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#1
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Washable Binding...?
I have an English cookbook (Andre Deutsch) that says this on the bottom of the
front dj flap. Does this mean I can throw the book in with the rest of my wash as long as I don't use bleach? Thanks in advance for an explanation of this unusual term. Jonathan |
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#2
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i believe it means that after the spagetti sauce gets splattered on
it, you can wipe it with a damp cloth. I'm sure that's what it means...and, in fact, the binding of this 1954 book does seem to be a bit water resistant. (Although I'm not going to test it.) What is of mild interest here is that it is the book, not the wrapper, that is "washable." It's as if the publisher assumed that the book's new owner would remove the wrapper before use. Which brings up a larger question: As collectors we consider dust wrappers indispensible. But what did book buyers (not collectors) in the early and mid 20th century think of jackets? Were they considered something temporary to wrap the book in while taking it home...and then to be disposed of? Obviously this is question asked by someone who has too much time on their hands... Jonathan (a school teacher on summer vacation...) |
#3
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"Jbrodie1750" wrote in message ... As collectors we consider dust wrappers indispensible. But what did book buyers (not collectors) in the early and mid 20th century think of jackets? Were they considered something temporary to wrap the book in while taking it home...and then to be disposed of? My feeling is that dustwrappers were considered as more or less disposable by most people until fairly recently, and even now a goodly number of people probably don't really care what happens to the d/w on their hardback John Grisham or Stephen King or whatever. I know that when I was growing up in the early 1970s and had books with dustwrappers I didn't really think of the d/w as being a necessary part of the book (although when I grew older I began to appreciate and take care of them more). Now that I value books more I make sure to keep the wrappers as intact as possible; my husband puts mylar jackets on every new hardback that comes into the house, which does make things easier. I routinely took the wrappers off our son's children's books from the time he was an infant, and stored them safely away from the book. I didn't realise how much Tim (almost six now) took this to heart until about three years ago, when I found him carefully removing the wrapper from a new hardcover book he'd just received. I asked him what he was doing, and he explained patiently, as to someone not quite all there, that he was taking the wrapper off to put with the others so that it wouldn't get damaged. "Congratulations, Mr and Mrs Roden, you have a healthy baby . . . book collector!" Barbara |
#4
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I know that when I was growing up in
the early 1970s and had books with dustwrappers I didn't really think of the d/w as being a necessary part of the book I'm thinking back to the '60s when I was a kid. It seems to me that my parents, serious readers both, thought of dj's more as an advertisment than anything. In our house a book without a jacket was a book that had been read, re-read, and taken seriously. It had passed a test; and the visible sign that it had passed the exam was that it no longer had a jacket. Perhaps my memory is exaggerating the situation, but it seems as though, in those distant days, my family looked upon jackets as being a bit tacky. Now things are quite the opposite. WESTWARD HA without a jacket is trash..WESTWARD HA with a jacket is sublime. How this change of opinion came about is a question for me to ponder. Jonathan |
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#6
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"R. Totale" wrote in message
... On 22 Jul 2003 18:27:54 GMT, (Jbrodie1750) wrote: As collectors we consider dust wrappers indispensible. But what did book buyers (not collectors) in the early and mid 20th century think of jackets? Were they considered something temporary to wrap the book in while taking it home...and then to be disposed of? I kmow the question relates to buyers, not sellers, but I was reading a book of essays by the 1920s equivalent of a "high spot" modern firsts dealer like Ken Lopez or Charles Agvent, and this guy was ridiculing the idea that dustjackets were ever going to be considered valuable. He thought the idea of someone paying a premium for a dustjacket the height of absurdity. Sounds interesting...do you have the author's name or the title of the book? There's an interview from 1992 with Anthony Rota, of Bertram Rota Ltd (a UK "high spot" MF dealer for many years) at http://www.sheila-markham.com/Archives/arota.htm in which he says "In First Editions, fashion is playing an ever stronger part. An author may be in demand one week, and hard to sell the next. Also, the modern collector is very fussy about condition. We used to advise people to take dust jackets when they could. But the market was always underpinned by those who did not care about them, including some libraries. Now that underpinning has gone, I quite understand that dust jackets should command a premium, but I am often staggered by the size of that premium." Sandy |
#8
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"R. Totale" wrote in message
... On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 19:09:41 +0100, "Sandy Malcolm" wrote: I kmow the question relates to buyers, not sellers, but I was reading a book of essays by the 1920s equivalent of a "high spot" modern firsts dealer like Ken Lopez or Charles Agvent, and this guy was ridiculing the idea that dustjackets were ever going to be considered valuable. He thought the idea of someone paying a premium for a dustjacket the height of absurdity. Sounds interesting...do you have the author's name or the title of the book? I'm not sure and can't put my hands on it now, but I think it was the same book I cited in another thread a few months back, "This Book-Collecting Racket. A Few Notes on the Abuses of Book Collecting." by Harry Schwartz. Thanks. That's not one I have (although I do have the one that Jerry suggested might be the source), but it seems to be relatively easy to get hold of. Harry Schwartz's bookshop's still in business, I see, with a brief history (mentioning This Book-Collecting Racket) at http://www.schwartzbooks.com/aboutus.htm. The title's obviously a reference to AE Newton's This Book-Collecting Game, but, I hope, more interesting. |
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