Rare books · Letters · Manuscripts
Every book keeps a Second Ledger
Who owned it, who mended it, and what they wrote in its margins. We read that record before we sell a book, and we write it out for you.
Bookshop · Reading room · Bindery
Book the reading room Read the spring catalog
Quillhythe 3 Foxing Lane. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am; the reading room by appointment.
Spring list · Seven lots
Catalog Thirty-One
Seven things we have read closely this spring. Prices are fixed and include insured delivery. Look closer at any lot for our notes on its provenance, condition and binding.
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Lot 1. A Treatise on the Keeping of Bees in Cold Valleys
Quillhythe: printed for the author, 1791. Octavo, 212 pages, two folding plates.
The only bee book we know that tells you to talk to the hive in winter. Crisp paper, wide margins, and a faint smell of beeswax we cannot explain.
A good, sound copy, rebacked. $1,450
- Provenance
- Bookplate of the Wickenmoor Apiarian Society, and the name M. Ashdown penciled on the flyleaf.
- Condition
- Light foxing to the first and last leaves. The second plate has an old tear, closed with tissue.
- Binding
- Contemporary tree calf, rebacked. The original red label is laid down on the new spine.
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Lot 2. Fourteen letters to her sister
Port Halloway to Lower Wickenmoor, 1861–1864. Autograph letters, most with their covers.
Pears, weather, the price of candles, and a suitor she only ever calls the Surveyor. Paper was dear, so eleven are crossed: written once, turned, and written again across the lines.
Complete, with two seals unbroken. $2,200
- Provenance
- By descent in the sister’s family. They came to us in the writing box they were found in.
- Condition
- Folds strong. One leaf has a small scorch from a drip of sealing wax.
- Binding
- Unbound, as sent. Housed in a cloth folder made in our bindery.
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Lot 3. Nine Sermons Against Hurry
Marrowgate: J. & P. Tolle, 1756. Duodecimo, 180 pages.
Small enough for a coat pocket, which is plainly where it lived. Someone underlined the fourth sermon twice.
Worn, honest and complete. $380
- Provenance
- Three owners’ names on the endpaper, the last in blue ballpoint.
- Condition
- Corners bumped, some thumb-soiling. Text clean and complete.
- Binding
- Original sheep, rubbed. Both joints cracked but holding.
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Lot 4. The Lamplighter’s Almanack for the Year 1833
Gullwick Sound: printed at the Sign of the Lamp. Octavo, interleaved.
Tide tables, lighting-up times and a blank page for every week, kept by one lamplighter in a steady hand. He notes each night the wind put a lamp out.
Annotated throughout by its first owner. $640
- Provenance
- Signed on the title page by J. Pellow, Lamp Ward Four.
- Condition
- Candle grease on six pages, which we have left alone.
- Binding
- Publisher’s printed boards, the spine chipped at head and tail.
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Lot 5. A Flora of the Saltmarsh
Quillhythe: Harrow & Sons, 1847. Quarto, 24 hand-colored plates.
Sea lavender, glasswort and thrift, colored by hand in a workshop of six. Plate 9 was colored by someone having a hard day. We like it best.
Very good, the plates bright. $3,800
- Provenance
- Stamp of the Quillhythe Mechanics’ Library, canceled when the library closed.
- Condition
- Some offsetting from the plates onto the facing text. No foxing.
- Binding
- Half green morocco, gilt, signed E. L. in the lower turn-in. We have not yet found who E. L. was.
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Lot 6. Port Halloway
Manuscript ledger, 1802–1806. Folio, 190 leaves, in two hands.
Rope, tallow, lamp oil, and who was late paying. A whole street, entry by entry: first the chandler’s hand, then his daughter’s.
Complete, the first leaf loose. $1,900
- Provenance
- Found under the floor of the shop it records, during repairs to the roof beams.
- Condition
- Damp stain to the lower corner of the last forty leaves. The ink is still strong.
- Binding
- Original vellum over boards, with a brass clasp that still closes.
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Lot 7. The Binder’s Companion, or Plain Directions for Mending Books
Quillhythe: printed for the author, 1812. Octavo, one folding diagram.
Paste recipes, sewing diagrams and a stern chapter against glue. We keep a reading copy in the bindery. This is the good one.
Near fine, uncut. $520
- Provenance
- No marks of ownership at all, which is rare for a working manual.
- Condition
- The folding diagram of the sewing frame is crisp and unrepaired.
- Binding
- Original boards, the edges never trimmed, in a new cloth box.
Any lot can be seen in the reading room before you decide. Delivery is insured and included. If a book is not what we said it was, send it back within fourteen days.
Upstairs · By appointment
The Reading Room
One long table, north light, two lamps, and whatever you asked to see, laid out the evening before. A sitting lasts two hours and costs $20, taken off anything you buy.
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Send a call slip
Tell us the lots, or just the subject. “Anything on bees” is a perfectly good request. We reply within a day with a time.
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We lay the table
The evening before, we check each book and set it on a foam cradle, with bead weights to hold the page. Nothing is ever pressed flat.
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You read
Pencils only, and clean dry hands rather than gloves, which catch on old paper. Ask anything. One of us is always in the room.
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You leave with notes
For anything you asked about, we write up its provenance, condition and binding, and mail it within a week. The notes are yours, whether you buy or not.
- Sittings
- 10 am, 12:30 pm and 3 pm
- Days
- Tuesday through Saturday
- Readers
- Up to three at the table
- Cost
- $20, credited to any purchase
At the back of the shop
The Bindery
Mattias Bell mends what the ledger says is failing: loose joints, torn leaves, tired sewing. Every quote is written and fixed before we start, and nothing that cannot be undone happens without your signature.
| Work | Time | From |
|---|---|---|
| AssessmentWe measure, test the paper, and write down what we would do and why. Credited if we do the work. | 1 week | $40 |
| Clean and mendSurface cleaning, tears closed with tissue and wheat-starch paste. Per leaf. | 2–3 weeks | $12 |
| RebackA new leather spine. Your original boards and label are kept. | 6–8 weeks | $260 |
| Resew in clothFor books read to pieces. Quarter cloth with paper sides. | 6 weeks | $180 |
| Full leather, tooledGoatskin, sewn by hand, lettered in gold one letter at a time. | 10–12 weeks | $640 |
| Letters and papersWashed, deacidified and sleeved. Per leaf. | 2 weeks | $35 |
| Clamshell boxCloth-covered, made to measure, lettered on the spine. | 3 weeks | $150 |
| Family BibleReback, mend the family pages, and keep every pressed flower where it was. | 8–10 weeks | $420 |
Bring the book on any open day, or mail it to us between boards. We send the assessment within a week.
We never erase a pencil note.
Somebody wrote it for a reason. We record it, and leave it where it is.
Buying
Selling to us
Bring up to ten books to the shop on a Tuesday afternoon, no appointment needed. We look at each one while you wait, then tell you what we would pay and why, in writing. You are welcome to take the note, and the books, elsewhere.
For a whole library, we come to you, anywhere within a day’s drive of Quillhythe. We pack everything ourselves, list it in front of you, and pay on the day we collect.
Ione Carrow does the buying. She will ask where the books came from. Not to be difficult: that answer is the first line of the ledger.
Quillhythe · The paper quarter
Finding the room
3 Foxing Lane
Quillhythe
The shop is at street level. The reading room and the bindery are up fourteen stairs. Ring the bell marked Ledger.
If stairs are hard, there is a freight elevator at the Bodkin Steps door, around back. Tell us you are coming and one of us will meet you there.
- Tuesday through Friday10 am–5 pm
- Saturday10 am–4 pm
- Sunday and MondayClosed
- Reading-room sittings10 am · 12:30 pm · 3 pm
555-0102 hello@secondledger.example
Practical things
Notes & Queries
The questions people ask at the counter, answered here so you do not have to climb the stairs to find out.
Do I need an appointment to visit?
Not for the shop downstairs: come in any open day. The reading room upstairs is by appointment only, so the books you want are waiting on the table.
Can I handle the books?
Yes, that is what the room is for. We will show you how to turn a brittle leaf and how to rest a book on the cradle. Pencils only, and no bags on the table.
How long does conservation take?
Most work takes six to ten weeks; the price list above gives the time for each kind. We tell you a date when we write the quote, and we keep to it.
Will you appraise a book I do not want to sell?
Yes. On Tuesday afternoons we look at up to three books for free. A written appraisal for insurance costs $60 an hour, usually one hour.
Do you ship books?
Yes, insured, packed between boards and wrapped twice. Shipping is included in catalog prices.
What if a book is not as described?
Send it back within fourteen days and we refund you in full, shipping too. Our notes say exactly what we saw, so this is rare, but it is always allowed.
Book, ask, or bring a book in
Fill in a call slip
The same slip we use downstairs. Tell us what you would like to see, mend or sell, and we will write back within a day, Tuesday through Saturday.
Or call 555-0102, or write to hello@secondledger.example.