Rare Book Monthly

Articles - September - 2021 Issue

A 100-Year Secret in San Francisco’s Sunset District

Discoveries are the gold standard for collecting

Discoveries are the gold standard for collecting

These days houses in the Bay area are bought and sold rapidly.  If your house hasn’t been rebuilt within 5 years it’s called tired.  It’s almost inevitable that recently purchased homes will be rebuilt.  It’s what the market expects.  And of course every house has a story but most disappear under coats of fresh paint.

 

A young couple bought a house in San Francisco and decided to rebuild their new home and during demolition found diaries and documents relating to the family that bought their house 110 years ago.  For its new owners the dairies they found told them about the lives of the first owner and his first love.  The house provided a blank canvas and the diaries context and drama.

 

I encountered the story online at the San Francisco Chronicle.

 

Books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera come in many forms and are found in different places.  Many show up online, in shops, at shows and in catalogues but others simply appear.  Voila!  When such things are found occasionally a curious person takes the time to reconstruct their history and meaning.  Such items are fortunate for that attention and sometimes turn out to be examples of the gold-standard of collecting.

 

Over the years, collecting the history of New York state’s Hudson Valley, I’ve encountered exceptional examples of Ulster and Dutchess County manuscript material both because my searches have been relentless as well because I’ve become sensitive to what seems unusual.  Nothing is better than the unexpected and inconsistent.

 

But as a collecting strategy it’s difficult to explain.  Collecting needles in the haystack seem all but impossible.  The San Francisco Chronicle took their shot at it on Sunday 22 August and hit the bullseye.  And they knew it was an important story, using 40% of their front page to put an exclamation point on it.

 

Here’s the story.

 

Their headline:  From basement ceiling falls tale of love long ago.  An owner / rebuilder found a 100-year-old diary in their newly purchased home.  What was inside changed her life.

 

When you renovate you don’t know what you’ll find but certainly do not expect to find interesting documents falling out of the ceiling.  Most such things end up in the rubbish but occasionally end up in sympathetic hands.  Such was the case when Christina Lalanne in San Francisco found diaries and letters between the ceiling joists of their soon to be rebuilt home and uncovered the secret history of the house they recently bought.

 

Collectors buy things but rarely learn their back stories.  Almost every item has one but such stories take luck and diligence to be discovered.

 

Among the papers found were two diaries covering 30 years in different hands written in Danish.  Ms. Lalanne, a historian with a master’s degree in preservation, used online resources to identify the names and found the principal writer, Hans Jorgen  Hansen, was the original builder of their new  home in 1910.  For the identity of the other writer, Anna, it took more time, including finding a Facebook community in Denmark willing to help her translate the diaries.

 

Mr. Hanson had once known Anna in Denmark and exchanged letters and their stories emerged in their diaries over 30 years that were buried between the rafters.  Given that Mr. Hanson had married another woman, Christina, it’s understandable he hid his relationship with Anna.

 

Did they ever marry?  No, although Anna moved to San Francisco and in time lived nearby.  Some details have simply slipped away.

 

For Ms. Lalanne the story will live on.  The Chronicle’s writer, Sarah Feldberg, has brought it to life.  A book will be published and a movie is being considered. 

 

You never know what you’ll find, when it’s a book, manuscript, map, ephemera or house.

 

 

It’s a podcast:  https://apple.news/A6MR6aainRjqcn_97ohERMA

Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025 Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    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
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    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.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    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
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    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
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    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.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly! Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    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

Article Search

Archived Articles