Mixed in with the many books at the fair you can also find rare maps, prints, photos and sometimes items so unique they are hard to categorize.

There were several standout items for me at this fair, and just choosing a few to share was challenging. Here are just a few of the items I loved:

By far, my favorite at this fair was a small illustrated songbook manuscript presented by White Fox Rare Books, which can also be found on AbeBooks, Cahier de Chansons Commence en Captivite Le 1/10/1941.

The manuscript was made by Leo Osteng, a French prisoner held in a German POW camp during World War Two. Vibrant and lively illustrations accompany the hand written song lyrics.

White Fox Rare Books also brought along another of my favorites, a Monogram Album with Monograms Incorporated into Watercolors and Ink drawings. Monogram albums were common place in the Victorian era. People would cut out and save the crests and monograms found on letters and envelopes they received and then past them into albums. Some books were very simple and others more detailed and decorative, such as the one I found at the New York Book Fair. There are many great examples of Monogram albums on the AbeBooks site.

Lux Mentis Books always has unique books and ephemera and this time they brought some beautiful miniature books, each one no larger than a few inches.

The art historian in me loved this small, untitled but signed oil painting by poet E.E. Cummings that Massachussetts bookseller Ken Lopez brought to the fair.

If you’re interested in paintings by E.E. Cummings, there are many more on the AbeBooks site.

This is just a small sample of the incredible books and ephemera that you can find at an antiquarian book fair. Everything you see at the book fair is accessible and available to handle, and there’s nothing quite like picking up a book that is being sold for $10,000.

What I love most about these fairs is the friendliness and accessibility: although there are many high-priced books, there are also always items for new collectors, and the booksellers are more than happy to answer your questions and help you enter the world of collecting.

Guest post compliments of Maria Hutchison, AbeBooks Account Manager for our rare and collectible segment.

Today’s interesting old-timey find on the site is The Good House-Wife Made a Doctor by Thomas Tryon, 1692. We only have one original copy, priced at just over three grand, so one would have to be very interested indeed to purchase it. But for those chiefly interested in its contents and text, there are several modern print-on-demand copies available for as little as $25.00.

It’s a fascinating book. Its full title is The Good House-Wife Made a Doctor, Or, Health’s Choice and Sure Friend Being a Plain Way of Nature’s Own Prescribing to Prevent and Cure Most Diseases Incident to Men, Women and Children by Diet and Kitchin Physick Only. In short, it sounds like a very early book of herbal remedies and nutrition as preventative medicine. I find it interesting, since so many health professionals seem to be trying to return to similar thinking now.

The preface (pictured above) reads (in part):

THE PREFACE TO THE READER –
Health is the greatest temporal Blessing we can enjoy in this Mortal State: Without it the choicest Beauty vanishes in a Moment, like a withered Flower; the stoutest Strength dwindles into a childish Weakness, scarce able to the Support the tottering Carkass (sic); Riches become insignificant Lumber; Honour an empty Bubble, or extrinsick shadow, yielding no delight; Nay, Wit and Parts grow Useless, and Life it self but an unwelcome load and continual Torture. For how often may we see Lords and Aldermen, the Rich and the…

That does indeed sound dire.

Thomas Tryon was a 17th-century author, primarily of health and self-help books, and a big believer in and advocate of plant-based food as medicine. He touted the benefits of a vegetarian diet long (long!) before it was common or fashionable.

Walking into an antiquarian bookshop is a bit like opening a treasure chest; you never know what you are going to find and there are always hidden gems. I love knowing that I can walk into these stores and find something that I know has had a long and interesting life and belonged to people that cared enough to preserve and share them.

One of the shops I visited was Argosy Books in midtown Manhattan. Argosy Books was founded in 1925 and is now in its third generation of family ownership. There are books on the shelves, books in stacks and piled on tables. All combined with great lighting and small pops of colour from flowers placed throughout the store to make you feel instantly comfortable and welcome.

Argosy specializes in Americana, modern first editions, autographs, art, maps & prints and books about the history of science and medicine. If those aren’t up your alley, you will also find many other books in a wide variety of topics and with a wide variety of prices. If you have the time and you’re in New York, Argosy is definitely a store you should visit.

Another shop I visited was the Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore on Madison Avenue. This store evolved from The Complete Traveller Bookstore which was the first travel bookstore in the US. As the name states, this shop specializes in collectible travel literature and has one of the best collections of authentic Baedeker travel guides. Baedekers are considered to be the first modern travel guides and can be easily identified by their distinct red cover. The books were treasured for their detailed historic accounts and the many fold out maps they contain.

This is a unique and specialized shop and definitely worth a visit if you love travel, history and culture.

No visit to New York is complete for me until I visit The Strand. Strand never disappoints and I always walk away with at least one, well really several books. This time I came home with something for my children, but I love it too: This is New York by Miroslav Sasek. We love these books in my house and have many others in the This Is…. series.

Most people know that Strand is a great place to go for affordable books, but it also has a fantastic Rare Book Room. Hop in the elevator and go up to the 3rd floor, and you’ll walk into a room filled with lovely old books, many of which can be found on AbeBooks.

Strand also has many affordable and collectible signed first editions. The day of my visit, they were getting ready for a book signing and talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, discussing his newest book This is How You Lose Her.

Bookstores in New York offer a slice of history and small pieces of beauty that will draw you in and make you love books even more.

Guest post compliments of Maria Hutchison, AbeBooks Account Manager for our rare and collectible segment.

Today’s gorgeous and unusual find is this hand-illuminated book. Not much appears to be known about it, but it’s just stunning (An illuminated manuscript is any manuscript whose text is accompanied by decoration. It originally referred only to silver or gilt adornments, but came to be acceptable terminology for any manuscript with drawings, paintings or decorations such as ornate initials, borders, floral accoutrements and the like).

From the bookseller’s description:

An undated volume, probably from the mid 1920′s. A large folio covered in royal purple velvet, bevelled boards, with brass edges and ornamental brass initials on the upper cover. Bottom of spine is frayed with about 1/2″ of cloth missing. . An elaborately-crafted volume of nine small photogravure prints surrounded by hand-colored illumination. Each page is mounted on heavy matte board framing the scene. All edges heavily gilt. Mattes edged in gilt. The gravures depict various religious themes, each plate protected by interleaved pages. The illumination is quite appealing, displaying a sensitive use of colors. The borders range from intertwined foliage and miniatures to rather simple Gothic window frame decorations. This is a one-of-a-kind volume, illuminations signed by Ada Samoda. We are unable to find any information on the artist, but we know that she was a very talented illuminator. We would assume that the book was created as a gift for a member of the religious community.

Louis Wain was a British artist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, best known for his whimsical and chaotic drawings of cats. If you’ve come across any of Wain’s art, you know it’s memorable. The cats and kittens are depicted with large, wide eyes, often with crazy, spiky fur, and with psychedelic patterns and backgrounds. The cats are anthropomorphized, wearing clothes, having conversations, playing musical instruments and more. If you are a fan of cats, or unusual children’s art, they are utterly charming.

Wain’s story is rather a sad one, unfortunately, in many regards. He was born into a family with a lot of mental illness, and was the only one of six children in the family ever to marry. His longtime devotion to cats began when he was married in his early twenties. His wife Emily fell ill with breast cancer, and Wain found that their kitten, Peter, lifted his sick wife’s spirits immeasurably. He began to dress the kitten up and teach him to do little tricks to make his wife happy. He also began to sketch Peter, and it was on a promise to Emily that he persevered and published his first drawings.

Wain was a highly productive artist for the following three decades or so, providing work for countless children’s books, as well as advertisements and features in magazines. His love of cats defined his entire oeuvre (though he did branch into dogs, from time to time), and he became chairman of The National Cat Club in 1898, and even had his own Louis Wain’s Annual from 1901-1915.

But Wain’s success did little to secure his financial future – he had a mother and five sisters to support, and was a poor businessman, often selling his work outright with no thought to copyright or royalties, and was taken advantage of frequently.

Around 1907, Wain’s own mental health began to decline rapidly, and the previously affable, good-natured artist became paranoid, suspicious and delusional as schizophrenia began to take hold. He was committed in 1924, to the pauper ward of a mental hospital. When news of his circumstance reached the public, there was outcry from many, including H.G. Wells, who championed Wain’s cause. Wain was, as a result, moved to a much more pleasant hospital with abundant green space (and even cats), and he spent the remaining years of his life there in relative peace.

Some students of Wain’s art have claimed that the deterioration and change in Wain’s mental state can be clearly demonstrated through a study of his drawings and paintings, while others argue that is problematic. The latter claim that Wain’s frenetic, chaotic, psychedelic-patterned cats were experimentation with for, color and style, and that Wain also continued to create more conventional (albeit playing sports and talking) cats well into his later career. It is tough to know whether to lend any credence to the theories, as few if any of Wain’s works were dated, anyway.

Regardless, for a cat lover, an art lover, or a collector of vintage children’s books, Louis Wain is not to be missed.

And if you can’t get enough weird children’s books about cats, be sure to check out Mee-a-ow! Or, Good Advice to Cats and Kittens by R.M. Ballantyne.

Enjoy this selection of Wain’s cats, depicting great variation in his artistic style over the years.

Happy birthday to Jules Verne, born 185 years ago today, on February 8th, 1828. Verne was a French science fiction author, most famous for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. His imagination ran just as deep, and throughout his career he contributed immeasurably to the genre of science fiction. He is often called the father of science fiction, and on a more specific level, the father of Steampunk, a style which borrows heavily from Verne’s aesthetic.

You can read more about Jules Verne on our collectible Jules Verne feature. A fantastic unique find on the site is this autographed photograph of Jules Verne (pictured at top). It was presented by Verne to the Prefect of Rome, the Marquis Gravina – in 1884 Verne published a poem titled “Au Marquis Gravina, Rome”. Verne had been invited in 1883 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Italian painter Raphael (1483-1520) and it was likely on this occasion that Verne presented the photograph to the Marquis de Gravina. the photograph inscription reads:”To Marquis Gravina, prefect of Rome, His very devoted: Jules Verne,” in French.

More Jules Verne, I say!

1950, Pantheon Books Decorated Cloth six-volume set

Two centuries later, Pride and Prejudice is arguably the most adored, referenced, parodied, remade and well-known novel in the English language. Any conversation about love and romance in books is incomplete without mention of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy (Mr. Darcy). I like to imagine Jane Austen’s reaction if she could somehow see the reach of her book and her characters.

It would be virtually impossible to try to list all of the editions published of Pride & Prejudice. Hardbacks, paperbacks, special editions, custom bindings, limited editions, deluxe editions, box sets, movie tie-ins and much more – this book has been given every treatment one can imagine. Here are just a few of them to enjoy.

1894, 1st Peacock edition in a stunning Sangorski and Sutcliffe full dark green leather binding

1923, Oxford at the Clarendon Press edition in a Cosway-style binding with inlaid miniature portrait of Jane Austen

1907, Original pen-and-ink water colour illustration, signed by artist C.E. Brock

1900, Gresham Publications, Art Nouveau binding by Talwin Morris

1883, Routledge, with woodcut illustrations to headpieces, initials and tail pieces by chapter.

1940, Signed, Limited edition by Merrymount Press of Boston. One of 1500 copies.

1944, Collins, UK New Film Edition starring Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy

1946, The World Publishing Company Rainbow Classics edition

From 11:00 am until 4:00 pm, senior member of the American Society of Appraisers Allan Stypeck (who also bought Second Story Books in 1973) will offer free appraisals. Eligible items include books, autographs and manuscripts, and there is a limit of five items per person.

Appraisal requests and questions about book value and book worth are among the most frequent queries we receive here at AbeBooks. For Second Story to be offering a day of free appraisals is a lucky thing indeed to book collectors in the Maryland area. If you can get there, don’t pass it up!

For more information, check the Second Story web site at http://www.secondstorybooks.com/

Antikamnia’s analgesic compound, which was never patented, was marketed as a ‘proudly ethical drug’ and used to treat headaches, fever, stomach aches, nervousness, insomnia and ‘the blues’. It was claimed to be a new synthetic coal-tar derivative but in fact contained almost 50% acetanilid, which was sometimes mixed with codeine or quinine. The toxic effects of acetanilid were exposed in a 1907 California State Journal of Medicine article, ‘Poisoning by Antikamnia’, and the company was prosecuted by the government in 1914 for violating the disclosure terms of the Food and Drug Act of 1906. The calendars were issued from 1897 until 1901. Each panel in the Antikamnia calendars depict fantastic and comical skeletons dressed in different styles and occupations.

This particular Antikamnia calendar includes:

January/February, “Extra! All About The [-----]!!!,” as a raggedly-clad newsboy, hawking newspapers;

March/April, “His Fourth of July!”, with March 17 printed in green, the skeleton wearing a top hat with clover leaf, and green sash, smoking a pipe;

May/June, “Ein Stein!”, with beer stein and German pipe;

July/August, “The Doctor’s Enemy,” as patent medicine salesman, with top hat and spectacles, in one hand a bag marked “No Genuine Goods, Substitutes Only,” in the other, a card “Fred. Smith & Co. Manf’g Chemists / Motto / Quantity not Quality”;

September/October, “Practicing – At The Bar,” as a prosperous-looking attorney or business man, with top hat and cigar, leaning against a bar with shot glass in hand;

and (pictured) November/December, “A Rough Rider,” as a cowboy, with appropriate hat, gun and holster/ perched atop a box “From the Antikamnia Chemichal Comp. / St. Louis, Mo.”

Verso of each card with text regarding the various products of the company and the diseases for which they are recommended (a sampling: Chronic Rheumatism, Puerperal and Malarial Fevers, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Typhoid, all Neuroses due to Irregularities of Menstruation, etc.).

I love it. So ghoulish!

The Antikamnia Chemical Company hired local physician-artist Louis Crucius to do the art for the calendars. Crucius was also a pharmacist, and did the “Skeleton Sketches” drawings while working at a pharmacy. Five years worth of the calendars – 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, and 1901 – were printed.