Raining On Elbert's Parade

It’s becoming a tiresome routine. Every Saturday morning I rise with the chickens and tear around getting ready to head to Akron for an estate sale only to come home asking myself why I even bothered. This week the newspaper ad promised collectible Roycrofter books and implied that some were bound by Elbert Hubbard himself. Of course you KNOW what a crush I have on Elbert, so I was fairly atwitter. Ever since Thursday all I could think about were the gorgeous leather-bound set of Little Journeys and lovely limp suede books marked at the back “Bound by Elbert Hubbard.” As it turned out, my imaginary parade and last week’s bubble had a lot in common. You won’t believe it --I STILL can’t believe it – but among the “treasures” were the ubiquitous Notebook of Elbert Hubbard in the cheap  edition for $65 (I have a mint condition leather-bound one in a box which doesn’t sell for that much!) and various other titles that looked like they'd been attached to the back of a plow and drug through a soy bean field. Actually, they did have one that might have been okay had it not been for the plow and field thing, but the rest were absolute junk, most bearing three-figure price tags.

The other thing they’d advertised was local history, so of course bringing up the end of the Elbert parade in my head was Grismer’s hefty red Akron and Summit County. After much searching for anything with the word Akron on it I finally found two common-as-dirt titles on the coffee table. Of course all this looking for what wasn’t there cost me time, so I was late perusing the shelved books. Eric had already chosen Theodore Roosevelt’s two volume set of African Game Trails published by Scribner’s, but having had the brown first edition of 1910 in the past I liked it, but didn’t swoon over it. I made only two selections myself, both of which list conservatively in the $45-50 range – a first edition of Harry Franck’s Roving Around Southern China from 1925 and a first edition British Christmas anthology from 1928 published by Cresset Press (see pale striped book in picture above).

The British  book would never have jumped out at me had I not had it once before – found in the many thousands of books bought from the much discussed Elmer. I never listed it though because its condition reeked of plow and field, but I HAD looked it up and knew that it was scarce. While less than perfect, this copy is actually quite good even though the cloth binding shows some darkening at the top edge and a few small stains. The cloth used on this book feels like fabric, so I couldn’t try my luck with chemical cleaner. Instead I went over it with a document pad which removed a surprising amount of dirt, so I think it will be fine, as other dealers, including the Strand, seem to have copies suffering from the same problem. The paper is heavy and the art period-pleasing, especially the wood engraving by  the intrepid English traveller and diarist, Celia Fiennes. (see below).

But I think what I like best of what I bought are a couple items produced after World War II by the Japan Travel Board. They don’t sell for a whole lot, but I’m charmed by a lovely book on the tea culture and an exquisite set of eight postcards in their original wrapper depicting geishas in training. I also ended up with a little hardware – two sets of bookends for the mall. Of the two, I prefer the Chinese carved soapstone pair (see photo below), though they’re not as pricey as the birds. Interestingly enough, I looked both sets over carefully, thought they were too expensive for resale, and started to walk away when the estate sale worker came over and asked if I would take them both if the price were less. Rarely does this happen on the first day, so I said I might and we quickly agreed on a deal that worked for us both.

It’s funny --I started writing this in a negative frame of mind, but as the words appeared on the page I realized that the sale, while not all I’d hoped for, wasn’t a total loss either Little by little I got a bit more chipper and now I’m actually happy as a clam, as we are off to Michigan as soon as I get ready for Halloween high-jinks with the little guys. This afternoon we’ll carve pumpkins and eat Halloween cookies with neon orange frosting for dessert and tomorrow we’ll all go to Tyler’s school (baby Dylan gets the day off from daycare) for the costume parade and then we’re headed en masse to the Toledo zoo for the afternoon. Tomorrow night is trick-or-treat – Dylan’s first time and I can tell you right now it will be wild and woolly.

Sadly, Gran and Papa won’t be there to see it though. We’ll be back in Ohio, comatose in the family room by eight!