The Pleasure of Collecting Old Books: Building a Library With Character

A collection becomes interesting when it begins to reveal the eye of the person who assembled it.

One reader collects fairy-tale illustrations. Another follows a favourite poet across the decades. Someone else is drawn to the craftsmanship of nineteenth-century leather bindings, the miniature book, or a single publisher's experiments in design. None of these requires an enormous budget. All require attention.

Choose a thread worth following

A private library acquires shape through a theme. It may be an author, an illustrator, a place, a period or a particular kind of object. A few carefully chosen books that speak to one another can make a more compelling collection than a room of unrelated purchases.

Take the Golden Age of Illustration: an early Rackham volume beside a Dulac edition invites comparison of colour, line, mood and printing. A bookplate or contemporary inscription may open another line of inquiry entirely.

Learn to notice the copy

The text is only the beginning. A particular copy has a binding, a state of preservation, sometimes a dust jacket, and often traces of former ownership. These details are not peripheral to collecting. They are where bibliographical history becomes personal.

Train your eye on title pages, publishers' marks, illustrations and binding structures. Learn how to describe a defect without exaggerating it and how to distinguish a later fine binding from the original publisher's case.

Leave room for surprise

Some of the best discoveries occur just outside a collecting plan. An unfamiliar illustrator, an unexpected association or a beautifully executed small book may suggest a new direction. A good library can be coherent without becoming predictable.

Keep a record

Write down when and where you acquired a book, what attracted you and which bibliographical features distinguish it. Photograph notable inscriptions and retain documentation. One day, those notes may be as useful as the bookplate on the front pastedown.

A collection is not merely an accumulation of scarce objects. At its best, it is a conversation across time, conducted one volume at a time.

Explore the books and illustrations that continue to shape the MFLIBRA catalogue.

Further reading at MFLIBRA

Are Rare Books a Good Investment? What Collectors Should Know  ·  What Makes a Rare Book Valuable? A Bookseller’s Guide