Rare Book Monthly

Articles - April - 2004 Issue

There's Money in Misspellings

Swann didn't misspell Shaespeare, this book's author did (see highlight), but this still makes the book hard to find.

Swann didn't misspell Shaespeare, this book's author did (see highlight), but this still makes the book hard to find.


This brings us to another point. Ebay sellers aren’t the only people who can be spelling-challenged. If you go to Abebooks and type in “Shakespeare” as the author, you will get back 40,000 results. However, there are another 539 listed under “Shakespear.” At the top end is one priced for $7,880 which will never be found in a search for “Shakespeare.” The seller is from England, no less. There are 226 more for “Shakspeare” and 2 for “Shakspear.” One of these is in German and the German bookseller has dutifully added “sic” after the name “Shakspear,” but you are still not going to find his book unless you search for the misspelling.

Now here’s another one. The Bard’s name is even spelled “Shakespear” on some live auction listings. Now this isn’t a Shakespeare book itself, but an associated item. It’s a 1704 work called “The Tragedy of Jane Shore. Written in Imitation of Shakespear’s Style.” Hopefully, the author, Nicholas Rowe, did a better job of imitating Shakespeare’s style than his name. The auction houses, in this case both Christie’s and Swann’s, with copies for sale in April, faithfully copied Rowe’s spelling. Those searching for old imitation Shakespeare might well have been stymied in their searches. That brings up another point. Not all “misspellings” are truly misspellings. Some are simply ancient or alternative spellings. Still if you don’t seek them, you will not find.

Now, despite being a writer for the Americana Exchange, I don’t like to blatantly push the site’s service in my articles. Something about objectivity and ethics and things like that. So, if you are offended by this, please skip ahead to the next paragraph. But, the AE does offer a search program as part of the MatchMaker/Auction Notice service which searches on a daily basis dozens of live auctions along with eBay for whatever keywords you select. I was able to find the “Shakespear” items at auction by entering that spelling into my keywords and waiting for the matches. I’m not aware of any other practical way to locate listings by keywords at so many different auction houses, even correctly spelled keywords let alone misspelled ones. It really is an amazingly useful tool. It’s available with an Octavo or higher membership. You can learn more by visiting “Become a Member” or “AE Tour” on this site’s top toolbar. Now back to the story.

Let’s look at one more word: “dinsey.” What is “dinsey?” Unlike the others, this misspelling is so bad many people won’t even know what it was supposed to be. The real word here is “Disney,” like Walt. Someone who writes “dinsey” is not likely to believe this is the correct spelling. More probable, they just accidentally reversed two letters and didn’t notice it. Yet as seemingly obvious as this misspelling is, there are still 27 “dinsey” items being sold on eBay as I write. Perhaps that’s because there are 93,125 “Disney” items currently for sale.

We’ll close with an example of how you might use these lessons to build your own collection, as it applies directly to someone like you or I, in this case, I. I grew up in the small town of New Paltz, New York. Many of you have heard of it recently when the village’s Green Party mayor became the first official east of San Francisco to marry gay couples. My, but times have changed. When I left three decades ago, you couldn’t be elected dogcatcher if you weren’t a Republican. But back then, none of you had heard of New Paltz either. And due to this anonymity, many visitors confused the name. It was forever being referred to as “New Platz.” “Platz” just rolls of the tongue easier than “Paltz.” Occasionally, sellers make the same mistake. There won’t always be something from “New Platz” on eBay as there are only a handful of items with the correct spelling for sale. However, if you watch carefully, once in awhile they will show up. On Abebooks, there are 69 “New Platz” listings, mostly German books where that spelling is correct. Mixed in with them are 3 titles from New Paltz, the name misspelled, invisible to the world, their invisibility totally unknown to their would-be sellers.

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    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
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    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale
    April 30th & May 1st
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) & Egan (Felim) artist. Squarings, Twelve Poems, D. (Hieroglyph Editions Ltd.) 1991. €1,750 to €2,250.
  • Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN'S EXTREMELY RARE FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT. "Scene af: Røverne i Vissenberg i Fyen." in Harpen, 1822.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST THREE FAIRY TALE PAMPHLETS, WITH ALL INDICES AND TITLE PAGES. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: THE FIRST FAIRY TALES WITH A SIGNED CARTE DE VISITE OF ANDERSEN AS FRONTIS. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: KARL LAGERFELD. Original pastel and ink drawing in gold, red and black for Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes (1992), "La cassette de l'Empereur."
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY OF THE SIXTH PAMPHLET FOR PETER KOCH. Eventyr, Fortalte For Børn, Second Series, Third Pamphlet. 1841. Publisher's wrappers, complete with all pre- and post-matter.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN RARE AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED IN ENGLISH from "The Ugly Duckling," c.1860s.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HEINRICH LEFLER, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR FOR ANDERSEN'S SNOW QUEEN, "Die Schneekönigin," 1910.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST EDITION OF ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES IN ENGLISH. Wonderful Stories for Children. London, 1846.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN ON MEETING CHARLES DICKENS. Autograph Letter Signed ("H.C. Andersen") in English to William Jerdan, July 20, 1847.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR EDGAR COLLIN. Nye Eventyr og Historier. Anden Raekke. 1861.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: DOLL HOUSE FURNITURE BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, DECORATED WITH FANTASTICAL CUT-OUTS, for the children of Jonna Stampe (née Drewsen), his godchildren.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR GEORG BRANDES. Dryaden. Et Eventyr fra Udstillingstiden i Paris 1867. 1868.

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