Jeff Weber is proprietor of Jeff Weber Rare Books, Montreux and Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He is a member of ILAB, ABAA and VEBBUKU/SLACES (Switzerland).
What, by its nature, would be rarer than an original Gutenberg Bible? The invoice that recorded the sale of the first books printed with moveable type! The receipt! Yes, those most-often tossed slips of paper, recording a seemingly trivial event, those receipts are golden to the researcher today if receipts would be appreciated. The receipt will never be as valuable as the item itself, but the tossed data is where the story of how a book (or another item) was distributed, who was involved, and when. When that receipt is tossed, its recorded history is lost, perhaps never to be recognized again.
The purpose of writing about receipts is to make the point that there is scholarly value in saved receipts, particularly when they unlock the mysterious ties between buyer and seller. I will refer to a number of personal projects that have benefitted from saved receipts or would have benefitted more had those receipts been kept. By some pertinent examples, I hope that the reader will consider the value of using receipts in their research. This, by my purpose, is to encourage institutions and collectors as well as those who inherit personal papers, to keep notes, receipts, email archives, manuscripts, all kinds of primary research data that can be used in the future to understand more by using those receipts and other materials, to advance scholarship. When those receipts involve artists and designers, one can say that the information found in receipts will add greatly to what understandings there can be derived from a person's work. In a perfect situation, the right archive of receipts will give fruit to a furtherance of scholarship.
In my research into the history of fore-edge painting, the record of sale can be a huge clue as to the origins of a fore-edge painted book. I would relish any such 18th, 19th, or 20th-century receipts from a binder, artist, or bookseller. Most often, such things no longer exist. For a project I am working on right now, a small collection of saved receipts, coupled with related correspondence (both starting from the early 1950s), have given me precise records of exactly when certain fore-edge paintings were commissioned and painted and who placed the commission. Any early record, jotted down on a scrap of paper, if saved might help unlock the mysteries of history sometime down the road.
In the case of royally commissioned bindings, there are records of payment going to a binder (such as Charles or Samuel Mearne) for special work. However, if one wanted to research the store records and invoices of Marks & Company, London, or Sotherans Bookstore, or the British binder Francis Bedford (1799-1883), scant or none is what one might find. All the books these people handled, all the clients they dealt with, all the employees, all the services or suppliers used – these types of ephemeral records have mostly disappeared. Companies kept account books, and if those logs were now in the hands of a qualified researcher, that logbook, or record of sale, can tell the bibliophile a lot about the history of ownership and who was involved. It brings the history of those items back to life.
Receipts are ephemera par excellence – they are often quickly thrown away. Some collectors and institutions retain old bookshop receipts. Because of that much information can be retrieved, so long as the receipts are kept.
In this case if I talk about books, the value of receipts also applies equally to any collectible, including manuscripts. 1 And by category, book trade correspondence, as well as their invoices, together, are a rich resource of information to understand the history. If it were a Fabergé egg, that receipt can prove proper title, who bought it, when and where. It records the passage of title from one person to another. Such documentation can be used in a court of law to prove rightful ownership, especially if the item is unique. 2
For those of us who care to know of the distribution of books, particularly of collections, a record of sale is often found in British auction records (where the buyer is named). Buyer's names are not usually disclosed in the United States, but in Britain, that record is public. I was able to make use of this for a particular purpose: how to date the painted work on certain fore-edge painted books. 3 The idea of checking late nineteenth-century London auction houses for purchases made by John T. Beer, the noted book collector and fore-edge painter (on books contained in his personal library), led to being able to prove when a painting was added to a book after a dated auction. Finding that Beer was a buyer at book auctions in the 1890s gave a record of when he acquired certain books in his library. Later, when part of his personal library was sold in 1903, some of those same books he bought in the 1890s were now (1903) described with fore-edge paintings added, all of which he signed. It is from that point, the record of sale, that most of Beer’s fore-edge painted works were initially recorded. The British auction of Beer's library sold in 1903, recorded the buyers' names (typically a book dealer). Thus, one knows the first owner after Beer. From that point things get murky as bookseller printed catalogues from that time (also ephemeral) are very hard to find. If one could follow the bookseller's catalogue record, it is of itself part of the road map of provenance and book distribution. From this point, in 1903, Beer's books were distributed widely.
From the point of view of research value, the primary benefit of retaining invoices is to learn the details of who owned the book(s) and where they came from, and when. From the tax point of view this is essential data for the owner to report to the US government the original cost of the book, which, if sold, would be balanced against any earnings or loss. I do not wish to address tax benefits any more than just a quick mention. There are more intellectually beneficial points learned from saving receipts.
- to know where a book came from and when.
- to learn which retailers were involved.
- possible provenance data could be recorded or retrievable [including the dealer as owner and distributor].
- price information and possible cost-code recorded.
- the document (invoice) itself is part of the history of each book.
- the owner's record of paid invoices is the best proof of actual cost when assessing later current value against "earnings". Most useful for tax purposes when selling the item and reporting income.
- A dated invoice, if coupled with copy-specific information, can also serve to alert someone as to the condition or some added specifics to an item. With books, it might alert one that a book was repaired or rebound. All this relates to the life-history of ownership and care given to any book.
Distribution of books: the dissemination of books, passes from one to another. The dealer and collector are the active energies that bring books together. The book trade is fully engaged with being a part of collecting. There are also other possible sources for building a collection, as inspiration might come from doing some digging and having luck away from the trade. Preserving some knowledge of where the books came from will help gain an understanding of their histories.
Some dealers and auction houses are going to be well-known, but many will not. There are personalities associated with every firm and the mixing of people, between dealer and buyer, those are intangible moments like represent mutual respect, communication, contact, making choices as to where one likes to do business, opportunity. Some dealers have left a receipt in a book, sometimes a book ticket (such as a binder's ticket); often, there are pencil markings from the trade that can be a part of any book history.
Provenance is one of the most interesting factors of books: ownership. Who owned a copy and how is that ownership marked, usually by signature or by bookplate. A book might be inscribed by the author to an original owner. The previous owner might be significant in some way. Identifying owner's names can be tricky as many handwritten names can be hard to read. Sometimes all you have are initial letters (sometimes found on the binding itself). The most noted and respected collections, with ownership marks, can also become respected for their rarity, taste, or condition. The discerning collector's copy might be the best copy available.
Of some consequence is the actual price of a book, as the price itself may be part of the information gathered to understand where and when a book came from a specific place. A wrong price may indicate another copy of the book, or that someone else was engaged in the item. The price itself is of little consequence for present-day value. To know that something sold for a pittance decades ago may seem to be of no consequence at all, but there will be times that the pricing data itself will determine a confirmation one might be looking to affirm – being copy-specific data. If that is coupled with a description or a cost code, one might have the full original description. This might reveal any changes to the original book.
The invoice itself may contain surprising bits of information of use. One should check everything and see what it leads to.
The value of the distribution of books, of knowledge. How and why things are brought together for the purpose of education, of preserving history, of learning how things were done, especially in that those ways are later superseded for newer methods or new technology.
The handwritten receipt might include an invoice number, a location of the purchase, a proprietor’s name, possibly shop codes are included (even initials).
Many times, the information on a receipt is severely abbreviated or truncated in such a way to not be copy-specific. That is a different function often handled in the describing of a book by an antiquarian bookseller. To say “Osler” as author and “Principles & Practice” makes clear what title is named, but it does not tell what edition (issue), nor which copy of the book by provenance. Once needs more information in such cases. Some patterns of ownership help to clarify which copy belongs to one person or another. If one still has access to the book sold, the very same copy named on the receipt, then that incomplete truncated receipt can be amended and completed to include the book’s author, title, edition and perhaps more.
In the case of Edwards of Halifax, or of all fore-edge painting history, including especially people who sold the work of one artist, a receipt proves that the book was there, sold, possibly names who the item sold to. If one had an archive of receipts from Edwards of Halifax you would want to know all the titles they sold, all the client names, what was unusual about any of the books (in this case the bookseller’s binder’s work). In the case of John T. Beer, the British merchant, fore-edge painter, collector and poet, and devotee of the Bible, receipts of his purchases are unknown to me, but the record of the sale of his books is presented by the sales of his books at auction in England. The British practice of publishing the buyer’s name gives one the first clue of the path the book took once sold. It would pass from Beer to Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge’s and from Sotheby to a number of tradesmen vying to purchase lots at the sale (the last held in 1903). It is from the sale record that one learns all the buyer’s names. Yet it is extremely difficult to take that information further. If I know the buyer’s names in 1903, some of these dealers' printed catalogues. Few of those catalogues will remain extant, and specific to the point of this paper, the receipts are also quite fugitive. If those receipts were in my hands, I would have much more information than otherwise.
Proof of provenance; proof of ownership & right of sale. The most basic and legal use of receipts is the proof of ownership or transition. Receipts help to provide a chain of information that ideally would create a complete picture of where an item came from and where it went. Where there is a question of ownership, a receipt marks its moment. With art paintings, items that are unique, a receipt will record a transaction, and it will become part of the ownership record. When that ownership is questioned, such as in the case of stolen or falsified materials (painting, manuscripts, etc.), a receipt will help establish a fact, even if in question. By their nature, books are not usually unique, at least not until they bear ownership markings or have something altered that makes copy-specific information vital.
There is also a forensic view toward keeping receipts: they are the chain of evidence, proof of ownership is one point, yet the actual chain of ownership from one source to another is also part of the history of each book. The evidence is in the receipts! Never have I heard that a book receipt solved a murder (commonplace receipts have solved such cases). Yet reasonably speaking, a book receipt can aid in solving a crime of theft. The receipt is the roadmap of its personal history, long preserved so long as the receipt is present. The personal receipt, as evidence, carries with it a date of transaction, a point from which it was sold and by whom a purchase was made. Understandably, a common cash-register receipt will not necessarily contain these points of data, but when they do, as is common in the antiquarian book trade, they are wonderful resources of information.
The mapping of evidence of a book and its provenance is not confined to a single receipt. One can check the company records, if extant. The antiquarian bookseller who issues trade catalogues, those catalogues can aid in understanding exactly what copy was described, in detail. Compare the book as seen now and what how it was described in the past, such as how it was written up in a trade description, a published catalogue, or in a receipt. The condition of a book can change, and so may its binding. Sometimes a slipcase was present before and lost now. With fore-edge paintings, a slipcase is often a telling point at which the painting was made. The undated painting was likely made at the time that the box was made (many times this is true, but not always). In other words, a book with a fore-edge painting, no matter the imprint date of the book, often receives a fore-edge painting at a later date. What is the proof of that? Look at the evidence of the book itself in addition to other supporting material. Often that fore-edge painting is anonymously painted. Yet the evidence of the slipcase can point to a period during which one can see that the painting was added. This is particularly common among paintings made by Miss Currie and Miss Helen Haywood. The boxes (both were from the Rivière & Son bindery) made for their commissions can lead to an understanding of when they were both working. Each element of the evidence, either within the book itself, or without (such as a slipcase), are parts of evidence that should make sense together. The chain of ownership and its chronology is not always evident, but with receipts and other records of sale, the proper chronology of ownership can be better understood.
Marking the status of a book, when dated, such as by a receipt, can lead to a better understanding of the condition or treatment given to a book. Were the covers off and then later found that they were repaired or replaced? Some work would go unnoticed unless there was a prior record of that. All this relates to copy-specific information that describes the life-history of the book, or how it evolved after it was released from the printer or publisher. If I had the advantage of such data on any Edwards of Halifax binding, especially with a fore-edge painting, then copy-specific information can even lead to verifying that a binding, or a fore-edge painting, is or is not, original to a certain copy of a book.
Receipts of the Frederick Frye library
I would like to turn these broader points supporting the value of bookseller receipts (as well as trade catalogues, trade correspondence), to the specific example of Frederick Frye pediatrics library.
The Frederick Frye pediatrics library was actively formed from about 1962-1980. Dr. Frye’s medical practice was in pediatrics. The total count of his older pediatrics books and pamphlets may have numbered approximately 500 items. He also had many more books in other fields of personal interest. I made a record of the pediatrics book receipts, about half of which Frye had retained. A couple of years later, Frye cleared out a storage area and gave me some more pediatrics books. The gift of those books filled my car.
Accompanying Frye's library was his own handwritten essay on the history of pediatrics. I kept Frye's file of book purchases, being approximately 200 receipts (or correspondence) from seven different dealers. By count I have 24 items purchased from Argosy Books in New York (1962-63), 1 item from Dawsons of Pall Mall (1969), 10 items of either correspondence or receipts from F. Thomas Heller (1965-67), 5 items from Hemlock Books (1980, 1990), 124 purchases with receipts from Old Hickory Books (active dates 1963-74), 5 items from Samuel Orlinick's Scientific Library Service 4, New York (Frye was active with this firm 1964-67), 32 items of either correspondence or invoices from Zeitlin & Ver Brugge Booksellers (1962-79). 5
Frye began buying medical books (and other books as well), from Zeitlin & Ver Brugge Booksellers in Los Angeles, probably during personal visits to the store to meet with Jake Zeitlin. The invoices in this archive were all handwritten by Zeitlin (from 1962 through 1979), a pattern he established long ago for his personal clients. I worked at Zeitlin's from 1978 until 1986 when the firm closed after Mr. Zeitlin's passing. During my time at Zeitlin the regular clients of Mr. Zeitlin were handled by him and his support staff (either his administrative assistant, or the cataloging department).
The compilation of Frye's receipts is not even half present. A lot of data is missing and much of it is inconsequential since it is the earlier books that one wants to know the history. In any case, the pattern is already established, who Frye did business with and when his active years as a book collector were. I have indexed only those items for which I have existing receipts. I compared all the receipts with the books I acquired. That way a receipt with cryptic information (such as single words for author and title), can be detailed with more correct information.
Since I have acquired Frye's medical library, I have issued three catalogues devoted to his collection: Catalogues 188, 218, 228 [partial], 237. Please refer to the supplemental charts of recorded receipts to see a chain of evidence of ownership in the pediatrics books formerly owned by Dr. Frye.
Of course, I am preaching an impossible favor of collectors and librarians, even archivists. Everyone makes decisions as to what to keep and what to throw away and why. For the researcher who wishes to gain insight as to the understanding of ownership, the road map of who owned a book and when, proving ownership and seeing how a book may change over time, a receipt is often the missing link of information. I hope some, on reading of their importance, will consider saving such receipts. The ability to know what is valuable and what isn’t, for future consideration, how can one ever really know? As trivial as the receipt is, it is also valuable in the right hands. My plea is for saving all the forms of evidence: trade catalogues, receipts, related correspondence. Without a doubt as 100 or 200 years pass, those bits of information become more obscure as fewer and fewer survive. It is those things now that are brought back to life by scholars, but ephemeral items, those things people commonly throw away, can be the gold of information. Who could have thought, even 50 years ago, that the digitization of information would permit new connections to be made with seeing quickly what a computer can assist in garnering data, even ephemeral, and that includes advertisements! The bulk of saving trade catalogues can indeed take up a lot of space, but the digital record doesn’t take up much physical space: only a desk position to access it. It is quickly searchable.