The Antiquarian Medical Book Trade:
A Survey and Directory of Dealers and a List of Internet Resources
Over the past 15 years, three surveys of rare medical book dealers have appeared in the pages of The Watermark, all accompanied by directories of these dealers. The last was compiled by Elizabeth Borst White of the Houston Academy of Medicine in Winter, 1994 (Vol. XVIII, no. 1), just before the Internet began to make such a large impact on the rare book market. The expectation is that this article and the accompanying directory will assist curators of history of medicine collections, private collectors, and other rare book dealers in adding to their collections, having books appraised, and generally getting to know who is selling rare medical material today. An added feature of this article not appearing in others in the series is a list of Internet book search engines. A Survey of Dealers I sent questionnaires to 70 antiquarian book dealers whose stock contained significant amounts of medical titles asking them for contact information and whether they issue catalogs or perform appraisals. I also asked if they had any insights into the rare medical book market, including Internet vs. catalog sales, who is buying and who is not, and what is popular. I found the names of dealers by going through the membership directories of the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association (ABA), Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America (ABAA), the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of Canada (ABAC), the International League of Antiquarian Bookdealers (ILAB), and ALHHS. I also asked colleagues who regularly purchase rare medical books for other dealers who do not appear in these sources. By reading through responses and talking to several dealers on the phone, I gathered a fair amount of information about the state of the rare medical book market and how, in the opinion of many, it has changed over the past seven years. In 1995, only a few book dealers listed an e-mail address, and websites were virtually unheard of. Today, nearly all rare medical book dealers have at least an e-mail address, if not their own website where their inventory can be searched. Many allow their inventories to be searched by larger search engines, such as those of ABE or ILAB. Many dealers have chosen to perform virtually all of their business over the Internet, finding it to be much cheaper than issuing printed catalogs and keeping a shop open. From what I can tell, these are often dealers who sell low- to mid-priced items and are most interested in higher volumes of sales and reaching the widest possible market. Some in the rare book collecting and selling fields, particularly in the low- and mid-ranges, commented upon the changing relationship between collector and dealer because of the Internet. Because so many dealers have stopped issuing regular catalogs and having open shops and buyers have increasingly found mid- and low-priced items on the Internet through impersonal web searches, bonds which used to exist between dealer and buyer are in many cases not developing. Buyers often show little loyalty to dealers they meet through the Internet and don’t get the same feel for a dealer’s strengths and interests they did when regular catalogs were mailed out. It was often through such bonds that collectors gained their education about rare book connoisseurship. This would happen as collectors spent time in a local antiquarian bookshop or several hours a month reading a dealer’s catalog descriptions of hundreds of books available in a field. Dealers in higher end antiquarian books have not necessarily seen such dramatic changes. These dealers often still issue catalogs regularly, many of them never having decreased the number of catalogs issued on a yearly basis. According to several of these dealers, most buyers who are about to spend many thousands of dollars on a book are interested in knowing more about the book’s condition and history and more about the dealer. One dealer in particular said that while his stock is advertised on the Internet, he has never sold a book solely by e-mail and faxes-- he has always spoken to his customers on the telephone at least once during the transaction. As far as pricing is concerned, some shifting has taken place because of the Internet. Many books, which were thought to be extremely scarce, existing in only one or two copies, were found to have several copies on the market when hundreds of book dealers’ inventories became instantly searchable. Such books went down in asking price. But still other books, once thought to have been common, were suddenly found to be rare, bringing up their prices. Book dealers, especially in the low- and mid-ranges, are now often able to see what other dealers are asking for the same item very quickly and easily and often adjust their prices accordingly, sometimes causing “reverse bidding wars.” Many long-time, professional dealers commented that the Internet has brought into the marketplace a great number of “amateur” dealers. Such part-time dealers generally do not have to follow the ethical standards of the professional booksellers’ organizations; they merely set up an account with BookAvenue.com or offer something on eBay. They can often sell their books very cheaply because they do not live off the proceeds of their bookselling, bringing some prices down. Some expert dealers who describe their stock in great detail online have complained that less experienced dealers have been “lifting” their descriptions and attaching them to their own online entries. This could probably happen in the printed catalog world as well, but many seasoned book dealers have commented on such practices as if they were new or, at the very least, far more rampant. I asked a number of dealers if they felt that prices had changed because of the slowing economy, especially the slumping stock markets. Nearly all dealers agreed that most prices have not gone down over the past few years. If prices had stopped rising, they remained unchanged. The high points in medical collecting, such as works by Vesalius and William Harvey, are still going up in value, sometimes astronomically. This is perceived to be in part because collectors with large sums of money at their disposal are often focusing only on the most well known classics in medicine and science without going in depth into specialized areas. There were a number of other interesting comments in the area of who is buying what. Many noted that there are fewer physicians collecting rare medical books. A number of factors have been suggested for this, including lower physician incomes and less leisure time. Most of the comments on this trend seem to be highly speculative, however. While physician incomes have gone down a bit in some specialties, the expense of collecting rare medical books as opposed to other collectibles such as antique cars or art, has actually remained rather affordable, with the exception of the highest priced items. One dealer commented that even during Harvey Cushing’s time there was lament that not enough physicians were interested in the humanities. All of these ideas seem worthy of further pursuit by those watching the rare medical book trade. I myself have wondered if the trend is due to a decreasing interest in the printed page as opposed to electronic media over the past ten years. Many dealers commented upon trends in institutional buying. While individual collectors are often focusing their collecting efforts on narrow fields of medicine, institutions with history of medicine collections are often looking to broaden their collecting interests. Books in areas such as cookery, chemistry, cosmetics, wine, anthropology, and voyages are recognized as having perspectives on health and medicine that many private collectors overlook. Scholars at such institutions are urging curators to delve into these tangential areas deeper and deeper. Many have noted that most institutions do not seem to be spending as much as they were in the 1960s and 1970s, as they have been forced to shift spending into electronic resources. Because there is less buying by physicians and by institutions in the area of medicine proper, some dealers say that there has been a decrease in dealers who specialize only in medicine. Some point out that literature on modern technologies, such as computers and imaging, are gaining collectors. In general, interests in the rare book market appear to be moving towards literature, especially areas such as modern first editions. A Directory of Online Search Engines for Antiquarian Books The Internet has made the search for a specific rare or out-of-print book extremely quick and easy over the past seven years. The number of search engines has grown, and many of the most well known have been bought out by competitors and shut down. Many rare book dealers have chosen to list their stock in these databases rather than create their own websites with search engines, and some have stopped printing catalogs all together. These search engines are often money-making ventures for their owners, charging a commission from book dealers for each sale. This often causes the price of the book to be automatically increased by the system without the customer being aware of it, and sometimes finding the same book from the same dealer via a different search engine can result in a slightly different price. Another result of this phenomenon is that some sites allow users to contact dealers directly in order to ask questions about a book’s condition, whereas others do not even give the name of the dealer, or insist that you send messages through their system. Some users believe this causes delays and confusion and can be a bit alienating. As with the directory of dealers below, it is not my intention to recommend one search engine over another, although some attempt to describe the holdings or special features of each has been made. Many of the sites have a significant overlap of book dealers’ inventories, as many dealers have added their holdings to numerous databases. This list is only a portion of Internet book search engines; new ones are appearing every month and not every site could be mentioned here. Advanced Book Exchange (ABE): http://www.abebook.com. Said by many to have the largest group of multinational independent booksellers on the web. Includes a special section for maps and prints. Alibris: http://www.alibris.com. Alibris has become one of the best known search engines; some have claimed that the higher overhead due to mainstream advertising has led to higher commissions charged to dealers. Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA): http://abaa.org. Contains the stock of many of ABAA’s members. Antiqbook (NAN): http://www.antiqbook.com. Based in the Netherlands, with many of the same dealers as ABE, but includes some European dealers found in few other places. Bibliology: http://www.bibliology.com. “The on-line bookfair,” includes information on bibliophilic events as well as a search engine. Biblion: http://www.biblion.com. “The U.K.’s largest site for rare, antiquarian and out of print books,” although it contains the inventories of numerous international dealers as well. Bibliophile.net: http://www.bibliophile.net Based in Switzerland, this site is small but growing quickly; includes searching capabilities in five languages. Bibliopoly: http://www.bibliopoly.com. Boasts a search engine in five languages. Bookavenue.com: http://www.bookavenue.com. Less international than ABE or Antiqbook; includes numerous small dealers found nowhere else Bookfinder.com: http://www.bookfinder.com. An umbrella search engine that simultaneously searches a number of the other search engines on this list. Galaxidion: http://www.galaxidion.com. Based in France, representing mainly with Francophone dealers in Europe. International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB): http://www.ilab-lila.com. This international organization, which sets ethical standards for rare book dealers around the world, also includes a search engine of many of its members’ holdings. Mare Magnum Librorum: http://www.maremagnum.com. Based in Milan, the site has searching capabilities five languages. TomFolio.com: http://www.tomfolio.com. A growing search engine, named after the bibliophile and bibliomaniac Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725). Used Book Central: http://www.usedbookcentral.com. Small but growing quickly, mainly American bookdealers. Claims that there are no commissions charged. WorldBookDealers.com: http://www.worldbookdealers.com. Small but growing quickly, mainly American and British dealers. A Directory of Antiquarian Medical Book Dealers in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. The directory of antiquarian medical book dealers below is intended as a reference tool for archivists, librarians, collectors, scholars, and other rare book dealers. Each entry contains the most complete and up-to-date contact information available for each dealer who responded to the survey. It includes the name of the proprietor or medical book specialist (labeled “P.:”), the dealers’ specialties, and whether they produce catalogs and/or perform appraisals. It is not the intention of the author, The Watermark, or the ALHHS to endorse any of these dealers in particular. Nearly all of these dealers are members of the following booksellers’ associations, which require their members to uphold certain ethical standards, viewable at the associations’ websites: The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA, http://www.aba.org.uk), The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA, http://abaa.org), The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB, http://www.ilab-lila.com), and The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of Canada (ABAC, http://www.abac.org). A dealer’s membership in each group is listed at the end of each entry. The United States The Antiquarian Scientist Antiquariat Botanicum Argosy Book Store, Inc. The Book & Tackle Shop By the Book, L.C. Webb Dordick Elgen Books W. Bruce Fye John Gach Books, Inc. The Gemmary Bennett Gilbert Edwin V. Glaser Rare Books James Tait Goodrich Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. Ben Kinmont, Bookseller H.P. Kraus M & S Rare Books Jeffrey D. Mancevice, Inc. Martayan Lan Bruce McKittrick Rare Books Howard S. Mott, Inc. The 19th Century Shop Jeremy Norman & Co.,
Inc. Old South Books Palinurus Antiquarian Books Phillip J. Pirages Fine
Books & Manuscripts Bruce J. Ramer B. & L. Rootenberg E. K. Schreiber Scientia Books Tesseract Trotting Hill Park Books An Uncommon Vision Jeff Weber Rare Books Wentworth & Leggett Rare
Books* United Kingdom Simon Finch Rare Books Ltd. Roger Gaskell Rebecca Hardie Rare Books Andrew Hunter, Rare Books Ruth Kidson Maggs Brothers Rare Books, Ltd. Nigel Phillips Rare Books Pickering & Chatto Patrick Pollak Rare Books Bernard Quaritch, Ltd. Thornton’s Bookshop W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books Graham Weiner Canada Robert Campbell, Bookseller Greenfield Books Dr. Hoff's Therapeutic Bibliotheca |