The Antiquarian Medical Book Trade: a Survey and Directory of Dealers and a List of Internet Resources
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· Newsletter of the Archivists and Librarians in Volume XXVI, Number 1 the History of the Health Sciences Winter, 2002-2003 The Antiquarian Medical Book Trade: A Survey and Directory of Dealers and a List of Internet Resources by Michael North Over the past 15 years, three surveys of rare medical regularly purchase rare medical books for other dealers book dealers have appeared in the pages of The Wa who do not appear in these sources. termark, all accompanied by directories ofthese deal By reading through responses and talking to several ers. The last was compiled by Elizabeth Borst White dealers on the phone, I· gathered a fair amount of oftheHoustonAcademyofMedicinein Winter, 1994 information about the state of the rare medical book (Vol. XVIII, no. 1), just before the Internet began to market and how, in the opinion ofmany, it has changed make such a large impact on the rare book market. over the past seven years. The expectation is that this article and the accom In 1995, only a few book dealers listed an e-mail panying directory will assist curators of history of address, and websites were virtually unheard of. Today, medicine collections, private collectors, and other rare nearly all rare medical book dealers have at least an e book dealers in adding to their collections, having mail address, if not their own website where their books appraised, and generally getting to know who inventory can be searched. Many allow their is selling rare medical material today. An added fea inventories to be searched by larger search engines, ture of this article not appearing in others in the series such as those ofABE or ILAB. is a list of Internet book search engines. Many dealers have chosen to perform virtually all oftheir business over the Internet, finding it to be much A Survey of Dealers cheaper than issuing printed catalogs and keeping a shop open. From what I can tell, these are often dealers I sent questionnaires to 70 antiquarian book dealers who sell low- to mid-priced items and are most whose stock contained significant amounts ofmedical interested in higher volumes of sales and reaching the titles asking them for contact information and whether widest possible market. they issue catalogs or perform appraisals. I also asked Some in the rare book collecting and selling fields, if they had any insights into the rare medical book particularly in the low- and mid-ranges, commented market, including Internet vs. catalog sales, who is upon the changing relationship between collector and buying and who is not, and what is popular. dealer because ofthe Internet. Because so many dealers I found the names of dealers by going through the have stopped issuing regular catalogs and having open membership directories of the Antiquarian Book shops and buyers have increasingly found mid- and seller's Association (ABA), Antiquarian Bookseller's low-priced items on the Internet through impersonal Association of America (ABAA), the Antiquarian web searches, bonds which used to exist between Bookseller's Association of Canada (ABAC), the dealer and buyer are in many cases not developing. International League of Antiquarian Bookdealers Buyers often show little loyalty to dealers they meet (ILAB), and ALHHS. I also asked colleagues who through the Internet and don't get the same feel for a dealer's strengths and interests they did when regular 1 l catalogs were mailed out. It was often through such especially in the low- and mid-ranges, are now often bonds that. collectors gained their education about rare able to see what other dealers are asking for the same book connoisseurship. This would happen as collectors item very quickly and easily and often adjust their spent time in a local antiquarian bookshop or several prices accordingly, sometimes causing "reverse hours a month reading a dealer's catalog descriptions bidding wars." of hundreds of books available in a field. Many long-time, professional dealers commented Dealers in higher end antiquarian books have not that the Internet has brought into the marketplace a necessarily seen such dramatic changes. These dealers great number of "amateur" dealers. Such part-time often still issue catalogs regularly, many ofthem never dealers generally do not have to :follow the ethical having decreased the number of catalogs issued on a standards of the professional booksellers' yearly basis. According to several of these dealers, organizations; they merely set up an account with most buyers who are about to spend many thousands BookAvenue.com or offer something on eBay. They· of dollars on a book are interested in knowing more can often sell their books very cheaply because they about the book's condition and history and more about do no~ live off the proceeds of their bookselling, the dealer. One dealer in particular said that while his bringing some prices down; Some expert dealers who stock is advertised on the Internet, he has never sold a describe their stock in great de.tail online have book solely by e-mail and faxes-he has always complained that le.s~ experienced,dealers have. been spoken to his customers on the telephone at least once "lifting" their descriptions and attaching them to their during the transaction. own online entries; This cmlid probably happen in the As far as pricing is concerned, some shifting has printed catalog world as well, but many seasoned book taken place because ofthe futernet. Many books, which dealers have cpmmented on such.practices .as if they were thought to be extremely scarce, existing in only were new or, at the very least, far more rampant. one or two copies, were found to have several copies I asked a number of dealers if they felt that prices on the market when hundreds of book dealers' had changed. because of the slowing economy, inventories became instantly searchable. Such books especially the slumping stock markets. Nearly all went down in asking price. But still other books, once dealers agreed that most prices haye not gone down thought to have been common, were suddenly found over the past few years. If prices had stopped rising, to be rare, bringing up their prices. Book dealers, they remained unchanged. The high points in medical TABLE OF CONTENTS The Antiquarian Medical Book Trade: A Survey and Directory of Dealers and a List o~ Internet Resources 1 From the President 14 ALHHS Annual Meeting 15 Membership Dues 15 ALHHS Bylaws Changes 16 Nominations for Holloway Award and Recognition of Merit Award 16 A Mysterious Web Tale 18 Ex Libris 19 News from HMD 24 2 i collecting, such as works by Vesalius and William literature on modem technologies, such as computers Harvey, are still going up in value, sometimes ap.d imaging, are gaining collectors. In general, astronomically. This is perceived to be in part because interests in the rare book market appear to be moving collectors with large sums of money at their disposal towards literature, especially areas such as modem first are often focusing only on the most well known editions. classics in medicine and science without going in depth into specialized areas. A Directory of Online Search Engines for There were a number ofother interesting comments Antiquarian Books in the area of who is buying what. Many noted that there are fewer physicians collecting rare medical The Internet has made searching for a specific rare or books. A number of factors _have been suggested for out-of-print book extremely quick and easy over the this, including lower physician incomes and less past seven years. The number of search engines has leisure time. grown, and many ofthe most well known have been Most of the comments on this trend seem to be bought out by competitors and shut down. Many rare highly speculative, however. While physician incomes book dealers have chosen to list their stock in these have gone down a bit in some specialties, the expense databases rather than create their own websites with of collecting rare medical books as opposed to other search engines, and some have stopped printing collectibles such as antique cars or art, has actually. catalogs all together~ , remained rather affordable, with the exception ofthe These search engines are often money-making highest priced items. One dealer commented that even ventures for their owners, charging a commission from during Harvey Cushing's time there was lament that book dealers for each sale. This often causes the price not enough physicians were interested in the ofthe book to be autOJ;naticallyincreased by the system hlll1ianities. All of these ideas seem worthy of further without the customer· being aware ofit, and sometimes pursuit by those watching the rare medical book trade. finding the same book from the same dealer via a I myself have wondered if the trend is due to a different search engine can result in a slightly different decreasing interest in the printed page as opposed to price. Another result ofthis phenomenon is that some electronic media over the past ten years. sites allow users to contact dealers directly in order to Many dealers commented upon trends in ask questions about a book's condition, whereas others institutional buying. While individual collectors are do not even give the name of the dealer, or insist that often focusing their collecting efforts on narrow fields you send messages through their system. Some users of medicine, institutions with history of medicine believe this causes delays and confusion and can be a collections are often looking to broaden their collecting bit alienating. interests. Books in areas such as cookery, chemistry, As with the directory of dealers below, it is not my cosmetics, wine, anthropology, and voyages are intention to recommend one search engine over recognized as having perspectives on health and another, although some attempt to describe the medicine that many private collectors overlook.