BOOK 1933 SOUVENIRS DE LA GRANDE ARMEE

***Hello Everyone!


Quick Story: My dad collected Antiques for over 50 years. As a kid, my dad had an Antiques Store. My dad is getting older and recently sold his house. The house was filled with his most precious finds: Chinese Potteries, Porcelains, Paintings, Etchings, Prints, Tobys, etc, and many many Antique and Rare Books (several are signed) some books are as old as 1600's.



My dad gave me everything. I was the only kid so he wanted me to have all of his most precious treasures. I feel blessed. I will be posting a few things on here in the next few weeks in hope of getting a few more information on certain pieces. I still have 12 boxes of Antique books that are unopened so it will take me some time but will try to post the best finds on here. ***



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About this book :

- 1933 SOUVENIRS DE LA GRANDE ARMEE ET DE LA VIEILLE GARDE IMPERIALE

- LIMITED EDITION OF 25

- GOOD OVERALL CONDITION

- I HAVE DONE SOME RESEARCHES ON THIS BOOK BUT WOULD WELCOME ANY INSIGHTS !

-ONE THING PUZZLES ME IS THAT EVERY OTHER PAGES ARE STUCK TOGETHER (SEE PICTURES) I READ THAT SOME OLD BOOKS WERE MADE THAT WAY TO LET THE READER OPEN UP THE PAGES THEMSELVES BUT IF ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS TECHNIQUE IS CALLED OR WHY THEY WERE DOING IT THAT WAY, THAT WOULD BE REALLY APPRECIATED !

 

Welcome!

I'm interested in what others have to say about the pages being stuck together; I've never heard of that before!

 

Someone will come along with more technical knowledge, but this used to be common. Smaller pages were made by folding large sheets of paper; the more times folded, the smaller the pages. If you look up bookbinding terms such as folio, quarto, octavo & signature, you will get the idea. Readers had an implement, very much like a letter opener, called in English a paper knife. You can tell just how much of a book ever got read by how many of the pages have been cut open.

 

I don't know for sure....but it made printing and binding faster....

and that's why there are page cutters..!!




.

 

https://www.nataliestopka.com/goingson/1011

watch her cut the page....& s'plain it

 

Thanks!

 

Great info!! Thank you so much!

 

Thanks for the info my friend, those are cool ! I knew there were letter openers but didn't know it was also for books! This one was never read because not 1 page has been open.

 

That's really cool actually, letting the reader cut open the pages to discover what comes next! Thanks for taking the time to look this up!

 

The book itself is a memoir of a gentleman who was an officer in Napoleon's army. Others have already nailed the folded page mystery.

 

it's a cool book btw....

 

Thanks!

 

I have never heard of someone opening a book Page per page. But roughly before 1870 few books where sold with a bindung by the printer, most only with a thin paper cover to protect it from dust. In the early Times mostly plain blue, later with title etc like here. later when the book was bound to the taste of the new owner or the bookseller, it was cut open with a paper cutter, cutting all pages to the same size.
I found this German wiki article explaining the concept https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interimseinband

 

That's very interesting, never heard about this before either.
I learned , yet again, something new ! Thanks for the link and comment !

 

Btw an inscription like in your book usually does not mean that the book was only printed 25 times, but that it was printed on that special paper, an usually higher number of copies would be printed on cheaper, sometimes smaller paper.

Here you can find an example that dies not mention the limitation, either because the seller hast not seen it,or because there is a cheaper edition https://www.zvab.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=20191698328

 

Like McAdder said, it looks like your book has a temporary binding.
It also looks like the pages weren't trimmed, which accounts for the rough edges and why every other page is stuck together.
It is a 'raw' book, so to speak, which probably wasn't meant to enter the market in this state. Interesting.

 

Ahh ok that makes sense! Thanks for letting me know! So only 25 including mine would have been printed on this special paper but doesn't mean only 25 total were printed in total? In that case I would think those limited prints with special papers are more sought after?

As for the pages not being trimmed and the temporary binding, I found a couple more like mine on the net and they all seem to be the same. Maybe it's that particular book that was made like this?

 

I think I am on to something if it's really just one of 25 on this paper and none of the pages have ever been opened (well not all but 1 page out of 2 lol). I see them going for a good price so this one may be the only one totally unopened? Just my thought.

 

Not every rare book is a valuable. In your case I would ask myself two questions:

First:
What good is a book that nobody can read?
I own a couple of books that are unopened, some I cut open to read, others I left unopened until i find time to read them. In my experience they are worth less because you need to invest time or money to cut them open, most have no beautiful binding that also serves as protection and makes handling them easier.
(all my unopened books are older than yours, from before 1850, when it was usual to sell books in interim covers and get them bound later)

Second:
Is a book really interesting if for such a long time nobody wanted to open it?

Most times the answer to that question is no, which is another reason why this book in my opinion is not extremly valuable. Many books have been written about Napoleon and his times, many much earlier than yours with potentialy "unfiltered" accounts, others more recently with the current state of research.

I would not overestimate the different paper, those special editions were not uncommon at that time and unless they have handsigned illustrations by a known artist, or are handcolered they are not sought after.

Each of my old exercise books from school is unique, yet no one would pay anything for them.

 

I really don't want to start a debate. You are allowed your opinion. Now let me tell you what I think...

Why would they be worth less? Isn't it cool to have a book that's almost 100 years old and you know you are the very first person to read those pages?

I don't care about the binding since all of those same books I found online are identical.

Invest time and money? you can use a knife and easily separate each pages at the top, easy enough.

I don't think that the fact it wasn't open has anything to do with being interesting or not. My dad had purchased this in an Estate Sale years ago. They could very well have preserved it and kept it that way for their collection.

About overestimating the paper, I do not. But my experience is , whenever something is made in limited quantity (and there is a demand for it) it's always more valuable.

That's my opinion.