Books of the Month - Sold on Commission: Brian Walton's "London" 17th Century Polyglot Bible

We have been honored to be contacted by some new friends of the store who have entrusted us to sell their rare and significant Bibles from the 16th and 17th centuries.  We thank this wonderful couple for entrusting us with their treasured possessions and for agreeing to allow us to sell their books on commission.  We are normally reluctant to take books on commission because it can be a vexing process for both buyer and seller, however in this case it's been a wonderful opportunity for us to deal in some of the finest printed matter in the world.

That being said, we recently sold an incredible set of Brian Walton's Biblia Sacra Polyglotta dating from 1654-1657.  These six volumes comprise one of the most significant polyglot (multi-language) Bibles of the Early Modern Period/Era because they were the first to include Ethiopic and Persian.  These volumes contain the translation of the Bible in 9! languages commonly used in the 17th century.  The set we sold was in need of re-binding but contained all all 2,938 leaves originally printed.  The first volume also contained the most beautiful plates I have seen in the seven years I have been directly dealing with books.  Some photos are attached below.  Again, these books were an incredible glimpse into a different era of human history and we were fortunate and honored to have been entrusted in the task of selling them for their rightful owners.  We are happy to say that they have been sold to a very serious Bible collector and scholar and we thank all of the parties involved in the transaction.

If you have any questions about the books or would like to discuss the sale of books you own please feel free to contact us directly at longfellowspdx@comcast.net  Thanks again for visiting and Happy Holidays!

New Book of the Month

I think that once a month I will post photos and a description of one of the most interesting books we have in the store, and here is the first of those descriptions.

We recently acquired a book which made my Father swoon, as it is absolutely of his generation.  A couple brought in a copy of "George Gershwin's Song-Book", which is a great book for us to have in any state, but this copy is quite special.  It was owned by a Hollywood songwriter who won multiple Oscars for his movie scores.  During the course of his life he acquired this book, which was signed by George Gershwin himself, along with the famous illustrator Constantin Alajalov (who added a whimsical face next to his signature) to Lucia Davidova, who was one of the closest friends of both the choreographer George Balanchine and the composer Igor Stravinsky.  This is a marvelous piece of American musical history, and quite a find for us.  The dustjacket is in poor condition but almost impossible to find regardless, which is just the icing on the cake.

We are happy to deal in books which are rare and significant and hope that you will stop by to visit and perhaps even purchase one of them soon.  Please also contact us regarding any books you have to sell, particularly the rare and unusual, though we must admit that we will be more selective for now since we have been purchasing quite a bit of late.  Thank you very much for looking.

Amazing Car Brochures from the 1920s-50s

We now have an incredible collection of vintage car brochures dating from the 1920s-50s.  There are two full boxes of material, most of which are for American brands of the day including Ford, Buick, Chevrolet and many "orphans" such as Hupmobile, Jordan and many others.  Please take a look at the photos below- these are fascinating for me to look at and would be for anyone interested in vintage printing techniques or those involved in advertising and messaging- the graphics and copy are incredible.  Thanks for looking and feel free to come by to take a look, though we recommend you let us know if you are coming as they aren't on display for everyone to see.

Please leave us a (hopefully positive) review!

As the retail world has changed with the advent of the internet, we have done our best to make ourselves visible to the bibliophiles around us.  We have been successful in getting our website listed towards the top of results for used and rare bookstores here in Portland, but it would really help us if those of you who have visited our store could leave us positive reviews- they will register with Google and other search engines and help provide us with a stronger online presence, which in turn means that we will have better books and more customers to interact with on a day to day basis (that's a good thing).  Please let us know if you have any questions for us, and if you've had a negative experience with us feel free to contact us to let us know, as we do our best to be civil and helpful with everyone who walks through our doors.  Most of the time we do even better than that.  In any case, we hope that this finds you well and thanks for looking. 

You can leave those reviews at Insider Pages or at Google or places like Yelp; any others would be great too.  Thanks again.

Thanks to everyone who visited us at the Rose City Used Book Fair!

We returned from the Rose City Used Book Fair with a bounce in our step and feeling good about business and things in general.  Thank you to everyone who came by to visit, and thank you to all those who purchased things from us this year.  We did a better job of bringing books which stood out, though I'm surprised that all of the kids books with beautiful dustjackets didn't sell- in fact, not a single one of them did.  In any case, we still have a great bookstore full of stuff and we welcome you to come in to take a look some day.  Thanks again to Debbie and Rachelle of PAUBA (www.pauba.org)  I've attached some photos below to give you an idea of what you missed in case you didn't have a chance to make it this year.  This is the 5th or 6th annual and it's always a great time, so we hope that you can make it next year.

New Featured Books on the website

I've noticed that it's not terribly difficult to upload photos of our books to our personal website, so I will begin to do so for the best books that we have- I hope to have photos of all of our books priced above $100 listed within a couple of months (let's see how I do).  Today I updated some of the featured listings on our site and think that they give potential customers a great idea of the kind of books which interest us and which we enjoy selling- the rare, beautiful and sometimes curious.  Thanks for looking and we hope that you find something which interests you.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

We have finally gotten around to clearing out our large glass case which has been the holding place for all of our most rare books for the last 30 years.  Unfortunately for the last 5 it has been very difficult to get an idea of what we actually had for sale in there as it was overcrowded and disorganized.  After spending a couple of long hours working on it yesterday, things have now changed.  I have cleared out the rare works of academia which it is unlikely anyone will purchase on a whim, re-organized the books and most importantly positioned things so that nearly every book is now able to be seen clearly.  We encourage you to come in to see what we have, as we have been purchasing some new items such as a First Edition of Kerouac's Dharma Bums, important Ansel Adams books of photography, a rare Hemingway edition of Fiesta, a sixth printing of Joyce's Ulysses published by Shakespeare and Co, along with many others.  I am attaching photos to the post so that you can see the case in all its new-found glory and we hope to see you in person soon.  Thanks again for visiting and we hope that you are well.

Best,

Nile and Jon

We Finally Reveal Our Pretty Faces!

After being online for 7 years we thought we would finally post a photo of ourselves to let any of our internet customers see who they have been or could be dealing with in the future.  As we've mentioned, this is a family owned business and my Father and I are the only two people you will be dealing with if you call us.  The photo above was taken at the beach last year and though we both have stoic expressions on our faces I think it represents us fairly.  We are happy to be here, happy to be able to serve those of you who are interested in rare/interesting/fun/antiquarian books and we hope that you will feel comfortable doing business with us in the future.  If you come into the store you could even meet us in person!  Lucky us.  Thanks again for looking.

The perfect gift for long-time Blazers fans!!! Rip City!!!!

We have a limited number of sets issued by Bank of America during the 1991-92 season featuring the great Blazers players of the early 90s.  I was born and raised here in Portland I can remember screaming my head off rooting for them against the Bulls this year.  It was a tough loss but these are great conversation pieces and basically a must have for any serious fan of the Blazers.  Each set contains five lithographs, each featuring a different Blazer player in action on a bright colorful background.  There is one for Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Kevin Duckworth, Jerome Kersey and Buck Williams.  As I said, we have a limited number of sealed sets that would be the perfect gift for any Blazers fan, including yourself.  All of my friends love these and we have already sold 5 or 6 sets so come in to buy one if you're interested because I don't know how long we will have them.  They are $50 per set, and each lithograph is printed on a thicker card-type stock and is approximately 17" x 8".  Let us know if you have any questions at 503 239-5222 and Go Blazers.  Rip City! 

Happy 2011!! We are doing well and hope it's a great one for all of us.

We just want to thank you for looking at our website and/or blog and wish you a happy and healthy 2011.  2010 was long and arduous for many of us and we hope that this year is a great one for you and yours.  We plan on dealing in as many great books and printed materials as we can and hope that you will come visit us when you have a chance, or that we are able to do business with you online if you aren't in the area.  Thanks again and we wish you well.