Further to the discussions of dummy books on library shelves, earlier this year on SHARP-L and lis-libhist, I have just found another reference through casual leisure reading.
In G.K. Chesterton’s story ‘The Doom of the Darnaways’ (first published in ‘The Incredulity of Father Brown’ in 1926), the eponymous priest-detective solves the mystery by recognising a secret door through the presence of dummy titles on a photograph of the library. 'The History of Pope Joan’ and ‘Snakes of Iceland’ were two of the titles of non-existent books.
Peter Hoare
> On 22 Jun 2017, at 02:01, Nicola Rodger <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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> Dear SHARPists,
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> As part of my current PhD research I'm trying to track down formal recordings/ mentions of faux book collections. By this I mean sets or shelves of objects that were disguised or designed to look like libraries of books. (I am less in need of the obviously fake/ novelty books/ individual items, as these have been easier to track down).
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> I know there is historical precedence for this, so there should be some historical evidence around. (For example, apparently Dickens wrapped wine bottles up, shelved them as book spines and created punny titles? There are also cabinets of faux books at the British Museum.)
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> Your help is much appreciated.
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> Regards,
> Nicola Rodger
> PhD Candidate
> Monash University, Australia
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