Rarest book?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

1 hour ago, Black Maria said:

Sometimes being an ultra rare book can be an advantage as the seller hasn't got other copies to compare prices . I bet you were glad when it finally turned up ,

i think I've only had one book book go astray and ironically it was Talbot Baines 'Missing' 

I don’t think I’ve ever lost one in transit. It’s when they get here that the problems start. Trying to cram in as many books as possible means alphabetical order suffers. The hours I’ve spent crawling around with a torch trying to find a particular book and failing!

[Black Maria]

50 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

I don’t think I’ve ever lost one in transit. It’s when they get here that the problems start. Trying to cram in as many books as possible means alphabetical order suffers. The hours I’ve spent crawling around with a torch trying to find a particular book and failing!

 I know that feeling well !

[MartH]

Nice purchase, many of the 50 are rebound, the original red binding is fragile, as well as a different red to the other Military Operations Red, so often are rebound.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

7 minutes ago, MartH said:

Nice purchase, many of the 50 are rebound, the original red binding is fragile, as well as a different red to the other Military Operations Red, so often are rebound.

Yes, this one rebound in red leather. Looking for copies on line I came across an entry for something called the ‘Chicksands Military Library’ in Calgary. They seem to have 3 copies which form part of a staggering 50,000 book collection donated to them by our own Ministry of Defence. I’m gobsmacked that they gave away to America what must have been an important national archive. You’d think they could have found a UK institution who’d have benefited.

Now if only I could find vol.3a of Order of Battle of Divisions I’d have the lot.

[MartH]

5 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Yes, this one rebound in red leather. Looking for copies on line I came across an entry for something called the ‘Chicksands Military Library’ in Calgary. They seem to have 3 copies which form part of a staggering 50,000 book collection donated to them by our own Ministry of Defence. I’m gobsmacked that they gave away to America what must have been an important national archive. You’d think they could have found a UK institution who’d have benefited.

Now if only I could find vol.3a of Order of Battle of Divisions I’d have the lot.

 

Alan have you now got History Of The Blockade.by Carless Davis, C.B.E.printed in 1920, it is one of the Official Histories of the Great War and is referred to as one in The Blockade of the Central Empires, 1914-1918. If so well done too, I regard it as harder to get than Persia.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

22 minutes ago, MartH said:

 

Alan have you now got History Of The Blockade.by Carless Davis, C.B.E.printed in 1920, it is one of the Official Histories of the Great War and is referred to as one in The Blockade of the Central Empires, 1914-1918. If so well done too, I regard it as harder to get than Persia.

No. I’m aiming for the more limited set otherwise I might never get there. I have got some of the more peripheral volumes - Statistics, Battlefield Nomenclature, Evacuation of North Russia. Still missing 5 of the 12 bound up Munitions volumes. It’s obviously going to get harder and harder if our institutions keep flogging them off to the Yanks.

[MartH]

5 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

o. I’m aiming for the more limited set otherwise I might never get there. I have got some of the more peripheral volumes - Statistics, Battlefield Nomenclature, Evacuation of North Russia. Still missing 5 of the 12 bound up Munitions volumes. It’s obviously going to get harder and harder if our institutions keep flogging them off to the Yanks

 

Alan, it not a peripheral volume, its like a Persian or Occupation of the Rhineland.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

6 minutes ago, MartH said:

 

Alan, it not a peripheral volume, its like a Persian or Occupation of the Rhineland.

Yes I see that now. I’ve just been looking it up. It seems he didn’t complete it. According to the printers line there were 250 copies but I’ve never seen one. Do you have it? I wonder if Tom’s ever come across it. I suppose I’d better add it to the list. Rather like the Order of Battle of the British Armies in 1918 of which I recently bought the IWM facsimile but had never heard of before. Tom said he had one of those once.

[MartH]

Alan, I have sent you photos of it in the past. Its a prison binding and it was printed, it was restricted and a 250 print run.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

8 minutes ago, MartH said:

Alan, I have sent you photos of it in the past. Its a prison binding and it was printed, it was restricted and a 250 print run.

So you did. Thanks.

[barkalotloudly]

Out of the blue a slim volume "France 1916-1917-1918 from a soldiers diary" printed 1924 Crewkerne written by John Bonar Gregory thanks to T D it turns out he was an officer 7th Battalion Argyll Sutherland highlanders can fin find no reference to this book anywhere and no one seems to have heard of it 

[MaureenE]

2 hours ago, barkalotloudly said:

Out of the blue a slim volume "France 1916-1917-1918 from a soldiers diary" printed 1924 Crewkerne written by John Bonar Gregory thanks to T D it turns out he was an officer 7th Battalion Argyll Sutherland highlanders can fin find no reference to this book anywhere and no one seems to have heard of it 

There is a copy available at the Imperial War Museums, Catalogue number LBY 11351

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1500034539

 

 

[keithmroberts]

Thgere's an entry on Worldcat here:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/france-1916-1917-1918-from-a-soldiers-diary-reminiscences/oclc/314703351&referer=brief_results

 

Jisc lists the same 2 university libraries as Worldcat.

 

Presumably printed for a small firm, probably a local stationers, and with a very short run.  There must be very few survivors indeed. I'm finding some titles relevant to the Salonika canpaign that are similarly to be found even in only some of the copyright libraries, and that probably never turn up other than that one in a million chance.

[MaureenE]

There was a volume of "France 1916-1917-1918 From a Soldier's Diary" listed on eBay  and  there are some sample pages shown if you scroll down. I have archived the link on the Internet Archive.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200702233834/https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1924-France-1916-1917-1918-From-A-Soldier-039-s-Diary-SIGNED-WW1-First-World-War-/312944167463?nma=true&si=DfebbPtt2uSd3E6CIpwf%2Ft%2Faa0k%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Thanks Maureene. It wasn’t cheap, was it. Presumably it sold. Another one to add to the list.

[Black Maria]

I remember seeing that now but the price put me off . Don't think i'll be adding it to my list , I've already got one on there from 2001, of which I've never seen a copy of 

[barkalotloudly]

3 hours ago, Black Maria said:

I remember seeing that now but the price put me off . Don't think i'll be adding it to my list , I've already got one on there from 2001, of which I've never seen a copy of 

there is always a deal to be had !

 

[Black Maria]

2 hours ago, barkalotloudly said:

there is always a deal to be had !

 

That's true , but would they have taken a tenner for it ? 

[healdav]

I don't know about the rarest, but 25 years ago I was at Haye on Wye, and going through one of the bookshops there, I spotted a set of three books about Luxembourg. £26. Reproductions of 18th century maps of the country along with a commentary about each parish. The set stank with damp, and I had to leave it for two years to dry out.

It was printed as 500 copies in the mid 60s to celebrate a now gone bank's 60th anniversary, most copies went to banks and no doubt either ended up in the waste or are lost in a vault somewhere.

I had it colour copied and reproduced as A3 (as they were originally rather then A4. Then black and white copied that for every day use. I rarely touch the originals.

In the country there are often reproductions show in villages to show how it has developed over the centuries, and occasionally single maps turn up for sale, but never a set.

I've turned down £400 for the set.

 

 

[barkalotloudly]

1 hour ago, Black Maria said:

That's true , but would they have taken a tenner for it ? 

no but a price that is ok for both can usually be reached !

[Black Maria]

53 minutes ago, barkalotloudly said:

no but a price that is ok for both can usually be reached !

Yes , always worth it for a book you really want . They can only say no , or as a dealer said to me at a book fair when i asked what his best price was 

" I don't have best prices , only prices ".

[The Scorer]

Some of you may remember me looking for a copy of the "ROD 1914 - 1919" book a couple of months ago. 

 

I received a lot of help from the forum, but sadly couldn't buy it from the places that were suggested. I did find a copy on on eBay, and I thought that I'd make the seller an offer. I did, and he said no; so I revised my offer - and he said yes! Now, I know that we're presumably not talking about a price anywhere near what this book cost, but it's always worth making an offer, just in case.  

[Black Maria]

24 minutes ago, The Scorer said:

Some of you may remember me looking for a copy of the "ROD 1914 - 1919" book a couple of months ago. 

 

I received a lot of help from the forum, but sadly couldn't buy it from the places that were suggested. I did find a copy on on eBay, and I thought that I'd make the seller an offer. I did, and he said no; so I revised my offer - and he said yes! Now, I know that we're presumably not talking about a price anywhere near what this book cost, but it's always worth making an offer, just in case.  

Indeed , and of course some books are buy now or best offer . The only downside for a collector is that if it's a rare book by the time you've put your offer in

and waited for a reply your fellow collector(s) may well have bought it .

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Just to keep this thread active here’s a scarce volume that I bought from Tom Donovan’s recent Gallipoli catalogue - Lt. Campbell’s ‘Letters from
Gallipoli’. The letters are remarkably rich in detail including a number of hand drawn maps. Maybe he censored his own letters? He was one of the last to leave and was responsible for evacuating the beach area. I doubt his letters gave much comfort to the folks back home though as he often mentions others being blown up nearby. What I found particularly interesting was that deliveries from home still found their way to the front line - ground sheets, great coats, primus stoves etc all eventually made their way to the Peninsula!

 

[barkalotloudly]

just purchased a much better copy of Davson "War memories" printed in 1964 only 100 copies and very elusive ! {very reasonably priced }