Adventures in American Bookshops, Antique Stores and Auction RoomsBruno, Guido
General
Adventures in American Bookshops, Antique Stores and Auction Rooms
Bruno, Guido
Antiquarian booksellers -- United States; Booksellers and bookselling -- United States
A young woman entered next--an interior decorator doing Mrs. Van X’s
breakfast room. It had come into her head that Cardinal Richelieu’s
picture and signature in that charming Louis Quatorze frame would be
ideal between the lavender window hangings. She asked the price and had
it sent.
A newspaper man was the next visitor. He wanted a picture of Stephen
Crane, the poet, to illustrate a Sunday story. Mr. Madigan fished out a
portrait from many others, card indexed and filed away in a specially
constructed cabinet.
And so it goes on continuously, the whole day, buying and selling.
Schulte’s Book Store
Scattered about the throbbing city are a few quiet nooks and corners
that seem especially made for the lover of antiques. They are not
numerous, but full of a certain charm. Book stores, with big boxes in
front of the doors, where you can choose for your pennies, tomes in
old-fashioned binding and printing. Inside are shelves laden with books
in delightful disorder left by the book-hunter who looked through them
before you. The narrow passageway becomes narrower on each visit you pay
to the shop because of newly-arrived books and pamphlets.
A long vista of boxes and cases well filled with a delightful miscellany
of books marks the front of Mr. Schulte’s book store on the southwest
corner of 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue. Don’t cast suspicious looks
at the nice girls in immaculate white blouses who loiter about the
aisles. They won’t interfere with you. They won’t ask you any questions.
You will soon feel at home after you have glanced at the titles of the
books on any shelf, and if you meet Mr. Schulte he won’t be a stranger
to you. There is such a deep-founded relationship between the man and
his books and customers. He is the appreciative, sympathetic
co-collector and, after you have gained his confidence, if the
friendship is mutual, he will spread out his gems before you: a first
edition with a rare imprint, or some unknown etching by Whistler or
Haden or Zorn.
George D. Smith, Speculator in Literary Property
A new type of bookseller has developed since books and literary property
have become commercial and subject to corners created by shrewd buyers
and holders, and to fluctuations caused by selling _en masse_. Mr.
George D. Smith, the king of rare books and great dealer in literary
property, operates on the largest scale.
Mr. Smith buys carloads of books for millions of dollars and sells again
by the carload to millionaires who build palaces in California and who
order their libraries complete. Mr. Smith is the leading figure in our
auction houses where he buys, excluding all competition, by paying an
exorbitant price for anything he desires to possess. He is a millionaire
and the chief counsellor of our _nouveaux riches_ when they furnish
their homes with rare autographs and valuable books.
Mr. Cadigan of Brentano’s
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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