Illuminating/ Illuminated Books - An Antique Books Guide

Illuminating is the art of illustrating or decorating text to make it more visually impressive.

Generally you see illuminating in manuscripts and the best examples tend to be dating between 1200 and 1700.

A lot of time and effort goes into illuminating text and thus these works all command a high price.

Take Loftie's 'The Art Of Illuminating' for example.

I have twice sold this late Victorian book for £49.99 purely due to the great beauty of the illuminated plates inside:

With illuminated books the covers do not matter as much as the inside.

Usually illuminating will involve bright colours and often gilding to make the letters stand out.

One of the most famous and readily available illuminated texts is 'The Sermon On The Mount', popular for it's beauty and extreme illumination.

You can also get black and white and less extravagant illuminating such as seen below in 'Smith of Wootton Major' by Tolkien.

Yet for purists the illuminated manuscripts of 1300-1700 are the most valuable.

These will often be only a few pages (or even just a single page), often made of vellum so the page is rigid.

These can often be hand-drawn and may be one-of-a-kind hence the huge sums such items sell for.

An Illuminated bible dating circa 1200's sold on eBay for £7,000 so there is big money in the larger, older examples.

Regardless of costs, illuminating is a lost art and holds great artistic value in the freedom given to artists for such pieces. 

 Thanks for reading.

The above photo comes from Abebooks.co.uk which you can access from the following link:

Illuminated Manuscripts on Abebooks.co.uk

Photography Do's And Don'ts - How To Sell Books PHOTO GUIDE

One of the most difficult parts of selling a book is photographing it.

You want to show the book in an accurate yet also beneficial way.

Follow the guide below and you should manage to do just that.

The Photography Dont's:

Object position

Don't lay the book on it's side unless it won't stand up.

Even then try to prop it up from behind so that it appears to be standing.

This one is better but again, photographing the book standing up is clearer and more professional.

Background

Don't photograph the book against a dark or dirty background.

White walls or carpet suits best.

Try the bath, a kitchen surface or even on top of a washing machine (white surface).

If all else fails you can try the back of a rug or laying a sheet.

Focus

You want the writing on your book to be easily visible.

If it's blurry and out of focus then use your camera's Macro mode if you have one.

Try taking the photo in a well-lit room also.

If all else fails then flash can capture text clearly but be careful with it.

Keep trying until the photo looks clear - a buyer won't want to buy a book they can't see properly!

Flash

Try taking photos of your book in a well-lit environment.

Maybe have a lamp close by or make use of natural light.

Avoid flash at all costs unless you have no other choice.

It gives an uneven and unrealistic visualization of light and colour and isn't ideal for photographing books.

Flash can be used safely in some cases - try being further away and zooming in so the flash isn't too bright on the pages.

You will often get a reflective section on shiny surfaces (colour pages or book covers) so beware.

The Photography Do's:

1. Exterior shot

If there's a Dust Jacket present then keep it on the book for the first photo.

1.5 Dust Jacket shot

If the book does have a Dust Jacket then try to photograph it completely unfolded on a flat surface so the buyer can see any flaws and you don't get caught out when describing the book.

2. Covers

If the book has a Dust Jacket then take a photograph showing the book without its cover.

3. Front papers

Now show the very first pages (Front papers or inside cover)

This isn't always important unless they are decorated nor interesting e.g A map.

4. Cover Details

If there are any nice details on the cover such as gilt patterns, a picture or nice font then show this - it can only help.

5. The Title Page

One of the most important photographs you can take is of the title page.
This gives buyers important information about the book - make sure the writing is clear.

6. The Print Details

Now take a photograph of the section that people often miss.
Most books will have a page behind the Title Page (or on the back of the title page) showing the publication details of the book.
This gives vital information to the buyer concerning the year and edition etc.

7. Sample Page

Now try showing a standard page to the buyer so they know what to expect.
Perhaps choose one with an illustration or take several photos if there are quite a few illustrations.

 Once you have taken all of your photographs check through to make sure they are accurate, clear and free from obvious flaws.

By displaying the details above of your book you will stand a much greater chance of selling for a higher value,especially if it is a rare or collectible book

Thanks for reading and please take a look at my other posts.

Not Worth Much - Why your book may not sell An Antique Books GUIDE

Here is a blog post about those book that disappoint in terms of value for one reason or another along with their value and reason why.

Disbound

Books hat have loose or missing covers/ spine as known as disbound and are worth very little unless very rare.

The below book is an early 1800 copy of the famous Pilgrim's Progress' yet managed less than £5 at auction

Torn page

A book with a torn page is devalued by a surprising amount - take 25% off as a general figure but expect up to a 50% decrease.

If the text or illustration isn't affected then values aren't too badly affected.

The book below, an edition of Grimm's fairy tales made £7.

Surface damage

Never judge a book by it's cover they say yet we still do.

Visually attractive books sell well and so when the covers are damaged it can affect the price quite heavily.

The book below has had some damage to the surface and, whilst a very good copy could reach £150-£200, this copy sold for £75.

Collector's/ Limited edition

Limited editions or collectors editions are a good way to attract buyers when the book is first published. Maybe it is signed or numbered?

Well, unless the author or book are relatively well known then the book may not be worth as much as expected.

The obscure fantasy volume below is a collector's edition yet sold for under £5.

Cheap/ Modern edition

If you have a copy of a well known book but it happens to be a cheap or slightly too modern edition then the book will not sell as well as others.

The book below is a heavily illustrated Fairy Tales book but the edition is just a little too modern for serious collectors and sold for £5.

Facsimile

We might think that a replica of a first edition would be worth a lot for it's interest and obscurity.

Well that's not the case.

Often these are merely novelty books with little value.

A replica of Charles Dicken's 'A Tale of Two Cities' First Edition sold for less than £3.

Popularity

Popularity doesn't always mean sales.

Take the James Bond franchise.

Due to two different first editions being available for each book, invariably one is likely to be worth less than the other.

'The Book Club' edition of Fleming's novels are worth approx £10 with dust jacket whilst the Jonathan Cape edition, published in the same year, can be worth hundreds.

The book below may be popular but isn't rare enough or the right edition to be worth much. Valued at £5.

Old with dust jacket

An old book with a dust jacket still present is quite an impressive thing.

For that one sheet of paper to have lasted 70 years plus is certainly an achievement but sadly this doesn't always equate to value.

In popular books this will mean close to double the value of the book can be achieved due to the dust jacket being present.

Yet with less popular or collected books it makes little difference.

The 1930's book below sold for £2.50

Proof copy

A proof copy is printed before the book is released to the public and is only really meant to private reviewers/ editors.

Invariably these make their way onto the market.

In some cases, such as with The Cuckoo's Calling by J.K Rowling these can be valuable - worth between £400 and £800.

Yet often that is not the case.

The novel below is worth less than £5 even though the author has other books published. It is just not the right time for her books and maybe there will never be a right time for her books.

A film release or series of popular books from an author bring the value of such books right up.

 Large compendiums

These sort of books rarely sell well.
A 1940's record book? A set of 24 Encyclopedia?
Not worth much I'm afraid.
Often the postage makes the value decrease or sometimes it's just such focused books just aren't that interesting to the global book market.

That is all I can think of for the moment although I'm sure there are many other factors that mean a book doesn't sell as well as you might have hoped.

Thanks for reading as ever and please share, comment or +1 if possible!

How To Estimated a Book's Age: Part 1. An Antique Books Guide

It is a useful skill to be able to guess the age of a book from it covers.

If you are searching for books (online or in shops) then to be able to estimated how old a book is just from the covers can save a lot of time and wasted energy.

This is the first part of a longer guide which will show you through the covers, the title page and other features how to estimate the age of a book with reasonable accuracy.

The covers are the most obvious way to tell a book's age and will be seen first.
Some can be tricky as they might not be conventional in style but generally they will follow patterns set by each era.
Below are a range of books from various eras with description for each - hopefully you will learn a bit more about the type of designs to look for in each age group.

Modern (1970+)

Modern books are usually identifiable for their clean, white pages but the covers too can tell us if a book is modern. This age group is most obvious as modern books are worlds apart from older ones.

Paperbacks will generally be clean and shiny, sometimes using gold foil to give a touch of style.

hardbacks will invariably have dust-jackets which will often be shiny.

Faux-Antique

Even during modern times publishers are still replicating antique style with books such as the famous Guild Publishing editions (one copy seen below).

An easy way to tell the age of such books is by looking at the page edges which will be far cleaner and neater than real antique books.

Vintage (1930-1970)

This era is quite broad and can be a little harder to guess accurately.

In this age group expect to see few hardcovers with decoration and many with plain covers that came originally with dust-jackets. If dust-jackets are still present they will often be in poor shape and made of flimsy, cheap paper.

Paperbacks will be thin and cheap.

Antique/ True Vintage 1900-1930

This is the era where books begin to get valuable, decorative and classified as antique.
Expect cases of high decoration, gilding to page edges and art-deco styling - look out for bold patterns and vertical lines used as decoration.
Some books can still be plain however, and thus difficult to discern from 1950's or later hardbacks.

Paperbacks are rare in this era and will almost certainly be in poor shape due to the weak binding.

Classic art-deco designs:

Some books will have plainer covers 

The pictorial plate to the front cover is common with this era

Some will begin to look close to late Victorian books in decorative style if they are sub 1910

 Victorian/ True Antique (1870-1900)

This era is where books become genuine antiques.

Despite this you can expect to see some of the boldest cover designs published.

Fine binding is popular in this era and looks very different to standard books due to the leather (or leather effect) binding and higher publication values:

The traditional designs of late Victorian books feature lots of gold, strong fonts and highly decorative covers

 Not all books of this era were decorative however and these can be hard to estimate in terms of age as they may look alike to 1930's or later hardbacks:

Early Victorian (1840-1860)

This era is quite unique as books are generally subtly decorated, without the elaborate embellishment of late Victorian books. Some will feature gilded designs but these will lack the colour and illustration of later publications.

Early antique 1800-1850

This era will start to show its age. Covers are often dark and un-decorated unless they are marbled in which case the same marbled effect will feature on the covers, page edges and front/ endpapers.
Leather binding features heavily in this era too.

 High Antique - Ancient (1800-)

 These books will almost always be bound in leather, calf or vellum and feature very little decoration.
Some books may be re-bound and so look newer than they are but the pages will give away the age.
Covers may be loose or detached and the overall impression of these era books will be of extreme age

Mid 1700's

 Early 1600's 

And that concludes Part 1 of the 'How to estimate the age of books' guide!

I hope it has been helpful or at least a little informative and please share, +1 or comment.