We’re cleaning up my mother’s house. There’s the accumulated detritus of us five siblings and my late father as well as my mother’s. My dad had a huge (several 100, maybe upwards of a thousand) books on Irish history, culture or general Irish interest. I’m wondering is there something useful I can do with the collection intact. I haven’t catalogued it yet so I’m not sure of an exact figure but the majority of what he read over a 50 year period was Irish history etc.
He rarely got rid of a book and was also in the book trade for half that time.
I’m fairly certain some of the books are individually valuable and desirable to buyers but I’m wondering whether there’d possibly be any buyers interested in taking the whole collection. They vary in quality and age, oldest book would probably be from 18th maybe early 19th and the latest were mid-2000’s.
Any suggestions what we should do with the collection (other than keep it)?
Call up your local university’s library.
If he was in the book trade and rarely got rid of a book, he was probably a lousy businessman. But I’m sure he loved his books.
This is a hard question to answer without knowing the value of the collection. If individual books are of significant value it may be in your best interest to sell them separately, or to take offers from several dealers. If they are interesting books of modest value you may find that a university doesn’t want them aside from making them part of their general collection. In that case you may be best off selling them as a lot to a dealer who specializes in that area.
Sounds like an interesting lot though, keep us posted.
Is there a friend of your father’s who is expert in either books or Irish culture (or, ideally, both), whom you would trust to give you a fair and honest appraisal of the collection?
Failing that, you might call a few antiquarian book sellers in the area and ask if they’d appraise the collection for you. Get at least two independent appraisals.
Ah well it was mainly the school book trade, a slightly different beast, but meant he had access to a steady supply of other books too.