Collecting Chess Books

`Next to scarcity and great beauty, nothing, perhaps, imparts such stability to the worth of a book as to be addressed to a small but well-defined circle of readers. Books on chess and angling are familiar instances. They are not too numerous to dismay a collector, and every one differs from the rest in some feature sufficient to make it indispensable to a collector ambitious of completeness.´

Written in 1898, by Richard Garnett in the introduction, on page ix, to  the following work:

Prices of Books. An Inquiry into the changes in the price of books which have occurred in England at different periods by Henry B Wheatley published by George Allen, London 1898.

From an article by Alton Cook taken from the World-Telegram and Sun, New York 1951, and included on page 4 of The Treasury of Chess Lore edited by Fred Reinfeld, London 1955.

 

  

From an article  entitled Some reminiscences of a chess book collection by Dale Brandreth on pp 47-53 of Bonus Socius Jubileumuitgave voor Meindert Niemeijer, Gravenhage 1977.

`I estimate that there are no more than 1,200 serious (i.e. those who have more than 100 tournament books) tournament book collectors world-wide´

From page 4 of Collecting Chess Tournament Books- A Fascinating Hobby by Dale A. Brandreth, Yorklyn 1977. 

 

© Michael Clapham 2016