Raven & Gryphon Fine Books

Baedeker's Germany 1936

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 04:48:36 -0700

In January of this year, I wrote a Musing called “Digitalize Your Library”. In it I noted that for Raven & Gryphon Fine Books, I knew the cost and value of every one of the more than 3,000 books, including the totals. All in one big Excel spreadsheet – that gets backed up every night into the cloud, wherever that is!

But for our personal library, I have information on the cost of every book, but not the current value and no totals. Not a good situation for insurance, estate planning, and so on. So, in January I started to build The Cutten Library Excel spread sheet, by collecting interest. I’m making slow progress. The last category completed was “Canadian History and Travel.” Now I am working on the rest of the world “History and Travel.”

A week ago, I started on the 15 or so Baedeker Travel Books.

Kark Baedeker started his travel guide business and a century later they were still tops
in their field. They all had the same look and feel, as you can see in the above photo. Dozens of fold-out maps in every one, details on everything a traveller would want to know when visiting a country or city. For instance, there is a Baedeker guidebook for Great Britain and also one for London.

Most of the editions we have date from the late 1800s into the first several decades of
the twentieth century. While street maps are hopelessly out of date, the history and
descriptions of important buildings and museums is still of interest. In fact, when Glenda and I went to Austria in 2016 for son Gregory and Maria’s wedding we took our Baedeker’s Austria, 12th edition 1929, with us.

Halfway through these guides, I came to Germany 1936. The first thing I noticed was that there was no edition noted – a first.

Germany: A Handbook for...Read More

Dane Rudhyar & Lawren Harris

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 05:15:02 -0700

Yesterday, I was in a thrift store, and I saw a book, no dust jacket, but a different looking dual-coloured binding, top one inch faded, a sure sign it stood taller than its surrounding volumes, with a paper label on the spine which is unusual.
I picked it up, opened it and noticed the high-quality paper. A quick flip showed it to be a book of poetry, an area that I don’t focus on very much. Now to the title page, author was Dane Rudhyar, someone who I had never heard of to this point in time. The publisher, also new to me, was Hazel Dreis Editions. What caught my eye was the Santa Fe location and the date of 1938. Another flip through the book and I spied a full-page drawing by the author and it was very interesting, indeed. Certainly worth $3, I thought. And then, for the hell of it, I looked up the book on my mobile phone – one copy - $200! Can’t wait to check this book out when I get home.
White Thunder; Dane Rudhyar; Hazel Dreis Editions, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1938.
The first thing I did when I started to research the book was to look up the author, a good sign when the person has a somewhat lengthy Wikipedia page.
Dane Rudhyar (1895 – 1985), born Daniel Chennevière in Paris, was an American author, modernist composer, painter and...Read More

The Art of Window Dressing

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 05:45:52 -0700

We lived in Annapolis, Maryland from 1996 to 2002, the year we moved back to Nova Scotia. There were a number of good bookstores and antique stores and malls within easy driving distance, including Baltimore that had some great shops. I found a great number of wonderful books during our sojourn in this beautiful city and state, many of which have been featured in my musings.
My go to bookshop was Briarwood Books. Right in the heart of Annapolis. In one of my last visits to the shop, in 2002, I saw the cover of a book and immediately knew that I was going to buy it.
I love Art Nouveau, and this cover was a wonderful example. Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover!

I bought it even though some miscreant removed the title page! This is not a misdemeanour, it is criminal. And the perpetrator should be burnt at the stake fueled by the flames from maligned books. Not that I feel strongly about it.

But in the following month, I tracked down a copy of the book from another dealer’s inventory.
Alfred G. Bauer; The Art of Window Dressing for Grocers; Sprague, Warner and Company, Chicago, 1902. (Price $75.)
For this musing I was going to go onto Abebooks, find a copy, and take a photo of the Title Page for this musing. Not a copy in sight. It is very scarce, but I don’t have to worry about pricing the book since it...Read More

Found Bookmarks

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 06:05:12 -0700

Booksellers just never know what they will find inside a used book. Some things are inevitable – just several weeks ago I spent 5 minutes divesting a set of books of dried flowers and leaves. Mostly there are scraps of paper used as bookmarks. They too, get the Heave-ho. Alas, this bookseller has never found banknotes tucked inside a book – darn.
But I have found valuable items lodged in volumes. Last year, I purchased a “rare” South Shore, Nova Scotia village history. Got home and discovered tucked in near the rear of the book, a pamphlet history of the village printed decades before the purchased book – and it was “very rare”. Inside a 1606 Breeches Bible was a sewn notebook used by a clergyman, by the looks of it, as a calendar, with months and days noted but no year – again darn. But I can’t read German anyway.
A dealer has to decide whether to throw away these incidentals, leave them in the book – especially if they are tied into the book in some way, or stash the items away in a drawer somewhere. That is where I went to get the material for today’s musing – my stash of bookmarks or interesting things used as book marks.
Here is a photo of some Halifax, N.S. used book dealer bookmarks – only Trident and Schooner are still with us.
And here are three Toronto dealers and a Vancouver dealer bookmarks.
And some American dealer bookmarks.
Publishers sometimes print up bookmarks to market current or forthcoming publications. Here are two examples from Harper...Read More

Engineered Books

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 05:53:50 -0700

Books are physical objects. For this musing we are going to ignore the value of the text – the printed word. There are two common differentiators – Hardcover and Softcover and the quality of both can vary significantly.

Now, let’s look at engineered differences, starting off with some commonplace items: there are pop-up books that have custom card cut-outs pasted onto pages – engineered for each pop-up; there are fold-out maps and illustrations; some books have pockets pasted onto the back cover with folded maps inside; some books comes in boxes or sleeves; some volumes have differentiating substrates of paper and some have sewn-in bookmarks.
Bindings can be an engineering marvel as well. Both leather and cloth bound boos can be blind embossed or embossed with gilt or colours. They could have illustrations set into the cover. Some private press books can have covers inlaid with various leathers or coloured leather. Medieval manuscripts are almost all bound in leather of varying grades, some have metal clasps to keep the book from springing open – usually found where the leaves are made from vellum or parchment. Royalty and the very rich sometimes had jeweled bindings that in themselves were very valuable and often raiders, such as the Vikings, ripped the pages from the book and kept the bindings, thank you very much.
Occasionally, very occasionally, you come across cleverly engineered books that are surprises. I have two examples and these are the focus of the musing. When I picked up these items, books doesn’t quite cover it, I was baffled at first, had to figure out how to open things up, and ultimately both surprised and delighted. One of the items happily priced and put into the book business and the other can be...Read More

International Delivery Woes

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:33:23 -0700

Postal rates within Canada and from Canada to the United States have been bumpy over the past few years but have now settled down and are quite reasonable. A year ago, there was a great deal of concern when the United States eliminated the $800 de minimus duty exemption clause. However, the duties on used books remained very low and for the most part are duty free.
However, overseas postal rates and issues are a whole different story!
Implemented during the COVID years, the increases in overseas postage rates were extremely onerous and they have not come back down. I recently sent a package of two books to Britain, and it cost $130 – more than triple the cost of sending them to the United States. A month earlier we received an order from Poland for a $60 art book, and the postage would have been $130. That doesn’t work.
Interestingly, within Canada and the U.S., the incremental cost of sending a package with tracking is minimal. Not so for overseas packages – the cost is almost double, but the anxiety associated with sending a book without tracking is just not worth it.
At the moment, the high cost of sending a package to an EU country is not an issue because Canada Post has ceased sending packages there! Unbelievable!
On June 24, 2026, we received a notice from Abebooks that started with the following sentence – “Effective July 1, 2026, the European Union (EU) is removing the duty-free exemption for low-value imports. For items imported into the EU from outside the EU in a shipment with a value of €150 or less, a €3 customs duty will apply per item/tariff line in the customs declaration.”
Read More

Spelling Bees and Dr. Seuss

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 06:03:42 -0700

There are so many activities associated with owning and running a bookshop. At the moment, I am doing up “the books” for the quarter so I can file the HST return. The book room needs constant maintenance, panic when the dehumidifier stops working, packaging up books for shipment, handling tariffs and duties, participating in shows, and etc.. However, there are two main functions, and they are buying and selling books. Buying is more fun, but selling is more rewarding.
Visiting someone’s home to view a library that no dealer has ever seen gets one’s heartbeat up very quickly. You know on the door, meet the owner(s) and get a first look at the books. It can be very demoralizing, and you try to put on a good face knowing you are going to leave empty handed. Or, you have an “Oh Boy!” moment – where do I start.
Going into a fine used bookshop for the first time is fun too. When I travelled a lot for business, charting out the bookshops in the area is job one. Much easier now with the internet – it used to be, check into the hotel, find the thick old yellow pages, and start thumbing through.
Going into your favourite thrift store is fairly routine. Many times, you leave with nothing. Which is not necessarily a bad thing if you have some discipline about what to buy. When I first became a dealer, I bought books that still clutter up the shop. After a couple of years, I started to ask myself “Why isn’t this a $20 book?”. Several years ago this became “Why isn’t this a $50 book?” Much better. Still a thrill as you approach the book section.
The big art books, older leather bound books, and such are easy to spot and put in your cart. But, I also look for the unusual, out of place items, small...Read More

Tales of Nokomis

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 10:40:57 -0700

When I purchase a book for the business, I research it, price it, catalogue it and put it up onto our Abebooks site, if $50 or over. Then, I find a spot for it in the book room. Although books are reasonably stored with like companions, it doesn’t take long before the book gets covered or just melds into its surroundings. I often forget about it. When I get an order for a book, the first thing I do is look up the photos of the book’s cover to refresh my memory and to help me find it.
And so it was for this musing’s featured volume. I bought it just over a year ago, got the order yesterday, looked up the photo and went to the indigenous corner. I found it right away and I recalled getting it and discovering that it was not only a beautiful book of legend and illustrations but very scarce, especially in the fine condition it was in. At the time there were only two other, very inferior copies for sale, so I had no problem about applying a premium price on the little book.
I always read the description of a book when I get an order for it, to make sure I described it correctly. More than once, I have reached out to the tentative buyer, with a perceived change in the description. No change required here. In fact, I decided I should use this book as the subject for this musing. I took more pictures of the book, to share with you, then I packaged it up and sent if off into the postal stream to its new home in British Columbia.
Both the author and the illustrator are Ojibwe, from up around Georgian Bay. She is from the Bruce Peninsula, and he is from Manitoulin Island. This collection of Ojibwe legends, passed down by word of mouth, was put together by her and...Read More

Book Dealer to Book Dealer Discounts

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 05:19:13 -0700

When I first started to collect books there was no internet. You went into bookshops, went to book fairs or you received paper book catalogues from book dealers. When I would go into a bookstore for the first time and I liked what I saw, I would ask if they issued catalogues and if so, would they please add me to the list. Same going around to book fairs. Or you could call a well-known bookshop and ask to be put on their lists. Since mail order sales were important most would say yes and continue to send you catalogues, as long as you bought occasionally.
Dealers also received other dealer catalogues, and they built up their peer networks. If a customer came in and asked for a particular title that was not in stock, the dealer would call around to the most likely shops that you carry such a book. From talking with dealers, I learned that they typically offered each other discounts, mostly hearing 20%.
My first experience involving dealer discounts was quite interesting. At the time, 1980s, we lived in Northern Illinois, and there were quite a few good bookshops within an hour’s drive. One day, I went into a shop around Evanston, and I saw a beautiful set of Morocco bound books, roughly twenty in number. I started to look through the books somewhat in disbelief at what I had come across! The complete works of Thomas Chandler Haliburton from Nova Scotia. The Sam Slick and The Clockmaker series, all first editions. It was commonplace around the turn of the twentieth century for dealers or collectors to rebind first editions into sets.
The set was reasonably expensive, and I was not interested in buying them for our library. But it was springtime and in...Read More

Verve Paris Vol 1 #3 June 1938

Sat, 23 May 2026 05:48:56 -0700

As my readers know, I am somewhat passionate about illustration. And many of my musings have featured French illustrated books. I think that French illustration belongs at the top of a pyramid similar to that of French cuisine. Very often exquisite! Now, I move over to French illustrated magazines – the very first three issues of Verve, a magazine that was beyond glorious. My previous two musings covered the first two issues of the magazine, and this last Verve musing covers Volume 1 No. 3.
Verve was a modernist Parisian art magazine published by Teriade between 1937 and 1960. The magazine was first published in December 1937 with a cover featuring artwork by Henri Matisse. Matisse was a driving force behind the magazine. The headquarters of the magazine was in Paris. It published 38 issues in 10 volumes including lithographs by the most prominent artists of the Parisian art scene of the first half of the 20th century. The first few issues featured art/photographs by Miro, Brassai, Man Ray, Corot, Picasso, Maillol, Renoir, Delacroix, Chagall, Klee, Rembrandt, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rubens, Matisse, etc.; with literary contributions by Dos Passos, Lorca, Malraux, Joyce, Hemingway, Tagore, Rilke, and Sartre amongst others, Artworks have been reproduced luxuriously in the method best suited to each, resulting in a gorgeous, vivid publication, chockablock with delights.

VERVE; Volume 1...Read More