Old and Rare Books from Knuf Rare Books

Thomas J. Wise was a serious bibliographer and collector, though history will never much remember him for those attributes. He will always be remembered as a master forger. Wise's modus operandi included printing abbreviated pamphlet editions of famous works and giving them dates prior to the publishing date of the real item, thereby creating extraordinarily rare, previously unrecorded “true” first editions. He suckered buyers for decades into purchasing his “firsts,” even though there was some suspicion, before his ruse was finally uncovered. Among the subjects Wise wrote about and collected were Elizabeth and Robert Browning. Item 104 is his A Browning Library, published in a limited edition of 165 copies for private circulation only in 1929. This copy is inscribed to Sidney H. Williams by Wise. €350 (US $453).

Item 107 is The English Portion of the Library of the Ven. Francis Wrangham, M.A. F.R.S. Archdeacon of Cleveland. That's Cleveland in York, England, not Ohio, U.S.A. While not archdeaconing, Wrangham managed to put together a collection of 14,000 books at the time this catalogue was published in 1826. Seventy copies were printed, but 51 copies were still in folded sheets when the library was sold at Sotheby's in 1843. Wrangham went for the very rare and hard to find books, but not the typical ones that the great collectors competed to obtain. He was more interested in finding the rare and obscure, books that pleased his sense of discovery, not the desires of other book collectors. You might say he collected Wrangham Style. €1,200 (US $1,556).

Knuf Rare Books may be reached at +33 (0) 254 72 26 56 or info@fritsknuf.com. Their website is located at www.knufrarebooks.com.