The Book-hunter at Home

Second edition.  One of an edition limited to 500 copies, of which 50 were printed on fine paper, this copy being one of them.  [viii], 276pp, with monochrome plate frontispiece, tissue-guarded, and three further monochrome plates interleafed in text.  Title page printed in red and black.  Quarter bound in cream buckram over pale blue paper-covered boards with gilt blocked lettering on the spine.  Deckled fore edge.  8vo.  Covers are worn, rubbed, chipped and a little soiled.  Text block edges dusty and a little discoloured. Some mild spotting and toning on endpapers and the tissue guard is browned else internally neat. clean and tight. There’s a small bookseller’s ticket on the front paste down (indicating that the book was once in the stock of Edward Baker, bookseller, of John Bright St in Birmingham who, on the ticket claims to be ‘the most expert bookfinder extant’ but whom the Jot101 blog describes as ‘the demon bookfinder general of Birmingham’).

Philip Bertram Allan (1884-1973) is known to book collectors for this classic, loving tribute to the art of book hunting, although he was also a renown publisher and entomologist.  First published in 1920, his Book-Hunter at Home is a witty, practical and affectionate guide to the fascination and complications of book collecting but it is its capture of the spirit of the book hunter aspect of collecting that has ensure it has stood the test of time and remains relevant to today.