Poacher
Gravitationally challenged member
- Location
- Nottingham
i have a moral dilemma, which may surprise those of you who believe me to be devoid of morals.
I like old books, particularly illustrated ones, and despise the book-breakers who cut out old plates to frame and sell. Last Friday, at a local antiques fair, I spotted an old and unloved leather-bound book, in a sorry state with front cover detached, back cover loose, spine denuded, despite a later attempt at mending with a clumsy leather patch, and missing the title page. The stallholder didn't know what it was, and neither did I, except that it was a gazetteer. Entries for Stockton and Darlington made no mention of the railway, so I guessed it was earlier than about 1825. The map of the West Indies showed St Lucia as French, so probably before about 1815. Letter s in the text actually looked like an s rather than a mutant f, so probably after about 1790. (How's that for on the spot detective work?). The entry for Lincoln said "formerly called NICOL", which was news to me as a Lincolnshire lad, and was the deciding factor in buying it - what other nonsense was waiting to be found?
Some research has established it as a 3rd edition of John Walker's Universal Gazetteer, published in 1801 and not especially rare. Now for the dilemma. There are maps of Africa, North America, South America, Asia, England, Europe, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Scotland and Spain & Portugal. All of these are folded in three places to fit into the book, so of course they suffer damage every time they are looked at - the map of England is on the point of falling apart completely. Should I cut out and frame the maps to save them from further damage? This would destroy the integrity of the book, although that's already compromised by lacking the frontispiece of maps of the West and East hemispheres as well as the title page. Removing the maps would surely lower the value of the remaining pages. What should I do?
The book cost me the princely sum of £2 - I didn't haggle.
I like old books, particularly illustrated ones, and despise the book-breakers who cut out old plates to frame and sell. Last Friday, at a local antiques fair, I spotted an old and unloved leather-bound book, in a sorry state with front cover detached, back cover loose, spine denuded, despite a later attempt at mending with a clumsy leather patch, and missing the title page. The stallholder didn't know what it was, and neither did I, except that it was a gazetteer. Entries for Stockton and Darlington made no mention of the railway, so I guessed it was earlier than about 1825. The map of the West Indies showed St Lucia as French, so probably before about 1815. Letter s in the text actually looked like an s rather than a mutant f, so probably after about 1790. (How's that for on the spot detective work?). The entry for Lincoln said "formerly called NICOL", which was news to me as a Lincolnshire lad, and was the deciding factor in buying it - what other nonsense was waiting to be found?
Some research has established it as a 3rd edition of John Walker's Universal Gazetteer, published in 1801 and not especially rare. Now for the dilemma. There are maps of Africa, North America, South America, Asia, England, Europe, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Scotland and Spain & Portugal. All of these are folded in three places to fit into the book, so of course they suffer damage every time they are looked at - the map of England is on the point of falling apart completely. Should I cut out and frame the maps to save them from further damage? This would destroy the integrity of the book, although that's already compromised by lacking the frontispiece of maps of the West and East hemispheres as well as the title page. Removing the maps would surely lower the value of the remaining pages. What should I do?
The book cost me the princely sum of £2 - I didn't haggle.
