These two books look worlds apart, but in fact they have lots in common. I bought them both on the same day last week; they were from two different houses, just half a mile from each other here on the South Coast. ‘You never know what you’ll find’ is the slogan of the Brighton Book Fair, and it applies to my book buying appointments too!
The older book is superb, and very rare. It is Ben Jonson’s Masques and is a first edition from 1640. I bought it with some other old books and paid nearly £1000 for the collection. Newes From The New World Discover’d In The Moone was performed for King James in 1620 and features flying machines, ‘all the phantasticall creatures you can thinke of’ and a race of moon dwellers called Volatees. Masques were elaborate plays written and performed for the Royal Court, and King James himself appeared in this one as one of the Volatees, who ‘descend and shake off their Isicles’ at the end. I was thrilled to buy it.
Minutes later I visited another house to buy some very different books. The gaudy paperback is Close Encounters of the Welsh kind: The Dyfed Enigma. I love esoteric books, especially kitschy paperbacks, so I was delighted to meet someone who had hundreds to sell. I bought the collection and will be taking them to the PBFA Hay-on-Wye book fair on July 14th.
As you can see, it is an account of UFO sightings – and landings, apparently – over Wales in the 1970s. So it too features flying machines and fantastic creatures, this time ‘giant humanoid figures in silvery suits.’ Not so very different, you might think, to those Volatees and their silvery icicles. Human beings have always had an obsession with new discoveries and strange events – the language changes, but our desire for diverting entertainment remains the same.
It’s intriguing to think that these two very different collections were sitting there, virtually next-door, until I came along to buy them. I’ve been a full time, professional book buyer for a decade now and I’m still amazed at what I find. If you have any books, maps, magazines or postcards, please do get in touch.
I buy almost any ‘works on paper’, and I always need new stock for the book fairs. I’m particularly looking for large collections but also buy individual books if they are rare and valuable. Text, email or give me a call – you never know!
[divider_flat]Various, 1640 and 1981.. First edition. 350 years apart, but very similar in content...