medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
incunables are a somewhat rarefied field, each exemplar being more or less a
unique object.
whatever may be found (if anything at all) in Book Prices Current (or even any
of the more specialized price guides which are based on international auction
records --there is a very good German one whose name i have forgotten) will
provide only the very grossest of ballpark ideas of what the value of any
given item might be.
though this might be all you might need for insurance purposes.
unless you are willing to take the chance that that the contemporary signature
of the first owner found on the front fly leaf --"John Goodtown" or
something-- is of no importance, price-wise.
arriving at any thing like an accurate appraisal really is something of a
specialized skill.
first off, the item needs to be carefully collated.
is it complete and does its collation agree with other surviving copies, or do
you have some sort of weird and otherwise unknown variant?
what sort of binding does it have?
c
------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:41:04 AM EDT
From: Daniel Gullo <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Valuing an incunabulum for insurance
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Paul,
>
> There are several ways to find this. The easiest would be to look at
American Book Prices Current database if you have access or have a friend who
has access.
>
> If he is located in NYC or other major market he might be able to use a
reputable dealer or an auction house. A lot of it depends on the condition,
binding, history, etc...they might charge a fee.
>
> Check the ISTC database too. They won't have prices but they will have
extant known copies in affiliated libraries. Here, of course, the issue of
rarity makes a difference. Some libraries provide information as to how much
they purchased the item for, or if not, they will tell you which
auction house they bought it from if it was not donated. Other than that, you
need to browse catalogues.
>
> Daniel
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 5:09 AM, Paul Chandler <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> > A librarian friend has been asked to send an incunabulum (Johannes Maria
de
> > Poluciis, *Vita S. Alberti de Drepano*, Venice: Christophorus de Pensis?,
> > 1499) to an exhibition. For insurance purposes he must provide a current
> > valuation, but is not sure how to go about this short of taking the item
to
> > an auction house for a valuation. I suppose a book-dealer would check
> > auction records and the like, but I imagine this would require
specialised
> > resources (?). How would one go about this? Any help appreciated, perhaps
> > off-list. -- Paul
> >
> > --
> > Paul Chandler, O.Carm.
> > Holy Spirit Seminary | PO Box 18 (487 Earnshaw Road) | Banyo Qld 4014
> > | Australia
> > office: (07) 3246 9888 | home: (07) 3246 9894
> > [log in to unmask]
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>
>
>
> --
> Daniel K. Gullo
> Asst. Professor
> Department of History and Geography
> Columbus State University
> 4225 University Ave
> Columbus, GA 31901
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>
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