Some of you might know that I volunteer for Books to Prisoners. Our book donations fall into a few categories: the majority go on the stacks for future dispatch to prisoners; other books not suitable/requested in prisons go to the bargain bins (25c-$1) at Left Bank Books; and good quality titles we sell online (I think?) for the $5 or $10 we anticipate. This third scenario crops up infrequently.
All monies raised from book-sales goes toward postage … and it is postage that accounts for most of BTP expenditure.
Last night, I was sorting some old donations – the usual suspects were there (Alice Walker, Louis L’Amour, John Le Carre, James Patterson) as were the much-needed non-fiction (Spanish dictionaries, parenting books, American history titles, etc.)
I did not expect to come across an original edition fine art photography book. I put Images a la Sauvette, Photographies par Henri Cartier Bresson aside while I sorted the thrillers from the biographies from the media studies text books.
At the end of the night I picked Images a la Sauvette up again. It was obviously too large and too heavy to go on the stacks. During my induction, I remember high end monographs were mentioned specifically as candidates for sale rather than dispatch. I new this was a special book, but I didn’t realise it was Cartier-Bresson’s foundational work, fully illustrating his ‘Decisive Moment’ philosophy.
The book is beautiful. Published by Editions Verve, Paris in 1952. The cover was designed by Matisse purposefully for the book. There are 126 pages of full-sized (37 x 27.5 cm) black-and-white gravure reproductions. The cover is strong, the spine a little discoloured. The pages are in fine fettle. The pages are bound to one another tightly but as a group have come away from the spine. Still, gorgeous.
I instantly thought it might be worth more than your average book – I hoped maybe $100, perhaps even $200. That amount would pay for a fair whack of postage, right? A few hundred books, right?
After getting home, I checked out the specifics. The proceeds from the sale of this book are to pay for postage on thousands rather than hundreds of books. Depending on which source you credit, make allowances for the condition of this copy and factor in the state of the book market, it could be worth anything between $1,000 and $3,200.
Antiqbook pegs it at $1,053; AbeBooks start it at $1,260 running it up to $7,700 (for what I guess is a pristine copy); Franklin Books values it at just shy of three grand and Bauman Books pushes it a little further to $3,200. In 2007, PhotoEye auctioned a copy for $2,250.
Books to Prisoners has never sold a book of such high value before so we’re a little stumped. I guess we’ll get a local dealer to stick a valuation on it and then carefully search out buyers. We’ll likely use AbeBooks. I’ll let you know in due course. If you have any advice or interest, please drop me a line.
In the mean time, salivate over these images:
8 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 2, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Katie
Pete! It’s Katie! My friend is the photographer for Bauman Rare Books in Philly! Let me know if you want her contact info!
December 2, 2009 at 10:45 pm
John
How about an auction? Books to Prisoners is certainly a very worthy cause and ought to attract bidders who would pay a premium in support of the organization.
Would certainly be more work for you guys–publicity, creating a buzz, would be key–but it might be worth the trouble.
Having said all that… Wow! What a find. Congrats.
December 2, 2009 at 11:29 pm
petebrook
Katie. We’ll appreciate a few expert opinions, so I’ll definitely like to get the details for your contact at Bauman.
December 2, 2009 at 11:36 pm
petebrook
An auction would be a great way to go, and you’re right about the extra leg-work. The organisation is run entirely by volunteers so we’d want the option that garnered most monies with the best use of volunteer time.
And yes, wow, what a find! Does the US have the ‘Antiques Roadshow’? I used to watch entire TV series with my parents waiting for an old grannie with a Picasso sketch worth 200,000 quid that she’d picked up reluctantly at her church’s bric-a-brac sale. Or the kid who found a Leger in his fathers attic. I feel like this HCB find is as close as I’ll get to that type of luck and to that type of story!
December 3, 2009 at 10:11 am
John
@ petebrook
“Does the US have the ‘Antiques Roadshow’?”
You bet. It’s on PBS every Monday evening. They’re waiting for you!
December 3, 2009 at 12:31 pm
scottyo
beautiful
December 4, 2009 at 10:10 am
Nathalie
Auction on ebay should be an option….
BTW , at a recent photobooks auction i’ve been in Paris, “Images à la sauvette” , Verve 1952, was estimated 1500-2000 euros—–>2200-3000 $ , but gone for 1200 euros —>1800$ because they were not enough active bidders in the room, I guess. …
January 20, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Photobook History, Yours for Just a One Grand « Prison Photography
[…] year, I mentioned the time I found one of the greatest photography monographs of all time in a bin full of donated books at Seattle’s Books to Prisoners […]