"Learning has gained most by those books by which the printers have lost"

[anteros_lmc]

One of the things I love about old books is that they sometimes come with old book plates attached. Last week I got a new addition to the collection courtesy of nodbear who tracked down a copy of Vivian Stuart and George T. Eggleston's His Majesty's Sloop of War Diamond Rock for me, which originally came from the Seafarer's Education Society and is inset

Comments

[charliecochrane]

I sometimes buy old books just for the beauty of their covers/plates.

[amaraal]

Beautiful fierce sea dog. Is this a fluke for a tail?

Librabarians. How could they?

I once made a practical course at a book binding company. OMG!!! The owner replaced a 300 year old leather cover simply with a new one and called that 'restoration'... I gathered it, of course, just for the fact that someone noted '1835' in it.
A few weeks later I found the perfect quote: 'Don't be afraid of books. Unread they are completely harmless.' :) :) :)

The card: hot steam, maybe? Very, very carefully??? I tried it from here, but it didn't work. LOL

How many books do you have, btw? (2840)

[eglantine_br]

Can you make a screen-cap of the sea-dog plate? It is so pretty.

[vespican]

Most of the copies of Forester's Hornblower books that I have are newer editions, so called "trade paper" versions. However, the copies I have of the three first stories written (Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours) are early edition hard covers. I think they may have been library books at one time, as they have what appears to be some sort of cataloging information written in them.

A nice thing about owning one's own books... you are free to make notes within them, and not worry about a librarian complaining about it.

At a writer's group meeting a few days ago, someone mentioned that those who seriously collect autographed books only want the writers signature and no dedication or personalization. Supposedly including more that a signature lessens the value.
Dave