Relative values

[chickenfeet]

From abebooks.com, The Ten Most Expensive Books Sold on ABE.

I can't help noticing that a first of the first Harry Potter sold for more than a signed first of 1984. All well out of my league though. The most I've ever paid for a book is 565 Euros.

Comments

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Durnit, you've got me wondering what book you paid €565 for!

Mmmmmmmm.....booooooooks!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

The Gide/Krol Thesée. Details here. (http://ca.geocities.com/jgilks@rogers.com/books.html)

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Wow....that's special! *covets*

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I love livres d'artiste. When one thinks what limited edition prints cost they are not really all that expensive either.

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Absolutely not! But that's because it's art....I would never pay a lot of money for a print edition of Harry Potter, but would happily blow large chunks of my life savings on a piece of art I've fallen in love with!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I'm the same. I'll pay a modest premium for a book that's out of print and rare but I have little interest in first editions, signed copies etc. Books produced as works of art are quite another matter. From the point of view of sheer amount of artistic effort that went into it I would have to consider my copy of Walter Bachinski's Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. There are I think three full page large format pochoir illustrations in that. The work involved was incredible. Details (http://www.califiabooks.com/finepress/s/shantybay.html).

Nice people too!

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, also shiny! And it's always extra nice when you get to know the people responsible for the art you surround yourself with! I think about 80% of art in my mum's house has some kind of personal story to it...which makes it all the more special, I think. (Although that means that the oil painting by our completely unknown neighbour has relegated the little Dali print to the store room!)

The sheer amount of work involved in books is ridiculous anyway....people keep asking me if I'd consider selling my books but tbh I'd only ever be able to recoup the cost of materials: noone would buy them if I charged for the actual time! And those are mostly just plain notebooks, sans content!

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Golly, you might be interested in some of my 1940s and 1950s Editions de Minuit & NRF artists' editions (the cover is designed by an artist; the books are numérotés.) If you like I'll scan Eluard's Poésie Ininterrompue (design by Bonnet) and DuMaurier's Peter Ibbetson, translated by Raymond Queneau (!), cover by Colette Duhamel & illustrations de l'auteur.

(They were my father's and I recently showed them to a bookseller who gave such low quotes that I not only didn't sell them, I refused to sell him the one book he wanted to buy.)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

That would be great. I shall consult Strachan (the book, not the classics master; he's been dead for years)

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm experimenting here with the Eluard. I asked Photobucket to resize to limit the picspam, so hope it comes out all right...

[shezan.livejournal.com]

(the green cover is the back cover; the red one is the front.)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Very nice. It appears that Eluard was involved with several book arts projects in the immediate aftermath of the Liberation

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

I think I paid $100 for a hardback edition of The Chronicles Of Master Li And Number 10 Ox. My sister bought me a copy of Peter Morwood's Widowmaker for Christmas and that goes for about £100 last time I checked, so that's probably the most expensive book I own even if I didn't pay for it.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

... and the most I paid was FF 5,000 a long time ago for an eight-volume Hume's History of England, edition of 1782 (A NEW EDITION, with THE AUTHOR's laft CORRECTIONS & IMPROVEMENTS, To which is prefixed A fhort ACCOUNT of his LIFE, written by himfelf.)