Collectible Old Bookseller/Bookstore Labels not Bookplates

I posted this on the Amazon forum a few years back but no one responded. Here is the gist of it:

Been a book dealer for years now and have occasionally heard about the illusive collector of books because they have a tiny bookseller/bookstore label. One does find some interesting ones in old books, usually on the back endpapers. Has anyone heard if people actually buy books for these old labels?

 

There seems to be a collector for anything,so why not ?

 

not I .

but hey...maybe you want in on this thread...
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/books-from-the-middle-ages.75348/

 

me neither.

But I do love finding a fab bookplate in a purchase!

 

There is a Facebook group with an interest in these labels, though it is non-commercial:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/255807868673068/?ref=group_browse

I've been sporadically collecting them for years, after buying Larry Dingman's little book on them, Booksellers Marks. Most of my collection comes from low-value books from which the labels are fairly easily removed, others from books being repaired, in which the label would otherwise be lost.

Some people don't like the idea of removing them - it can damage the book, and does remove a bit of the 'provenance'. (I sold last week a book on Alaskan exploration with the label of a Juneau bookseller and the rubberstamped name of a notable Alaskan schoolteacher - who would break up THAT story?) But keeping hundreds of books just for their labels takes up a LOT of space. I suppose it's the same with bookplate collectors, but I haven't explored that market as a separate field.

Nowadays, I post pictures of labels on the Facebook page and release the books back into the stream of commerce. I do mention their presence, but I can't say anybody has ever said they were buying the book FOR the label. But people certainly do look for labels, and will buy a cheap enough book with an interesting label, or, I suppose, might pay a fair bit for a label of special interest. For example, I'd love to find a J. Francis Ruggles 'Ye Bibliopoloexperto' label, though I can't say for sure how much I'd spend....

 

Searched on eBay and found this auction, I see there are others.

I wonder what makes desirability.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2252056856...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

so many factors , they're hard to count..!

 

Hm, the Hudson's is common as mud around here, and I bet most of the LA ones are easy out west. Might be the Sotheran's, a prestige outfit for sure, and a label I've never seen...but looks like I ought to start selling my dups. But only two bids, not exactly a fight.

 

I just noticed this in researching Henry Fielding (who created the first modern police force in addition to his novels) which led me Samuel Richardson: "He printed almost 500 works, including journals and magazines, working periodically with the London bookseller Andrew Millar."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Millar

"In 1725, as a twenty-year-old bookseller apprentice, he evaded Edinburgh city printing restrictions by going to Leith to print, which was considered beyond Edinburgh's jurisdiction. Millar was soon to take over his apprentice master's London print shop. He was actively involved in railing against the authorities in Edinburgh."

From a larger Wiki article.

I wonder if Andrew Millar had bookplates and are collected.

 

Sort of related, I suppose:

Toronto had two main Art Book stores from the 1970s into the 2000s: David Mirvish Books on Art and, a bit later, Edwards Books & Art. (Edward Borins had been store manager at Mirvish, but branched out on his own.) They were very well known; I think it's fair to say they had an international reputation.

I remember a sale of private press art books at Mirvish where the prices were in the tens of thousands, and I still have a copy of Landmarks of Canadian Art from a signing at Mirvish where he had gathered together a large group of the artists represented in the book.

Edwards closed in the late '90s, and Mirvish in the early 2000s. That's pretty much when I stopped buying books.

I haunted those stores, and still have shopping bags from them.



A Mirvish bookmark:




A 1994 Edwards Sale Flyer:


I've often wondered if they would be worth listing.

 

we just outlawed plastic bags...but maybe one day those bags with the right logo's could be collectible ..