Rare Books and Collectibles Gain New Popularity

In 1929, David Sassoon, one of the heirs to the immense commercial Jewish family fortune of China and India, bought a nearly complete old copy of the Hebrew bible. He paid the equivalent of about $2,100 for a handwritten manuscript on parchment that dates back to the early 10th century.

Ninety-four years later, after passing through several owners, the manuscript, known as the Sassoon Codex, sold for $38.1 million. It was the highest price ever paid for a Biblical manuscript. The work, the earliest and most complete copies of the 24 books of the Hebrew scriptures, was bought by Alfred Moses, a prominent Washington, D.C. attorney, for ANU The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

At the opposite end of the cultural spectrum, a pristine copy of the first Superman comic book, published for 10 cents in 1938, went for $9.1 million last year, another record.

Though we live in a world dominated by electronic media and eBooks, excitement for rare, printed materials shows no sign of abating. That’s a major reason why the Atlanta Rare Book Fair is coming to the Oglethorpe University campus the weekend of Feb. 27.

Between the demand for rare versions of the Tenach and similarly rare versions of the birth of the “Man of Steel,” lies a vast market for books, maps, manuscripts and collectibles like baseball trading cards and comics that continues to stoke the imaginations of collectors all over the world.

More than two dozen exhibitors are expected at the book fair, with thousands of items for sale, some from dealers who ignore the Internet marketplace in favor of book sales where the buyer can hold a rare volume it their hands.

The keynote speaker is Kermit Roosevelt, the great, great-grandson of the American President Theodore Roosevelt. He’s a professor of constitutional law at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “The Nation That Never Was.”

He argues, in this the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, that the true values of America were not embodied most fully in the founding fathers of American democracy. That was most fully expressed, he believes, in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the hope that Reconstruction offered after the end of the American Civil War.

The organizer of the Book Fair, Edward Lemon, has, with his wife, Eve, been mining the interest in rare and antique collectibles in recent years. He’s been bringing collectible book fairs to a series of cites that have not had much of a history for such events, places like St. Louis and Indianapolis.

And although it’s been more than 20 years since Oglethorpe last hosted such an event, Lemon believes this may be a good time to bring the lovers of old and collectible books together again.

“I think people want things that are unique,” Lemon says. “I think overall, especially amongst younger people, there’s an increasing interest in books. Books have become cool again … especially given you know, anyone, [for] anyone under the age of 40.”

A sale a few years ago of the late Amy Winehouse’s personal collection of books, many annotated with the British Jewish singer’s notes in the margins, sold for $135,000 at auction.

According to Lemon, “More modern works and sci-fi and fantasy that are unique items have really increased in value over the past few years.”

Works by Stephen King have been popular in recent years and, for special editions like a rare copy by J.K. Rowlings of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” the sky was very nearly the limit. The collection of fairy tales, written out in the author’s own hand, went for nearly $4 million. It’s the most expensive children’s book ever sold as well as the most expensive modern manuscript.

Interest in Judaica also remains high with the Oglethorpe Book Fair. It’s also not far from where Lemon’s wife, the former Eve Goodman, grew up in Brookhaven and attended the Hebrew Academy. It’s certain to have a number of collectibles and rare books about Jewish life and thought.

Included in the Rare Book Hub’s record of the top 50 most expensive books and collectibles last year were three historical Jewish items.

Sotheby’s sold a rare 14th century Hebrew Bible from Spain for $1.5 million, a letter written and signed by the prominent 18th century Moroccan rabbi, Chaim ibn Attar, sold along with a historic book of Jewish autographs for $875,000. Another letter, written in the hand of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liady, the founder of Chabad Hasidism, brought nearly $645,000.