| 1963 |
7 |
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The Snowy
While eBay is not the bookselling venue it once was, I continue to regularly purchase collectible children’s books on the site. I’ve been a buyer of collectible children’s books on eBay since 1998 and perform about 50 saved searches weekly. Over the past five years the quality and quantity of collectible children’s books listed on eBay has declined dramatically, however on occasion I still find value.
One of my saved searches is completed books sold for over $300, to see what I might have missed, and to learn (there are some knowledgeable booksellers on eBay, and I often learn something from their descriptive listings). A couple of months ago, a very rare item turned up in the Completed search, the following is the entire listing, verbatim:
A Happy Pair by Frederic Weatherly Hildesheimer & Faulkner Mini Cord Bound Book
A Happy Pair by Frederic E. Weatherly
Illustrated by H. B. P (could this be Beatrix Potter)
Hildesheimer & Faulkner Publishers
Soft cover Miniature Book with corded Binding
14 pages with gold gilt edges Book is 4 inches by 5 inches.
Designed in England
Printed in Germany
Color illustrations of two bunnies throughout
Cover front and back shows some wear including edge wear and soling.
Book in acceptable condition. Binding is tight. Pages are clean
Innocuous enough, even sparse. Surprising when, at least to me, on January 21, 2012 this little booklet (Item 220933184464) sold for $4,396.
As mentioned earlier, I often learn something from eBay auctions. In this instance, I’m not going to learn from the seller’s descriptive listing, but rather from what the seller omitted, and what I can discover on my own accord. After a little bit of Google Search, I came upon this 2001 article from BBC News, “Beatrix Potter Drawings Fetch £23,000” (the following excerpt © BBC News):
The best-preserved copy of the first ever book containing Beatrix Potter’s work was sold for £23,250 when it went under the hammer on Thursday.
The book, called A Happy Pair, was Potter’s first break in publishing in 1893 and includes her Christmas card illustrations alongside poetry by a different author.
The Peter Rabbit books were self-published at first A Happy Pair was published nine years before the first Peter Rabbit tales appeared, and only a handful of copies exist.
The £23,000 would be equivalent to around $36,000 at today’s exchange rate. It is notable the eBay copy is comparable in condition to the Sotheby copy.
After a little more research, I came upon “a lesser copy offered for $30,000” by Bauman Rare Books, an ABAA member bookseller (the following excerpt © Bauman Rare Books):
THE VERY RARE FIRST BOOK ILLUSTRATED BY BEATRIX POTTER, A HAPPY PAIR, 1890, WITH SIX CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS BY POTTER
(POTTER, Beatrix) WEATHERLY, Frederic E. A Happy Pair. London: Hildesheimer & Faulkner, [1890]. 16mo, original pictorial wrappers, original cloth ties with tassels, all edges gilt; pp. 12. $30,000.
First and only edition of a true children’s rarity: the first book illustrated by Beatrix Potter, one of the most elusive of all her works, known in only a very few copies (estimated as few as ten, although to our knowledge no formal census exists). With six lovely chromolithographed illustrations, each signed H.B.P. in the stone, and cover designs, all by Potter. A charming copy and an inestimable addition to any collection of children’s literature.
Experienced booksellers and book collectors have come upon the front flaps of dust jackets with the top or bottom corner clipped, yet, strangely the books’ price still evident on the uncut corner. Why is the DJ’s corner cut off and the price still evident? Why cut the book’s corner at all?
This mystery is explained by Dan Gregory at ILAB in his article “Why Are Some Dustjackets Clipped but Not Price-Clipped?“.
[...] this copy had four different prices on the front flap (clockwise from the top they were $3.95, $3.75, $4.50, and $4.95). By printing four prices in such a manner, the publisher, W.W. Norton, could leave the decision of the final retail price until later in the publication process.
After the books were printed, and just before the printed jackets were to be folded onto the bound books, two or three cuts to a stack of printed jacket sheets could quickly eliminate the unused prices. It also allowed the publisher, if he were so inclined, to market the book at different retail values in different areas.
 In over twenty years of collecting books, this is the first time I have ever seen a book – thank Dan for the photo – with four different prices on the front flap. There are many books in my library with two prices, one top and one bottom, with unclipped front flaps, but none with four prices.
Dan explains that the dust jacket corners are cut by machine which is understandable when dealing with thousands upon thousands of books.
For children’s book collectors, I suppose one of the rare unclipped first editions would be Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. In addition to the correct copy on the DJ flaps (i.e. no mention of the Caldecott Award), my copy has “$3.50″ on the top right of the front flap, which matches the description in the Hanrahan bibliography, and has the bottom right corner cut off. Hanrahan states:
It has a price of $3.50 (Horn Book mentions a library edition at $3.79) on the inside front flap [...]
I’ve never seen or heard of a copy of Where The Wild Things Are with an unclipped dust jacket, which includes the “$3.50″ trade price on the top right corner, and the “$3.79″ library edition price on the bottom right.
Experienced booksellers and book collectors have come upon the front flaps of dust jackets with the top or bottom corner clipped, yet, strangely the books’ price still evident on the uncut corner. Why is the DJ’s corner cut off and the price still evident? Why cut the book’s corner at all?
This mystery is explained by Dan Gregory at ILAB in his article “Why Are Some Dustjackets Clipped but Not Price-Clipped?“.
[...] this copy had four different prices on the front flap (clockwise from the top they were $3.95, $3.75, $4.50, and $4.95). By printing four prices in such a manner, the publisher, W.W. Norton, could leave the decision of the final retail price until later in the publication process.
After the books were printed, and just before the printed jackets were to be folded onto the bound books, two or three cuts to a stack of printed jacket sheets could quickly eliminate the unused prices. It also allowed the publisher, if he were so inclined, to market the book at different retail values in different areas.
In over twenty years of collecting books, this is the first time I have ever seen a book – thank Dan for the photo – with four different prices on the front flap. There are many books in my library with two prices, one top and one bottom, with unclipped front flaps, but none with four prices.
Dan explains that the dust jacket corners are cut by machine which is understandable when dealing with thousands upon thousands of books.
For children’s book collectors, I suppose one of the rare unclipped first editions would be Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. In addition to the correct copy on the DJ flaps (i.e. no mention of the Caldecott Award), my copy has “$3.50″ on the top right of the front flap, which matches the description in the Hanrahan bibliography, and has the bottom right corner cut off. Hanrahan states:
It has a price of $3.50 (Horn Book mentions a library edition at $3.79) on the inside front flap [...]
I’ve never seen or heard of a copy of Where The Wild Things Are with an unclipped dust jacket, which includes the “$3.50″ trade price on the top right corner, and the “$3.79″ library edition price on the bottom right.
A first edition The Little House is a scarce bird, rarely sighted in public. First edition copies of Virginia Lee Burton’s 1943 Caldecott Medal winning book are one of the scarcest contemporary children’s picturebook to find. One is currently being offered for sale on ABEBooks. It can be yours for $12,500.
[Caveat emptor: I have no affiliation to the bookseller, nor to sale of this particular book. The bookseller, Raptis Rare Books is a reputable member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America.]
Here is the link to the item, The Little House, with the following description, courtesy Raptis Rare Books:
First edition of one of the rarest and most sought after children’s classics. Oblong quarto, original blue cloth. Light rubbing to the spine tips, a near fine copy in an excellent unrestored dust jacket that shows a small chip to the crown of the spine and some light wear. Small ink inscription opposite the title page. This book and dust jacket are usually seen with restoration, this copy is exceptionally clean and bright. “Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country. She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built.” So begins Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House, winner of the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1943. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
There is only one, perhaps two, first edition Caldecott books which are harder to find. This is one of the few first edition Caldecott Medal books not in my collection. Sigh. If only.
In 2007 a copy of The Little House sold at PBA Galleries auction for nearly $10,000.
The prices of first edition Caldecott Medal books have escalated in the past five years. Impressive in the face of the nation’s economy, this Great Recession. The escalated prices have not resulted in additional first editions hitting the market. If anything, the opposite is true – there is less supply of first edition Caldecott Medal books on the market today than five years ago. In general, I think this applies to collectible first edition picturebooks.
Ironically it is not just the scarce books which are scarce. Even some of the more common first edition Caldecott Medal books are not available in numbers, making it a seller’s market.
A first edition The Little House is a scarce bird, rarely sighted in public. First edition copies of Virginia Lee Burton’s 1943 Caldecott Medal winning book are one of the scarcest contemporary children’s picturebook to find. One is currently being offered for sale on ABEBooks. It can be yours for $12,500.
[Caveat emptor: I have no affiliation to the bookseller, nor to sale of this particular book. The bookseller, Raptis Rare Books is a reputable member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America.]
Here is the link to the item, The Little House, with the following description, courtesy Raptis Rare Books:
First edition of one of the rarest and most sought after children’s classics. Oblong quarto, original blue cloth. Light rubbing to the spine tips, a near fine copy in an excellent unrestored dust jacket that shows a small chip to the crown of the spine and some light wear. Small ink inscription opposite the title page. This book and dust jacket are usually seen with restoration, this copy is exceptionally clean and bright. “Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country. She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built.” So begins Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House, winner of the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1943. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
There is only one, perhaps two, first edition Caldecott books which are harder to find. This is one of the few first edition Caldecott Medal books not in my collection. Sigh. If only.
In 2007 a copy of The Little House sold at PBA Galleries auction for nearly $10,000.
The prices of first edition Caldecott Medal books have escalated in the past five years. Impressive in the face of the nation’s economy, this Great Recession. The escalated prices have not resulted in additional first editions hitting the market. If anything, the opposite is true – there is less supply of first edition Caldecott Medal books on the market today than five years ago. In general, I think this applies to collectible first edition picturebooks.
Ironically it is not just the scarce books which are scarce. Even some of the more common first edition Caldecott Medal books are not available in numbers, making it a seller’s market.
 A first edition Curious George sold at Heritage Auctions for $26,290. This surpasses the $21,850 paid for the first edition Curious George sold at PBA Galleries in 2007.
The Heritage sale took place in the September 2011 Beverly Hills Signature Rare Books Auction. The link to the Curious George lot #37070 at Heritage (you will have to login to Heritage to see the final sale price).
Lest one thinks first edition Curious George’s are popping up hither and thither, the seller of the 2007 book at PBA Galleries assures me that the Heritage copy is the very same book. 1stedition.net promoted the 2007 item, see Curious George First Edition Identification for photos of the covers, spine, dust jacket, and DJ flaps. Comparing the tears on the dust jacket confirms the two books are one and the same.
The Heritage Auction description:
First Edition of the Children’s Classic, In the Exceedingly Rare Dust Jacket
H. A. Rey. Curious George. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941. First edition. Quarto. Unpaginated. Illustrations by the author. Publisher’s brick red cloth with Curious George vignette in black on front board and lettering in black on spine. Illustrated endpapers. Original dust jacket with $1.75 price. A couple of faint scratches to cloth on rear board. Original unrestored dust jacket is rubbed, with a few chips to extremities and spine ends; also with a few short closed tears and shallow creases at edges. Rear flap with Bullock’s Wilshire price sticker ($1.75). A remarkably crisp, bright copy in near fine condition. We could locate only one other record of this title in dust jacket selling at auction in the past 35 years, and that was this very copy. Extremely scarce.
A classic children’s book, Curious George burst upon the scene in 1941, a year after H. A. Rey and his wife Margret (both German Jews) had escaped Paris only hours ahead of the Nazis. The Reys had fashioned makeshift bicycles from spare parts and fled Europe with possessions limited only to clothes, food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George.
Featuring one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature, Curious George has never been out of print, and the story of the curious little monkey continues to delight and entertain children seventy years after its first publication. A superb copy, in the remarkably rare original dust jacket. Estimate: $15,000 – up.
Obviously this $26,000 sale will impact the other first edition books in the H.A. Rey Curious George series. In addition – guilty by association – there will likely be a ripple effect on the other scarce high-end contemporary children’s picturebooks, such as Make Way For Ducklings, Little House, and the scarcer Dr. Seuss and Caldecott Medal books. A very nice copy of the first edition Little House sold for nearly $10,000
A first edition Curious George sold at Heritage Auctions for $26,290. This surpasses the $21,850 paid for the first edition Curious George sold at PBA Galleries in 2007.
The Heritage sale took place in the September 2011 Beverly Hills Signature Rare Books Auction. The link to the Curious George lot #37070 at Heritage (you will have to login to Heritage to see the final sale price).
Lest one thinks first edition Curious George’s are popping up hither and thither, the seller of the 2007 book at PBA Galleries assures me that the Heritage copy is the very same book. 1stedition.net promoted the 2007 item, see Curious George First Edition Identification for photos of the covers, spine, dust jacket, and DJ flaps. Comparing the tears on the dust jacket confirms the two books are one and the same.
The Heritage Auction description:
First Edition of the Children’s Classic, In the Exceedingly Rare Dust Jacket
H. A. Rey. Curious George. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941. First edition. Quarto. Unpaginated. Illustrations by the author. Publisher’s brick red cloth with Curious George vignette in black on front board and lettering in black on spine. Illustrated endpapers. Original dust jacket with $1.75 price. A couple of faint scratches to cloth on rear board. Original unrestored dust jacket is rubbed, with a few chips to extremities and spine ends; also with a few short closed tears and shallow creases at edges. Rear flap with Bullock’s Wilshire price sticker ($1.75). A remarkably crisp, bright copy in near fine condition. We could locate only one other record of this title in dust jacket selling at auction in the past 35 years, and that was this very copy. Extremely scarce.
A classic children’s book, Curious George burst upon the scene in 1941, a year after H. A. Rey and his wife Margret (both German Jews) had escaped Paris only hours ahead of the Nazis. The Reys had fashioned makeshift bicycles from spare parts and fled Europe with possessions limited only to clothes, food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George.
Featuring one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature, Curious George has never been out of print, and the story of the curious little monkey continues to delight and entertain children seventy years after its first publication. A superb copy, in the remarkably rare original dust jacket. Estimate: $15,000 – up.
Obviously this $26,000 sale will impact the other first edition books in the H.A. Rey Curious George series. In addition – guilty by association – there will likely be a ripple effect on the other scarce high-end contemporary children’s picturebooks, such as Make Way For Ducklings, Little House, and the scarcer Dr. Seuss and Caldecott Medal books. A very nice copy of the first edition Little House sold for nearly $10,000
2012 Caldecott Medal Winner
The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball For Daisy illustrated
by Chris Raschka (Schwartz and Wade). A Ball For Daisy is Raschka's
second Caldecott Medal, having won the 2006 award for The Hello, Goodbye Window.
A Ball For Daisy is a wordless picturebook.
From the American Library Association's website:
"In
a wordless book with huge children’s appeal, Chris Raschka gives us the story of
an irrepressible little dog whose most prized possession is accidently destroyed.
With brilliant economy of line and color, Raschka captures Daisy’s total (yet temporary)
devastation. A buoyant tale of loss, recovery and friendship.
“Chris Raschka’s deceptively simple paintings
of watercolor, gouache and ink explore universal themes of love and loss that permit
thousands of possible variants,” said Caldecott Medal Committee Chair Steven L.
Herb. ‘A Ball for Daisy’ holds as many unique stories as there will be young readers
and re-readers.
In addition to the two Caldecott Medals, Raschka won a Caldecott Honor award in
1994 for Yo!Yes? With three awards garnered, Raschka's other first
edition books will increase in collectibility.
A Ball For Daisy was published in May, 2011, some nine months ago,
so most of the first editions have already been absorbed by the general population.
Currently the first edition book is difficult to find in a retail book store. The
books are back ordered at Barnes & Noble, and as of a couple of days after the
announcement, were without a firm delivery date. One would assume a new print run,
therefore later printings.
I queried eBay's Completed Auction results, and found six first edition copies
sold for over $50 within a week of the award announcement. One autographed copy
sold for $150, and two other copies sold for $100. I'm unsure whether these
are indicative of the market, or just panic buying by passionate collectors. We
will know more about the supply-demand balance for first edition copies later in
the year once the market has stabilized. First editions are certain to surface,
but at what cost?
2012 Caldecott Honor Books
2012 Caldecott Medal Winner
The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball For Daisy illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz and Wade). A Ball For Daisy is Raschka's second Caldecott Medal, having won the 2006 award for The Hello, Goodbye Window. A Ball For Daisy is a wordless picturebook.
From the American Library Association's website:
"In a wordless book with huge children’s appeal, Chris Raschka gives us the story of an irrepressible little dog whose most prized possession is accidently destroyed. With brilliant economy of line and color, Raschka captures Daisy’s total (yet temporary) devastation. A buoyant tale of loss, recovery and friendship.
“Chris Raschka’s deceptively simple paintings of watercolor, gouache and ink explore universal themes of love and loss that permit thousands of possible variants,” said Caldecott Medal Committee Chair Steven L. Herb. ‘A Ball for Daisy’ holds as many unique stories as there will be young readers and re-readers.
In addition to the two Caldecott Medals, Raschka won a Caldecott Honor award in 1994 for Yo!Yes? With three awards garnered, Raschka's other first edition books will increase in collectibility.
A Ball For Daisy was published in May, 2011, some nine months ago, so most of the first editions have already been absorbed by the general population. Currently the first edition book is difficult to find in a retail book store. The books are back ordered at Barnes & Noble, and as of a couple of days after the announcement, were without a firm delivery date. One would assume a new print run, therefore later printings.
I queried eBay's Completed Auction results, and found six first edition copies sold for over $50 within a week of the award announcement. One autographed copy sold for $150, and two other copies sold for $100. I'm unsure whether these are indicative of the market, or just panic buying by passionate collectors. We will know more about the supply-demand balance for first edition copies later in the year once the market has stabilized. First editions are certain to surface, but at what cost?
2012 Caldecott Honor Books
Blackout written and illustrated by John Rocco, published by Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group
“A summer’s power outage draws an urban family up to their building’s roof and then down to the street for an impromptu block party. Rocco illuminates details and characters with a playful use of light and shadow in his cartoon-style illustrations. He delivers a terrific camaraderie-filled adventure that continues even when the electricity returns.“
2012 Caldecott Medal Winner
The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball For Daisy illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz and Wade). A Ball For Daisy is Raschka's second Caldecott Medal, having won the 2006 award for The Hello, Goodbye Window. A Ball For Daisy is a wordless picturebook.
From the American Library Association's website:
"In a wordless book with huge children’s appeal, Chris Raschka gives us the story of an irrepressible little dog whose most prized possession is accidently destroyed. With brilliant economy of line and color, Raschka captures Daisy’s total (yet temporary) devastation. A buoyant tale of loss, recovery and friendship.
“Chris Raschka’s deceptively simple paintings of watercolor, gouache and ink explore universal themes of love and loss that permit thousands of possible variants,” said Caldecott Medal Committee Chair Steven L. Herb. ‘A Ball for Daisy’ holds as many unique stories as there will be young readers and re-readers.
In addition to the two Caldecott Medals, Raschka won a Caldecott Honor award in 1994 for Yo!Yes? With three awards garnered, Raschka's other first edition books will increase in collectibility.
A Ball For Daisy was published in May, 2011, some nine months ago, so most of the first editions have already been absorbed by the general population. Currently the first edition book is difficult to find in a retail book store. The books are back ordered at Barnes & Noble, and as of a couple of days after the announcement, were without a firm delivery date. One would assume a new print run, therefore later printings.
I queried eBay's Completed Auction results, and found six first edition copies sold for over $50 within a week of the award announcement. One autographed copy sold for $150, and two other copies sold for $100. I'm unsure whether these are indicative of the market, or just panic buying by passionate collectors. We will know more about the supply-demand balance for first edition copies later in the year once the market has stabilized. First editions are certain to surface, but at what cost?
2012 Caldecott Honor Books
Blackout written and illustrated by John Rocco, published by Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group
“A summer’s power outage draws an urban family up to their building’s roof and then down to the street for an impromptu block party. Rocco illuminates details and characters with a playful use of light and shadow in his cartoon-style illustrations. He delivers a terrific camaraderie-filled adventure that continues even when the electricity returns.“
Searching For The First Twenty Caldecott Medal Books We recently performed an internet search for the first editions of the first twenty Caldecott Medal books, similar to past searches, to determine the number of book currently being offered for sale. The searches were performed across multiple book sites, ABE, ABAA, and Bookfinder, and were filtered for first edition books with dust jackets. See table, below.
Across the twenty Medal winning books, there are forty-five first edition books currently for sale, with an average asking price of $869. In our survey the asking price was not adjusted to the condition of the book being offered, so use the average price judiciously, since the book and jacket's condition has a major impact on valuation. Five Books In Absentia First editions for five of the twenty Caldecott Medal winners are not currently being offered for sale on the internet. Understandably it would be a seller's market for pricing any of these in first edition format with dust jacket. As was expected due to its scarcity Robert McCloskey’s Make Way For Ducklings (1942) is not available. Somewhat surprisingly, one copy of Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House (1943) is currently being offered for $7,000. First editions in dust jacket for either book do not surface for sale very often. Similar to the last two years, there are no first edition copies of White Snow, Bright Snow (1948) and Cinderella (1955) currently for sale in the market. These two books are not as scarce as The Little House or Make Way For Ducklings so one would think the demand would eventually cause first edition copies to surface. In addition, there are no first edition copies of The Little Island (1947) or Leo Politi’s Song Of The Swallows (1950) on the market. The Little Island, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, is another tough find, in part due to authorship by Margaret Wise Brown, under the pseudonym 'Golden Macdonald'. Books authored by Brown have an avid collectible following, with The Little Island being the eighth book she wrote under the Macdonald pseudonym. Brown passed away in 1952, and her final ninth and final 'Golden Macdonald' book was published posthumously in 1956, Whistle For The Train. While Weisgard illustrated hundreds of children's books, his work in The Little Island earned his only Caldecott Medal. |
To date this site has dealt solely with contemporary American picturebooks, the genre beginning with Wanda Gag's Millions Of Cats. Millions Of Cats was published in 1927, a decade earlier than the initiation of the Caldecott award, and was considered so exceptional the American Library Association selected it as a Newbery Medal runner-up (now called a Newbery Honor award). 
There is a passionate base of collectors for first edition Newbery Medal books. To help illustrate this passion, just have a look at the thoughtful dialogue on the various Mock Newbery blogs and websites dotting the landscape. For previous years winners this passion runs from luke warm to very hot – I wouldn't classify the collectibility or demand for any of these books as cold. Most of the Newbery Medal books stand the test of time.
There are six Newbery Medal winning books with only one copy on the market, and eleven books with only two first edition copies on the market. On the balance this skews heavily toward a seller's market for these seventeen titles, an example being the one first edition copy of From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1968 NM) offered at a rather immodest $2,500.
As most experienced book collectors and booksellers know, the scarcity of a book has a major impact on its value in the market. Scarcity in and of itself does not drive value, but instead value results from a combination of scarcity and demand. For books, the economics supply-versus-demand relationship is synonomous with book’s scarcity-versus-collectibility. Scarcity represents the supply of the first edition book, while collectibility represents the demand. The value of a book is determined by the relationship between scarcity and collectibility.
A couple of months ago we performed 
