In order to replenish my stock of rare travel books, renew contacts, and to continue learning about books and the book trade, I find it essential to visit and exhibit at European book fairs. In the hope that the information might prove useful to my colleagues, I thought I would give a brief summary of some of the fairs I have attended which include Brussels, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Zurich, Milan, Madrid, Paris and London.
The 20th Brussels Antiquarian Book Fair was held from the 24th till the 26th of September 2004, and had a total of 84 exhibitors including 49 non-Belgian ones from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and myself representing Canada. As one can see from the number of foreign exhibitors, this is a very international fair and thus a wide variety of 15th to 20th century material, published in many languages was available. This fair was enjoyable to exhibit at and also successful for me from both a buying and selling perspective. The fair visitors are highly educated and internationally minded, as one might expect from the city that is home to both the NATO headquarters and the European Parliament. My best find at the fair was the 1793 St. Petersburg edition of Georg Steller’s, “Reise von Kamtschatka nach Amerika (Travels from Kamchatka to America),” which is the first first-hand account of Alaska.
The Stuttgart fair is the yearly highlight of the German speaking antiquarian book world. The 44th annual fair was held from the 21st till the 23rd of January 2005, and had a total of 92 exhibitors including seven from non-German speaking countries including France, Israel, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. For the first two centuries after the invention of movable type by Gutenberg in 1455, Germany and Italy and later the Netherlands were probably the dominant publishing countries. The Stuttgart fair had many prime examples from this period, including a copy of the 1631 Latin Amsterdam edition of Gerhard Mercator’s, “Atlas Minor,” which I was able to purchase. In general, there were a high number of quality 15th to 20th century books for sale at the fair, including a good selection of material in English and French.
The 26th Amsterdam Antiquarian Book and Print fair was held from the 3rd till the 5th of March 2005, and had 41 exhibitors, including eleven non-Dutch ones from Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. I visited this fair in 2003 and found the quality of books offered for sale here very high. The Netherlands has traditionally been a trading nation and so there has always been a keen interest in different languages and cultures. This is further illustrated by the fact that many books were printed by Dutch publishers in French, German, and Latin. In 2003, my best find was the 1809 London edition of Sir Robert Porter’s, “Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden.”
The 11th Zurich fair was held from the 4th till the 6th of March 2005, with about 45 exhibitors, including several non-Swiss ones from Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. I found the venue of the Kunsthaus (Art House) to be cramped and stuffy. It is my least favorite venue of the major European fairs. It is interesting that the Swiss book fair organizers have a similar problem to Canadian ones, in that their government requires exhibiting foreign booksellers to make an exact and detailed list of the books they are bringing in, complete with their retail value. At the border, the booksellers must then pay a 2% value added tax up front on the entire retail value of the books brought in and then with the help of complicated paper work hope to reclaim this tax on the unsold books many months later. This process predictably leads to only very few foreign dealers participating.
As Switzerland was neutral in the Second World War, they didn’t suffer the same war damage to their books as their neighbors, and so the condition and quality of the books offered here was very high for a small fair. The multicultural nature of the country was well represented with a good selection of books in the official Swiss languages of German, French, and Italian. I was happy to see a colleague from Budapest exhibiting, as it is nice to see that our eastern European colleagues can finally participate in the global antiquarian book trade. It was from this colleague that I was able to purchase my best find at the fair, the 1772 Copenhagen Edition of Carsten Niebuhr’s, “Beschreibung von Arabien (Description of Arabia),” which is probably the best account of the Arabian peninsula of the time.
The 16th Milan fair, held from the 10th till the 13th of March 2005, had a total of 57 exhibitors including 22 non-Italian ones from Argentina, Austria, France, Germany, Monaco, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. This is the most expense fair in the world to exhibit at: 5000 Euros (approx. $7500CAD). Each Italian designed booth is window fronted and shop-like.
For material published before 1700 this undoubtedly is the best book fair in the world. Italian publishing was in its renaissance in the 16th and 17th centuries, which was well demonstrated by the wealth of material of Italian origin from this period available at this fair. Thus, for those interested in early printing this is the fair to visit. Ironically, my best buy at the fair was a presentation copy of the 1879 London edition of Mrs. Aynsley’s, “Our Visit to Hindostan, Kashmir, and Ladakh.”
The 8th Iberian antiquarian book fair was held in Barcelona from the 12th till the 14th of May. As far as I know, the Iberian fair alternates between Barcelona and Madrid every year and I visited the 2000 Madrid fair. As I recall the 2000 fair had about 50 exhibitors with about half a dozen non-Spanish participants. There was a good quality of 16th to 19th century material available, mainly in Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, and French. However, I did manage to buy a copy of the 1864 London edition of Sir Richard Burton’s, “A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome,” in original cloth.
The 17th Paris fair, held from the 19th till the 22nd of May of 2005, had about 90 exhibitors with a third being non-French ones from Argentina, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The organizer claims that 10,000 visitors came to see the beautiful bindings that this fair is known for. This fair can boast that the books displayed here are, on average, in better condition than at any other fair in the world. French publishing probably had its renaissance in the 18th and 19th centuries so there was definitely an emphasis on this period and books in French were predominant. Nevertheless some material in other languages was available. My best buy here was a copy of the 1778 Paris Edition of Robert de Vaugondy’s, “Nouvel Atlas Portatif.”
The 2005 London Olympia fair, held from the 8th till the 11th of June of 2005, had 123 exhibitors with 47 non-British ones from Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United States. I exhibited at this year’s fair, which was once again successful both for buying and selling.
In my experience, this fair draws the most international crowd of buyers of any fair in the world and this year was no exception as I was able to sell to people from Canada, Germany, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The material available included 15th to 20th century books in many languages, as you would expect from the large number of international exhibitors. However, books in English from 1750 to 1950 predominated. My best buy was the 1830 London edition of John Burckhardt’s, “Arabic Proverbs.”
In conclusion, all these fairs are well worth visiting, but I would have to say that London Olympia is the crown jewel of the European antiquarian book fair circuit, with Paris, Stuttgart, and Milan following not far behind. However, visiting any of these fairs is a unique learning experience as they all have a different group of exhibitors and thus a different mix of books to tempt one’s cheque book.