The Fundamentals and Conditioning

One of the most challenging tasks as a beginning bookseller is conditioning, which falls under the greater umbrella of fundamentals. How many of us remember a coach or teacher harping about the importance of fundamentals at some point in our life? I promise I won’t harp, but I will do my best to walk you through the fundamentals of conditioning your books. Most importantly, selling first-edition books is as much about describing every flaw as it is about describing all the good stuff.

First, let’s start with some nomenclature. The most common designations you will see used to indicate the condition of a book are fine, near fine, very good, good, fair, and poor. You may also see sellers use terms such as new, very fine, or very good (or good) plus or minus, as well as shortened versions of the above terms as acronyms. To me, the fine versus very fine distinction is fuzzy enough that I don’t use it for antiquarian books. However, I do use plus/minus designations in some cases when a book I am struggling to decide between two adjacent condition classifications. Additionally, keep an eye out for ex-lib designation used in conjunction with the classes above. This denotes a former library  book, with notably less value than the same book without library markings. AbeBooks provides a brief guide to condition classification and related terms, as do alibris and Biblio.

What do you look for when conditioning a book? Well, I break a book into parts: the cover (or boards), spine, hinges, binding, pages (internally and externally at the edges), end papers, and dust jacket (if present).

Cover

Covers (or boards) are weird. They are generally sandwiched against other books on the shelf, and therefore, they aren’t necessarily the most important part of a book when it comes to condition. Conversely, some people collect books solely based on their covers, whether it be material, color, design, or other factors. Notably, ornamental (illustrated) or decorative cloth covers are a specific genre of collecting, and of course, who doesn’t want a library of fine leather-bound books. Most antiquarian books have some level of cover wear, and even on a book classified as fine, very minor wear may be present. I often use the term general cover wear, or alternatively, shelf wear. Cover wear includes scuffs, marks or stains, rubbing, bumping, chipping, and fraying. Rubbing is wear along the edges of the cover, and bumping indicates that the corners are rounded and/or turned inward, rather than sharp and square. Chipping and fraying most commonly occur at the ends of the spine, and they may be indicative of binding issues.

Spine, hinges, and binding

The spine, hinges, and overall binding are among the most important parts of a book. A book with extensive cover wear may last for generations if otherwise well maintained, but as books are repeatedly opened and closed during the reading process, the structure of a book slowly (or sometimes, not so slowly) is stressed. Over time, this stress can cause the covers to fall off, pages to fall out, and other issues. At the point, your options are expensive repair work or, well, let’s just say that booksellers don’t like talking about the other option. The spine should be firm and not wiggle from side to side in hand. The hinges should also be firm, with no cracks or looseness. This includes cracking to the paper inside the book at the endpapers, which are the papers directly inside the covers. The binding overall should be sound, with no separation at block or signs of shaking, as indicated by some pages coming loose or even detached. 

Pages

The most common condition issue you will see on the pages of antiquarian books is foxing. Foxing is generally formed as impurities that remain from the paper-making process are oxidized as the book is exposed to air, often humid air. It can also be accelerated by various fungi. The result is a brownish discoloration, often as specks, splotches, dots, or similar. Foxing can be present within the book and also at the page edges. However, as you can probably guess, foxing to some degree is fairly common on old books. Folks who purchased books in the 1800s, for example, didn’t have the privilege of climate control, as in our library at Haerer Books. Consequently, it isn’t the biggest page-related issue that a book can have. That distinction belongs to completeness—in other words, are all the pages present (including illustrations and blank pages), and are there major issues with tears, chips, or missing parts of pages? As you can imagine, completeness can vary. For example, you may find old books with the front free end paper (FFEP) missing. This is the first blank page you encounter when you open the front cover. Moreover, other preliminary pages (the pages following the FFEP) may be missing. In many cases, these pages were removed to use as fire starters during difficult times. Therefore, a missing FFEP likely won’t detract considerably from the value of a book. However, if you are missing an important plate (e.g., a full-page illustration), the title page, or pages from the text, the book may have considerably less value than a full version. Therefore, booksellers go to considerable length to do page and illustration counts to ensure completeness (noting that we aren’t perfect and occasionally miss something).

End papers

I mentioned end papers (EPs) above, and I am expanding here because often, endpapers tell a greater story. EPs and their borders are often where you can find things like binders’ marks, bookseller stickers, book plates, owner signatures, and ex-library markings. The latter is likely the most important of them all. Ex-library books, often bearing call numbers, card pockets, stamps, and other indicators, are worth considerably less than their non-library counterparts, as these markings detract from the ‘purity’ of the book. Moreover, ex-library books were often handled by many people and are in generally worse condition than books held in private collections. Things like stickers, bookplates, and signatures can help indicate provenance, which can in some cases considerably add to the value of a book, such as if your book was owned by a famous person. In most cases, buyers are fairly neutral to the signatures of previous owners, unless they are particularly gawky.

Dust jacket

Dust jackets (DJs) are not common on most antiquarian books. If books were issued with DJs (many were not), many were damaged beyond repair or lost over time. Thus, a DJ can add considerable value to a book. For example, on AbeBooks, you can specifically filter search results based on the presence of a DJ, and by cross-referencing prices, you can see how much value a DJ adds and how rare they are. DJs are affected by many of the same issues as covers, such as stains and marks, and thus classified on a fine to poor scale by most sellers. Chipping and small tears are common at the edges of DJs. You may also see the term ‘clipped’ used with DJs, indicating that the corner of the inner fold of the DJ, generally where the original price of the book was marked, has been cut away. Ideally, DJs are wrapped in mylar to help protect them.

One other factor to consider is preservation of originality. For example, some books may be rebound, have repairs to pages, or have replaced endpapers. Some of these changes can add value, while others will decrease value. For example, a repair to a page is better than a torn page but not as good as the original. Additionally, a new binding and cover may be appealing to some buyers and not others, who are specifically looking for an all-original copy. Moreover, fine bindings by famous binders can add significant value to a book.

Overall, condition is based on a combination of factors. Like most things in life, the best way to get a feel for it is to dive in and get as much practice as possible. Find listings from established booksellers who take lots of photos, and spend time studying the flaws and conditions they list. Even better, see if you can meet with a bookseller, whether for a few hours or a day or more, and take a short course, so to speak, in conditioning. We offer this service here at Haerer Books, both via Zoom and in-person in western Massachusetts. See our Services page for additional details and for information about how to contact us to book a conditioning workshop. Finally, we recommend the ‘ABC for Book Collectors’ by John Carter and Nicolas Barker. It provides comprehensive information on many of the terms noted above and expands into the greater realm of book nomenclature and vocabulary, which we also discuss in another article here at Haerer Books.