Jerrymurland Posted 11 November , 2005 Share Posted 11 November , 2005 £50 for the history of the Sussex Yeomanry and 16th Batt. Royal Sussex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 11 November , 2005 Share Posted 11 November , 2005 £450.00 for a book on the history of the 5th Lancers......The only three copies I know of in existance are at the Imperial War Museum, The Lancers Museum in Grantham and the one I am getting. The one in the Imp War. Museum has gone missing so that leaves only two that I know of. Are you sure there weren't two copies to start with? Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciaran Byrne Posted 13 November , 2005 Author Share Posted 13 November , 2005 LOL! Apparently not. There were only about 20 to start off with. On the inside cover it is marked "For Private Circulation Only" - it was only published for the officers of the regiment. I know of 5 now: The Lancers Museum, Grantham My Copy The Imperial War Museum The Grandson of the Commanding Officer The British Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 13 November , 2005 Share Posted 13 November , 2005 All joking aside: an excelent buy Ciaran. Most I personally ever spend was 150 quid on a picture book: Farrell, F.A. THE 51ST DIVISION WAR SKETCHES. 1920, 63 plates, 31x23 cm., TC and AC Jack Ltd. http://www.xs4all.nl/~aur/Battlefields/farrell.htm Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob carman Posted 14 November , 2005 Share Posted 14 November , 2005 Ciaran, According to the online database, WorldCat, there are copies of "The history of the 5th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Dragoons : from 1689 to 1799 ; afterwards the 5th Royal Irish Lancers from 1858 to 1921" by Lt Col John Robert Hartvey at the following libraries: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY GEORGETOWN UNIV, WASHINGTON DC LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NEWBERRY LIBR Illinois NEW YORK PUB LIBR US MIL ACAD New York BROWN UNIV Rhode Island TORONTO PUB LIBR NATIONAL LIBR OF IRELAND UNIV OF OXFORD UNIV OF WALES ABERYSTWYTH I wonder why such a rerlatively obscure work ended up in some of these places. Since WorldCat makes no mention of the 5 copies you have located, there must have been at least 16 copies altogether, maybe more. Harvey's family apparently no longer has a copy, nor is there a copy in Norfolk, though all of Harvey's other manuscripts (all Norfolk related) are held by one Norwich library or another. I still think you got a bargain. Regards, Rob Carman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 15 November , 2005 Share Posted 15 November , 2005 Opposite way around; some years ago at Hay on Wye I found a three book set of facsimile 17th century maps of Luxembourg for £26 (part of a great series made as a present for the empress). Once home (in Luxembourg) I discovered that complete sets of these facsimiles are changing hands (on the very, very, very rare occasion that they do change hands) for over £1000. A single facsimile can cost £25. All maps now safely photocopied and a retirement task will be to mark the old roads on the modern maps and try to walk and see what remains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciaran Byrne Posted 15 November , 2005 Author Share Posted 15 November , 2005 Ciaran, According to the online database, WorldCat, there are copies of "The history of the 5th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Dragoons : from 1689 to 1799 ; afterwards the 5th Royal Irish Lancers from 1858 to 1921" by Lt Col John Robert Hartvey at the following libraries: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY GEORGETOWN UNIV, WASHINGTON DC LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NEWBERRY LIBR Illinois NEW YORK PUB LIBR US MIL ACAD New York BROWN UNIV Rhode Island TORONTO PUB LIBR NATIONAL LIBR OF IRELAND UNIV OF OXFORD UNIV OF WALES ABERYSTWYTH I wonder why such a rerlatively obscure work ended up in some of these places. Since WorldCat makes no mention of the 5 copies you have located, there must have been at least 16 copies altogether, maybe more. Harvey's family apparently no longer has a copy, nor is there a copy in Norfolk, though all of Harvey's other manuscripts (all Norfolk related) are held by one Norwich library or another. I still think you got a bargain. Regards, Rob Carman. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Rob, Thanks for this information. I think my copy was bought by a book dealer in Oxford. I think each copy can be attributed to an officer of the regiment who was present in 1922. Mine is from a Captain Burridge who was also the quartermaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciaran Byrne Posted 17 November , 2005 Author Share Posted 17 November , 2005 £50 for the history of the Sussex Yeomanry and 16th Batt. Royal Sussex. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Does it mention Lord Moyne in the book? If it does, does it mention his batman at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Dixon Posted 4 December , 2005 Share Posted 4 December , 2005 £75 for a 1918 copy of Brooke The Collected Works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Armstrong Custer Posted 6 December , 2005 Share Posted 6 December , 2005 Most expensive military books purchased personally: 'Regimental History of the 6th Royal Battalion 13th Frontier Force Rifles (Scinde), 1843-1923', published by the doyen of regimental history publishers Gale & Polden in 1926. Rare edition bound in green morocco leather with gilt inlays. I paid £250.00 for it ten years ago. 'Custer's Seventh Cavalry Comes to Dakota' by Roger Darling at £125.00. 'Regiments: Regiments and Corps of the British Empire and Commonwealth 1758-1993. A Critical Bibliography of their Published Histories' compiled and privately published by Roger Perkins at £95.00. I have more valuable military volumes in my library, but fortunately these were inherited! Ciao, GAC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HQTANKS Posted 11 September , 2017 Share Posted 11 September , 2017 I had always wanted a nice copy of 'With Horse and Morse in Mesopotamia' and recently a fine copy that had been the copy belonging to the Author came up for sale. £1,300 and no regrets. Best cheapest purchase from ABE 'Memoirs of the Great War' by Davson-fine condition £35! I have a personal question I ask myself always 'Is this the last time I will get the chance to buy it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberley John Lindsay Posted 11 September , 2017 Share Posted 11 September , 2017 Dear All, I sympathize with HQTANKS thinking. I paid 60 quid for a first edition of The Old Lie - but I am quite happy to pay peanuts for reprint paperbacks: the content is the same! Kindest regards, Kim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 11 September , 2017 Share Posted 11 September , 2017 (edited) £95 for the '5th Scottish Rifles 1914-1919' is the most that I can remember paying. I have been (blissfully I hasten to add) a single chap for 25 years now, and so don't have to hide how much I pay for books . Since I worry that after my demise my heirs might not realise the value/rarity of a few of my (many hundred) books, I always write how much I paid for the book on the first page, so they'll have an idea to how the book should be disposed of. William Edited 11 September , 2017 by WilliamRev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 Depends how wealthy you are, I suppose. There are plenty of WW1 books that are way beyond the reach of most of us - a jacketed Wilfred Owen 'Poems' is now over £10,000, Faulkner's 'Soldier's Pay' nearer £50,000 & a 1922 'Seven Pillars' north of a million. For myself I did once pay £900 for the restricted 'Blockade of the Central Empires' which I've subsequently seen for considerably less!, £750 for Ivor Gurney's 'War's Embers' & £500 for Lucy's 'Devil in the Drum', both in dust jackets. If we're including the Official History, I have 107 of the 109 volumes which must have set me back a few thousand over the last 25 years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoppage Drill Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 Dunno. I have a personal philosophy that "When you have forgotten the price, you remember the quality." It stops any fretting about money. It's funny to look at the prices on the jackets of some books purchased fifty or sixty yeas ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 3 minutes ago, Stoppage Drill said: Dunno. I have a personal philosophy that "When you have forgotten the price, you remember the quality." It stops any fretting about money. It's funny to look at the prices on the jackets of some books purchased fifty or sixty yeas ago. Quite: my copy of Wyrrall's History of the 2nd Division, annotated by an officer from the 17th Middlesex, cost me £9.00 about 45 years ago. I love seeing the price on book lists these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelcave Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 I paid a small fortune for my Stacke's history of the Worcesters about twenty years ago; but it had been rebound using the original boards and the original is a thing of beauty that no reprint could ever hope to emulate (or at least not financially) today. A negotiated price with the Worcesters RHQ, so whatever I paid went to a good cause (and it was always very helpful with queries); in fact I gave them more than the very reasonable price that they originally suggested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 Well, as a pretty much retired bookseller, it is heartening to see that anyone is still buying old, physical books at all. I notice a strong bias towards buying the scarcer regimentals in this thread. And I suspect that ,if there were such things, that a modern reprint of a much-sought after book would just not do. What it does illustrate is that there are basically only 2 types of book- "Book as Function" and "Book as Icon". Book as function is easy-the paperback you read on a commuter journey and discard-or a modern "trade" book which is out there by the thousand. Book as icon is where you lot come in- the book is wanted not only for the printed word stuff within it but also for it's qualities as an icon-or trophy. The scarcer regimentals seem to cover both bases- they have a chunk of information not found elsewhere and the books tend to be well-produced as well. So good luck and happy hunting to the lot of you!! Across the years, I have had any number of customers close to tears (I have that effect on them) when relating of the ones that got away-"I have only seen this book once, thirty years ago and I was daft enough not to buy it" etc,etc,etc. So,following on from Stoppage Drill ( and obviously with a strong monetary interest as well), I can only advise: "It's the books you don't buy you regret, not the ones you do" And having assisted customers across the years in the artifices of hiding egregious expenditure from spouses and partners, my professional advice is available to those wanting to smuggle in books when the Mrs is out,etc- even(as with one customer), having books delivered to a cover address in another country to keep the outlay hidden from the better half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resurgam13 Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 The most I have paid in a single transaction was £650 some years, but it was for a complete run of bound copies of "The Naval Review" from 1913 to 1999. It didn't stop there as I then had to buy another bookcase to hold them all. The only recent expensive purchase was over £200 for a First Edition of "A Prisoner With The Turks 1915-1918" with a gift inscription and drawing by the author Reginald Francis Lushington. I bitterly regretted this - until the book arrived. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HQTANKS Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 Having spent many unhappy hours, during my youth, searching in bookshops for anything relating to the Great War amidst the never changing lines of volumes and finding nothing I will now confess to standing in front of my bookshelves and admiring my collecting achievements over my lifetime. Now everything I see before me is WW1 related and to paraphrase GUEST -they are iconic and for that I do not apologise. I love how they look -How they feel-even the aroma. Book production values are not what they were thus I have been a custodian of some of the best and often rarest accounts of the Great War experience. Over the years I have become aware of how the media in all its forms has portrayed the experience of the war. If I see the latest 'blockbuster' in a bookshop I always initially look at the bibliography at the back and invariably notice the paucity of first hand accounts and the reliance on works written fairly recently. Just as Hollywood messed up and distorted the Wild West are we in danger of reducing the memory of WW1 to mud, blood, rain ,pretty nurses and WW2 helmets. My books are time capsules that hold the secrets of another age and I enjoy, through reading them, travelling there. Apologies for any offence or controversy caused but I am close enough to the end of my life that 'Quite frankly my dear I don't give a damn' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 Very well put H.Q Tanks , at times it seems like there are not many of us collectors of original WW1memoirs out there but I'm sure that we can all feel empathy with your sentiments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 32 minutes ago, HQTANKS said: My books are time capsules that hold the secrets of another age and I enjoy, through reading them, travelling there. Bravo!! They are not quite up there with a happy old mutt or homely feline mastermaind-but books are quite friendly company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 On 11/13/2005 at 00:30, Ciaran Byrne said: LOL! Apparently not. There were only about 20 to start off with. On the inside cover it is marked "For Private Circulation Only" - it was only published for the officers of the regiment. I know of 5 now: The Lancers Museum, Grantham My Copy The Imperial War Museum The Grandson of the Commanding Officer The British Library Apart from those put up from Worldcat thus far, there are copies also at U.Calgary, California NRLF, State Library of New South Wales. It looks like there is also a copy at the National Army Museum There is also a copy in the Royal Collections, which was given to you-know-who in 1947 when she was Princess Elizabeth. There is also currently a copy for sale on Tinternet for £200 (don't all rush-it's not from me)-which is likely to be the copy that was sold under the hammer at Dominic Winter on 15th May. I think this takes it past 20 copies. As you know, many books that are privately printed also have a "limited" number on them eg 17/50 copies, etc. The spread of library holdings suggests that 5th Lancers was probably 100 or more- I suspect Gale and Polden would have been more likely to print at least 200, which is a usual starting rate for commercial print runs-even in the easier days of cheap printers (Aside:Why is it that with cheap modern technology, books seem to get more expensive?) There may be a little morsel of 5th Lancers history in the publication. If copies turn up inscribed/signed by officers of the Regiment, then it is most likely that the officers subscribed for the publication (or were made to). I do not know whether there are lists of subscribers in many of the better quality and obscure regimentals but I suspect there are-and they may give a clue as to how these regimentals were financed. I would be surprised that the regiment was not involved in most/all cases-and that,consequently, the regiment might have held a small stock for their own uses in future times-such as gifts for visiting princesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Scorer Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 As a matter of interest, would there be a limit to what you would pay for a book that you really want for your collection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 12 September , 2017 Share Posted 12 September , 2017 22 minutes ago, The Scorer said: As a matter of interest, would there be a limit to what you would pay for a book that you really want for your collection? I suppose I might go to a couple of thousand for a Military Operations : Persia but I fear that wouldn't be enough, sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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