«Antique book show unearths hidden library treasures»

Christopher Cameron
New York Post (@nypost)

Bauman Rare Books, 535 Madison Ave. (Brian Zak/NY Post.)

«In 1960, the year the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair began, Harper Lee came out with “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

»Today, an inscribed first edition of that book sells for $50,000 — and what used to be an industry swap meet is now a globally recognized institution. This weekend, the 60th annual fair will fill the Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Ave. with 212 dealers of rare manuscripts, maps, ephemera and much more.

»“When I took over the fair 30 years ago, [it] was being run by the dealers — and you never let book dealers run a show!” says Sanford Smith, 80, an art and antique show promoter and the fair’s owner. “I didn’t know anything about rare books. But I fell in love with them. ”

»The 55,000-square-foot fair can be overwhelming for the casual bibliophile, but Smith has some suggestions.

»“The big trend this year is books by women and black authors,” he says. “The great Harlem Renaissance — both the art and written word from that period — are considered very important historically and are doing very well.”

»Among the quirkier items at the fair this year are a complete set of blueprints of the original World Trade Center towers and a first edition of Danish philosopher Kierkegaard’s “The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air” that orbited the earth aboard the International Space Station.

»“You can buy great books from $26 to $1 million,” Smith says of the fair, which runs through Sunday (admission is $25).

»Then again, rare books are nothing new in New York. Here are a few of our favorite spots.

»New York’s finest

Argosy Book Store 116 E. 59th St. (Stephen Yang.)

»Founded on lower Fourth Avenue’s famed Book Row in 1925, Argosy Book Store brims with volumes both modest and jaw-dropping. That last includes a first edition of Darwin’s “Origin of the Species” that fetched $170,000. Still for sale at this family-run bookstore are first editions by Sir Isaac Newton ($100,000) and James Joyce’s “Ulysses” ($30,000), plus a collector’s edition of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband” signed by the author himself ($20,000). The store also houses a room devoted to collectible autographs.

»“It’s very exciting for us to handle material of every subject and every price range,” says Adina Cohen, one of three daughters of Argosy’s founder, who run the store. “It’s not just high-end, intimidating and impossible.“

»Land of Oz

Books of Wonder, 18 W. 18th St. and 217 W. 84th St. (Stephen Yang.)

»Books of Wonder is a magical place for young readers and their families. But while its two stores specialize in new children’s literature, eagle-eyed collectors will probably zoom in on its rare-book collection. It’s packed with first editions, many of them signed by their authors, including L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” ($24,000), Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” ($22,500) and Kay Thompson’s “Eloise in Moscow” ($750).

»“One my proudest achievements is that we have reissued all of L. Frank Baum’s 15 [Oz] books, in hardcover with color illustrations as they were originally published,” says owner Peter Glassman, who opened his Flatiron location in 1980. “This marks the 20th year we’ve had them all available. Purchasing them all at one time wasn’t something that was even achievable in Baum’s lifetime.”

»Luxury set-ups

Imperial Fine Books, 790 Madison Ave. (Stephen Yang.)

»Bibi Mohamed started working at a rare book store when she was just 17. By 1989, she founded her own Madison Avenue shop, Imperial Fine Books. Specializing in beautiful and luxurious bindings — think lots of leather — Mohamed outfits at-home libraries with complete sets by great authors.

»“We focus on condition and good authors,” Mohamed says. “We have decorative sets by authors like Dickens, Twain and Kipling and can decorate entire libraries with collections in colors like yellow or black.”

»Some highlights: a signed set of volumes by Mark Twain with 500 watercolors ($32,500) and a 32-volume, leather-bound set of Rudyard Kipling stories printed on Japanese vellum ($12,500).

»Don’t let the shop’s sixth-floor perch intimidate you: Imperial Fine Books is always open to the public.

»“As an immigrant woman who didn’t go to college, I am very blessed to be in the book business,” Mohamed says.

»From ‘Gulliver’ to sci-fi

Bauman Rare Books, 535 Madison Ave. (Brian Zak/NY Post.)

»Bauman Rare Books, 535 Madison Ave.Brian Zak/NY Post Natalie and David Bauman founded Bauman Rare Books in 1973 and today it’s still a one-stop shop for all things rare. One of the few bookstores left with an impressive ground-floor retail space, Bauman probably has whatever it is you’re looking for.

»“We are generalists,” says Allison MacIntosh, one of Bauman’s book sellers. “We do everything.”

»MacIntosh says that one genre that’s lately “really taken off” is science fiction. “First editions of ‘Dune’ or ‘I, Robot’ can be really expensive,” she says.

»A few of the store’s treasures include Thomas Jefferson’s personal, annotated copy of “The Laws of the United States” ($245,000), a first-edition, contemporary calf-bound “Gulliver’s Travels” ($182,000) and “The Velveteen Rabbit” in its original dust jacket ($20,500).

»Hidden gem

James Cummins Bookseller, 699 Madison Ave. (Stephen Yang.)

»James Cummins Bookseller, founded in 1978, is an inconspicuous shop, sitting high up on the seventh floor of a building between 62nd and 63rd Streets. But it’s very much open to the public, and looks exactly how a rare bookshop should. From the Harry Potter series to medieval manuscripts, there’s plenty to browse on the shop’s handsome wood shelves and display cases. Definitely check out that 1876 map of Lower Broadway, from Exchange Place to 14th Street ($10,000).

»“We have a very nice room filled with books priced anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to in excess of $100,000,” says bookseller Henry Wessells.

»Cummins is strong on books about sporting and the outdoors, including a rare first edition of “The Complete Angler” by Izaak Walton, which came out in 1653. More timely and familiar are Ian Fleming’s many Bond books, which he inscribed to close family and friends, here priced from $12,000 to $120,000.

»“Bond is hot,” says Wessells.»

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