Re-binding old bound volumes?

[Kevin W. Plaxco]

Here's a question for all of you who've dreamt of collecting a full matched set. The bindings on some of my volumes from around the turn of the (last) century are splitting and are rather a mish-mash of styles -some old leather, some buckram and a couple are more modern ex-libris library re-bindings. Is there any consensus amongst you collectors as binding issues? That is, is there a premium for "original" bindings (as in "dating to near the time of printing" as NG never released anything but the '64 reprints as bound volumes) ? Does the premium for matched bindings trump this?

-Kevin

[Paul Crist]

You're not exactly correct on the Society selling bound years. Look at about any issue from 1906-1916, and there will be an offer to sell 1 to ten years back issues in a brown binding. Essentially, these were a way to deplete remainders. After the First World War, they were still available after 1897, but were not advertised. I believe because there was no other bindery mark on the few copies I have seen, they were bound either in-house (Society did do its own binding for its executives' and government comp sets) or by Judd Detweiler who printed these years.

As a collector, I'd assume the Society bound ought to be maintained unless complete shot. Any other binding except for Albrecht airplane-and-globe probably never added to value, and if deteriorating (especially as badly as you indicate) would drastically diminish set's value. Whether rebinding is economically justified is purely speculative. If you want to rebind a deteriorating non-uniform set for personal aesthetic, I would think it would enhance value. Question, however, is would it increase value in excess of cost of rebinding.

I will offer one anecdote. A widow and sun decided to rebind a horrendously faded/sun-cooked set of mostly Albrecht with some early years ex libris buckram. They spent about $6000 to put into very serviceable 3/4 leather in about 1988.
When I helped broker the 1903-1988 set's transfer it got $10,000 plus shipping and insurance. I highly question whether the old man's set was worth less than $4000, so they either made nothing or lost money (certainly time value) by the rebinding, which I advised against.

That having been said, I do not doubt that continuous runs in uniform binding is more valuable than mismatched bindings. If you have fifteen or twenty cover varieties (as with the Buxbaum remnants I liquidated ten years ago), I would say as a set they are worth holf or less what the same text blocks in a uniform binding would fetch.

Happy collecting
Paul Crist
Houston