the 1948 LEC Nana, by Zola. It's not a title I've seen too much talk about on the forum so I am posting a few pictures along with information from the Monthly Letter (#198). All in all, it's a very pleasant edition, elevated by the dark but (IMO) quite lovely illustrations by Bernard Lamotte. Apparently Lamotte made more than 200 sketches which were eventually narrowed down to 36 paintings. The reproductions do look especially good. According to the ML, they were printed in collotype by George Duval in Paris:

M.Duval found it necessary to make one printing in gray, then a second printing in black, then a third printing in sanguine, in order to achieve the many-chromed monochrome effect of these paintings....He has achieved a job of reproduction which will stand preëminent among the reproductions in our books.

At 480 pages, the rag paper is necessarily not too thick, but the feel is nice enough. The paper was especially made by the Worthy Paper Company, to match a nineteenth-century, French paper of which Mr. Salter (the designer of the book) supplied a specimen. The pages are uncut along the fore-edge (not a task I am looking forward to!).

The book is bound in a burgundy watered silk: the kind of moiré which may have been used for the draperies of the very room in which Nana Lived.

The slipcase is very similar to the later (1955) LEC Camille:...covered with a French-gray paper with a design intended to echo the "faded wall-papers of Nana's rooms".

I'd been on the lookout for this title after acquiring the Lamotte illustrated Camille earlier this year. It's not an expensive book (mine was £50 including delivery to the UK, which may even be expensive by US standards) but it took a bit of patience to find one without any fading to the spine, which is frequently bleached to an almost white colour.

>370 GardenOfForkingPaths:
Very nice!

>370 GardenOfForkingPaths: Looks brand new. That spine hasn't seen the light of day! Very happy for you!

I love reading these stories of great finds.

>371 wcarter: >372 maisiedotes:

Thanks! Yes, after reading, I'll shelve this one spine-inwards in the very darkest corner of my bookshelves!

I can't believe it! For the third time in a row I've received E. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire volume No 1 instead of volume No 3 (Heritage Press). What's wrong with Abebooks and these large booksellers I'm ordering from? I now have FOUR volumes No 1 and one volume No 2. Crazy!

>374 Lukas1990: The problem with the big sellers is that they are not real book sellers. They are just selling a commodity. They might as well be selling canned goods. As for the problem you are having, they make a catalog entry and then they just keep reusing the same entry. If the cataloger, who is probably low paid and with little knowledge of books, does not change the entry he has copied you get an entry that is in error. I would suggest buying from some small seller who actually looks at what he catalogs. Buy from a seller who will answer your questions when you ask if this is the correct volume. Actually you may be buying your books from a totally different seller than the seller you ordered your book from. Many of the big sellers are sham sellers with no real stock. They just copy some other sellers listings and them mark up the price. If someone orders a book they place an order for the cheaper item and have it drop shipped to you. It pays to know who you are buying from.

>375 Bernarrd: my criterion is that if there's any ambiguity or likelihood of confusion, refusal to send additional pictures is a dealbreaker. In my opinion, the chance of false positive in that case (bad description, wrong book) is much higher than the chance of false negative (missing out on a good deal).

In practice, I find about 20% of sellers that I contact in this way disqualify themselves (but I'm also rather selective to begin with about potential sellers, and can usually tell pretty quickly if a seller knows what they are doing or not), though sometimes it takes a few days or weeks to get a response (booksellers being fickle creatures).

>376 abysswalker: It's impossible to get pictures of a 10$ book from a big bookseller or even clarify if they are really selling the right volume. Soon I'll be able to build a house using onlyn these Gibbon first volumes as bricks :D

This is my latest LEC and I look forward to reading this early autobiography, especially since I am the same age as R when he completed these Confessions.

Anyone have the Monthly Letter? Only St Augustine’s is currently in the Drive. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to share it.

>377 Lukas1990: "It's impossible to get pictures of a 10$ book from a big bookseller or even clarify if they are really selling the right volume."

Not true! Or rather, I have gotten pictures of inexpensive Heritage Press volumes and similar books from sellers.

You are right that many of the big warehouse (or bookjacker) sellers will not send additional info, but such are also the sellers that have by that policy outed themselves as being unreliable exchange partners. If they won't send you additional info, they are not doing their job as a bookseller (or at least are not catering to customers like us), and we should not give them our business. Unless we are in a gambling mood.

>379 abysswalker: I have asked sellers about $3 & $4 books and had them respond with pictures. If a seller does not want to respond, then they are probably a good seller to stay away from. Many of the so called "Big Sellers" are nothing but fakes. If they do not have a business that you can walk into and see lots of books, or at least see them at a book fair, they are probably not real book sellers. I know that a lot of small sellers, only sell by mail, but the so called big sellers have no real excuse for not have books that you can see before buying. If there business is so big, then they should have employees who can list books properly. There should be no guess work and no mistakes. All of the sellers who give only a general description of there books with terms like may have or might have some issue are usually not worth dealing with. And I am sure if people just quit buying from them they would go away fairly quickly or at least change there selling tactics. It is easy enough to claim you have a large inventory of books, buy if you can't describe them accurately then they are of no use to anyone, and that is if they are actually real books. Too many of these sellers are just trying to make a living selling other peoples books. I had one seller claim to have a book that I could not find elsewhere so I took a chance and placed an order. The book did not arrive even though the seller claimed the book had been shipped. I waited until the the rather long period that they said that my book would arrive in had expired and asked where my book was. I was told it was on it's way. I asked for tracking information, which I had never received. I was told again the book was on its way. I finally told them that either I got tracking information from when the book was supposedly shipped some weeks before, or I was going to file a case with the service for a refund. They kept telling me the book had been shipped but they did not send tracking. I finally said that if I did not get either the book of my tracking information in three days I was going to file a complaint. I even got a call from the supposed owner of the company telling me that he had personally spoken to the person in the warehouse who had shipped the book and it was on it's way. I told him I was done waiting and unless I got what I thought was a valid tracking number I was filing a complaint. Well I got a full refund, and the book that was sworn to have shipped, never arrived. This person was trying to sell a book they did not have from a listing they had just made up in the hope that they could find a copy when the time came. I told the seller not to bother sending some book that did not match their listing, because I would just return it. They had claimed to have a Fine copy and I was not going to except less. I have been buying books through the mail for 40 years or more and I am not going to accept whatever these book frauds want to send me.

>380 Bernarrd: Pursuant to your topic, here is a previous thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/305075#

The subject is "bookjackers."

>381 Glacierman: Thanks, I am familiar with the term Bookjacker. I buy every now and then from Zubal Books, but they do not usually stock the type of books I search for. They are more in the Scholarly books line and I buy mainly Fantasy and Children's books. I still try to look at their site from time to time. And I do listen to their Book Brothers podcasts and I buy a few books now and then from them. The seller that was the subject of my post above was Zuber Books, and I will never buy from them again. I should have known better than to place an order with them to begin with. I sometimes wonder if the name Zuber Books was an attempt to confuse people into believing they were Zubal Books.

>355 BuzzBuzzard: Quite the impressive haul. Even the slipcases look good, without the fraying corners one often sees. I just don't believe there is such a bargain in fine books as LECs represent.
Have you wrapped all the books in Duralar or some other mylar covering?

Inspired by Lukas1990 and some old posts by Featherwate, I bought the following copy of Georgics. It wasn't expensive, but I was rather alarmed that after one reading, a piece (the size of the eraser on the back of a pencil) flaked off the bottom right corner of the label. To prevent further damage, I brushed some Lineco PVA glue over the whole label. No further flaking has occurred with subsequent handling.

I'm curious about the part on the top left corner. Where the label has broken off, there is gold on the buckram itself. Why would there be any designs under the label?

Also, the monthly letter reports the label as being brown, and my label is black. There is a signed, numbered colophon, so I don't imagine this is an ersatz copy!

Does anyone have any insights?

The paper IS very nice, but after reading Featherwate's assessment, I was expecting something I would rhapsodize over (maybe I eventually will). I don't have much to compare with, since I only own one other LEC (Green Mansions), which has somewhat crackly paper.

>384 maisiedotes: I would say a previous owner had that label applied over the original. It looks like something a bookbinder created. The sans serif type is one that is commonly used on library bindings. Very ugly. The tooling is very much a bookbinder style. For whatever reason, your copy has been altered with that label.

>385 Glacierman: So the original label was removed, then someone embossed (please tell me the right word) a gold design in its place, then they put the black label over the gold?

I think what you are seeing under the label is what is left of the original label. It probably deteriorated and someone put this label over the old one. There is an image of another copy for sale on ABE and you can see what the original label looked like.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22765798363&searchurl=pn%3...

>387 Bernarrd: Thanks for linking those photos. I guess the original wasn't a paste-on label; it looks like a painted-on label (I don't know the right term).

My copy is 1241. What are the chances that some of the 1500 copies were made on different paper? (>384 maisiedotes:)

>388 maisiedotes:
Nil, I would have thought.

>388 maisiedotes: they will all be made of the same paper. Below is links to the spine of this copy, they also came originally with a dustjacket. Mine has an acetate protective cover which reflected a bit in the photo. The photo's are up on my profile as well

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/71/1d/711ddceaed1d8d2636f6c2b7a67436...

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/6a/53/6a53985c9ad5325636f682b7a67436...

>386 maisiedotes: The original label was printed/tooled directly on the spine and not separately applied as the other posters have noted. A separate label was then cut out, tooled and then pasted on, probably because the original label area had become worn.

>389 GusLogan:
>390 rocklands:
>391 Glacierman:

Thanks for the insights and the pictures (Rocklands, you have a perfect copy!), which helped me see (literally) the history of my Georgics. I needed to know if this was indeed the paper that has received such warm praise.

I'm enjoying dipping into the text for few minutes every evening.

Edited to add the following:
I dived into this book knowing nothing about it. I was nonplussed when Book 4 went from bees to Orpheus and Eurydice.
Bramanti's wood engravings have so much detail, and I wish they were printed in more generous proportions!

New arrival: The Count of Monte Cristo, published 1941, illustrations by Lynd Ward. I found it on an online auction & checked other sources for pricing. It's not an easy one to find. Even including the exhorbitant auction fees & outside shippers, I still got it for quite a bit less than elsewhere. Minor flaws on one of the 4 volumes, slipcase has some edgewear, but solid.

>393 ChrisG1: Nice set! I thought I knew the story. Turned out I new 25% of it. And even though I read it recently, the revenge part is still very blurry. The LEC Les Miserables is also worth acquiring. Same design split in five books.

I love discovering watermarks on paper. Here is the one from my latest acquisition, School for Scandal: "Papier d'Auvergne—à la main" (handmade). I guess that's a flower at the top and heart-shaped leaves on the bottom. You can see little "blobs," which I suppose are pieces of rag. One of the pages even has a short thread hanging off a corner.



Question: Looking at the reverse page, you see a C below the text. The letters of the alphabet are printed every 8 or 10 pages. Presumably they were a way of counting. Can someone provide further enlightenment?

Another question: my copy has awful foxing. Is rag paper particularly prone to this?

>395 maisiedotes: They are probably the signature marks. They would mark the signatures to make it easier to put them in order for binding. The letters should go in order from the front of the book to the back, and the marks should be on the first page of each signature.

>395 maisiedotes: Dang, how did you photograph that watermark so well? After reading your post, I pulled out my copy and I find it hard to see the watermark on any of the pages.

>395 maisiedotes: Beautiful watermark! Watermarks somehow make books luxurious :D

>398 Lukas1990:
Often a book is signed by the designer, printer and/or illustrator. Finding an elaborate watermark feels like uncovering the signature of the paper maker.

>395 maisiedotes:
If you search for ”paper” and ”scandal” you should find an earlier thread on this. Not all rag paper, but this book is prone - also to offsetting.

>396 Bernarrd: That makes sense. The letters do show up in alphabetical order as the book progresses.

>397 kdweber: It was easy except for trying to hold the book open against the kitchen light and juggling the phone with the other hand and pressing the button! I just counted the pages with the watermark and there are 14. They are all on the lower half of the page, on the outer corner. All those pages happen to be thinner than the rest, but still the same kind of paper. Maybe you could look again. That would be kind of mind-blowing if the books were that different. Anybody else have a School for Scandal who'd like to join in the fun?

>398 Lukas1990: I'm going to start looking for more books with watermarks!

>400 GusLogan: Thanks. It's so nice to be able to read these past conversations. My copy has the much-discussed offsetting. I looked on Abe and many of the listings name foxing as a flaw. I did buy a cheap copy, but the browning and spotting is pretty atrocious for a book that's not quite 90 years old.

Beautiful. So good to see new faces and beautiful collections.

Here is my new book, William Tell. Isn't the paper fascinating? It looks like it's been painted with a big brush.



I'd love to hear recommendations for other books with paper I can stare at—or feel like a kid's security blanket.

>403 maisiedotes: That's one on my immediate wishlist!

>403 maisiedotes: This is one of my treasures. The wood veneer of the binding boards are gorgeous and work so great with this book. I also love the lithographs on stone by Charles Hug, which are just impressive and some are in multiple colors. This is one of the few LECs I have that have illustrated endpapers, too. I hadn’t known much about the William Tell history, but this play inspired me to research it and I found it very rewarding.

>405 BionicJim: Ooh, thanks for the suggestion to look into the history of William Tell. That will enrich my reading of the play.

Fun fact: the Heritage Press went with a separate artist for their edition of William Tell, one of the last times they would go their own way if I remember right. Rafaello Busoni stepped in and did a fine job of it as well; I covered it a while ago:

https://georgemacyimagery.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/heritage-press-william-tell-b...

>407 WildcatJF: I always enjoy your writeups, but thanks for the reminder that you have William Tell on your blog. That was what, 11ish years ago??!!

You might say that Rafaello Busoni had art in his genes. His father, Ferruccio Busoni, was a pianist/composer/conductor.

>408 maisiedotes: Yep, my blog started in 2010 and William Tell was a very early post, haha. The fourth one ever, in fact!

>86 dlphcoracl: Which other LEC books use that kind of paper? So the 1933 edition has less illustrations than the 1950?

>410 RickFlair:
None (as per the Quarto-Millenary paper index and as previously posted by Django in some thread here). And yes, fewer by far.

>392 maisiedotes:
I’ve just taken possession of a Fine copy of The Georgics and now see what all the fuss was about!

>412 GusLogan: It is very similar in quality to Officina Bodoni books printed by the handpress. Great value!