Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2019 Issue

American Tariffs on China Now Apply to Antiquarian Books

Ancient books produced in China now subject to American Tariffs.

Ancient books produced in China now subject to American Tariffs.

Tariffs imposed by the U.S. upon China will place some unexpected costs on American collectors. The list of items subjected to a 15% tax as of September 1 contains many targets that are quite reasonable. For example, you will need to pay a 15% tariff on any whales you bring into the U.S. Same goes for emu and ostriches. You will have to pay the fee on any lichens you import. Sorry, lichen collectors. There is now a tariff on edible offal of swine, which, thankfully, is a tax I will never have to pay. Isn't edible offal of swine an oxymoron? You even will have to pay 15% on each and every single-cell micro-organism you import, though I imagine you could successfully smuggle a few billion of those on your body and no one would know the difference. Naturally, there's a tax on china from China. But books? Isn't there free trade on knowledge? Not any more, there isn't.

 

Your immediate reaction may be, sure, if some press in China is printing up cheap copies of some old, out-of-copyright Mark Twain books for sale to America, this is a logical item to tax. The idea is to protect American printers from cheap Chinese competition. However, there are no time parameters on these regulations. So, a book printed in China a couple of centuries ago will still be subject to a tariff. Will this somehow protect long-gone Colonial printers? Peter Zenger rejoice. Who will taxing a book printed in China before the printing of the Bay Psalm Book protect? Did anyone really think these rules through?

 

Perhaps the idea is to punish Chinese merchants in general, but these tariffs are not limited to books shipped from China. They apply to "products of China," not products shipped from China. So, that manuscript written by a 17th century British missionary while in China, which he brought back home with him over three centuries ago, and is now being sold by a British dealer to an American collector, is still subject to the tariff. One surmises that the purpose here is to prevent Chinese manufacturers from skirting the tax by shipping goods through a third country, but when it comes to antiquarian documents, it all gets ridiculous.

 

Now here is one place where the President clearly gets it wrong, or maybe isn't being fully forthright with us. China is not going to pay this tax. If either the British seller or American buyer of this 300-year-old document sends a bill for reimbursement of the tariff to China, they are not going to be paid. They may get laughed at, more likely ignored, but they won't get paid. I am sure of it. Unless the British dealer is feeling particularly generous, or desperate, the American buyer will end up paying the tax, not China.

 

The regulations apparently extend beyond items actually sold. After all, if Walmart imports an item from China, they will pay the tariff on importation, regardless of when or if they sell that product. What this means is a British dealer, bringing a Chinese book to a trade show in America, will have to pay the tariff, even if he does not sell the book in America and has to take it home with him. Similarly, if an American dealer brings an antiquarian Chinese book to Europe for a trade show but does not sell it, he can expect to get nicked with the tariff on bringing it home.

 

For the record, here are a few of the book and paper related items listed in the tariff schedule: printed books, brochures, leaflets, dictionaries and encyclopedias, newspapers, periodicals, journals, printed or manuscript music, maps and charts, atlases, hand-drawn plans and drawings, hand-written texts, photo reproductions, postcards, printed trade advertising and commercial catalogs, pictures, designs and photographs, and much more (including whales). If there is any question as to whether tariffs are meant to apply to more than goods being produced in China now, a later section of the regulations covers "antiques of an age exceeding one hundred years."

 

Whether this trade war ultimately produces anything other than two losers remains to be seen. In the meantime, Americans can expect to pay more in taxes, be it for Chinese books, sneakers, clothing, or whales. You will see it in the invoice the next time you purchase a beluga from China.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025 Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025
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    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
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    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
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    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
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    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
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    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025 Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025
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    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
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    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
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    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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