Do you own an original Porter?

[Kat]

Our Sherry Chapman bought the perpetual care rights to Porter’s grave, which is apparently the first step in owning the site, so I think they know where it is in St. Patrick’s cemetery.

(Oh my, you reminded me of the days when Prof. Starrs made an effort to examine the Borden graves to tell if the skulls had been buried!)

Here’s the turf

[Kat]

And details…

This is the business contracted to do the work…they opened in 1892 according to Stef’s narrative on YouTube.

[Kat]

And the breakdown of the costs.
The narrative explains the GoFundMe site gets a little bit of each donation, and since there was probably going to be lots of smaller amounts (which thankfully add up quickly), the goal was a little higher than the basic costs listed, to pay that small percentage off to the FundMe site.

I am just learning the details as I search this project.

[Kat]

(Oh my, you reminded me of the days when Prof. Starrs made an effort to examine the Borden graves to tell if the skulls had been buried!)

Remember these days?
Scary

[mbhenty]

Now here's an Edwin Porter for sale on ebay, although I don't see it on there at the moment. It has been listed a couple of times. Can't believe it would sell for what the seller is asking, $1900 dollars.

It has been completely rebound, but an excellent job was done on a book that was probably in deplorable condition. The cloth and endpapers were replaced. Looks like it was professionally done.

This is a book which Frank Spiering claimed in his book 'Lizzie', that there were only 3 copies known to survive or exist, although 5 to 6 copies has at one time or another made it past my front door. (might have been the side door )


https://www.ebay.com/itm/116170017771?_ ... p_homepage

[camgarsky4]

$1,900 is silly and it being not in original condition/binding makes it even sillier. But there is a ton of discretionary $ out there....so someone with money they don't know what to do with will probably snatch it up.

[Fargo]

I need money, how much can I get for one of my original Porters?

[Father Jack]

Not an original Porter, but I have the late Bob Flynn's excellent facsimile edition and that's good enough for me. I understand the original edition was printed on rather poor quality paper, and was not made to last for ages. An original Porter owner may disabuse me of this notion if I'm in error on this.

[mbhenty]

Yes, when found, Edwin Porter's first edition usually has problems. One of them is very poor paper quality. Most are found in poor or fair condition. I have had many of them inhand and only 2 or so were in very good condition.

The copy below is for sale as we speak, on ebay. It is being sold by us for a client.

Now a commentary on condition.

Condition of books is very subjective. One dealers "Very Good" is another's "Good or Fair." My descriptions fall somewhere in the middle but conservatively... that is to say, I don't cut a book in deplorable condition with much merit.

Now the Edwin Porter book below, The Fall River Tragedy, I would say is in fair to poor condition, but closer to fair. Fair minus, you may say. It has all the problems that come with this publication. You can read them on the ebay site:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/126619201764?i ... R8LE58WpZA

None-the-less it is an original Porter at an attractive price. Even, other copies in similar condition sell for twice as much. After all, it is a scarce book. Although it was thought that Lizzie destroyed most of them, (with one author claiming that there were only 2 in existence) I dare say, I have seen 30 or more, with 5 or 6 having visited my personal library. At the moment 3 sit on the self.

Also below is another copy for sale and listed on ABE. (the second photo) This copy is not in much better shape. And as you can see the dealer wants 1000 dollars for it. This is the going price, although better copies sell for much more. The dealer describes it as "Very Good Condition". To me it is Good to Fair.

If description and condition is confusing let me explain.

These are the basic dealer conditions. (with the ones in parenthesis wishful thinking but sometimes given.). They are:

As New
Fine
Very good. (very good plus?)
Good (Good plus?)
Fair
Poor or reading copy

The older the book the more allowance that is given for 'rating forgiveness' and accompanied by detailed description of defects or merits, etc. Thus a book from, let's say 1860, maybe described as Fine Condition, but it it were a 1990 copy, would be Good to Very Good, with age being the determining factor in describing it. Many buyers and customers have been disillusioned by condition description once the book arrives in the mail.

[mbhenty]

Now:

Here's a perfect example of a first edition, The Fall River Tragedy that has been refurbished and restored.

It was well done... very well done. And the seller knows it, thus the steep asking price of 1800 dollars. (This was on ebay a couple of weeks ago. No longer.)

To start with, this book must have been in deplorable condition. The boards have new green cloth. New endpapers, Headband, re-cased, etc. You can see that they used a portion of the original decorative endpapers, with the gift inscription, from Charlie to Maggie. The entire book was done over. Whether the pages were washed to remove foxing in not known. (there may also be a good chance that a 1985 Flynn copy was dismantled and used to supply the green cloth boards, since the endpapers are exactly the same color.) But the pages being relatively clean from much aging made this copy worth saving.

It really is well done. But so is the asking price of 1800 dollars. Not certain what the seller spent, but it must have been somewheres between 3 and 4 hundred, at the very least for restoration.

Although a great job, the only original part of the book is the text. To a true collector, he/she would want the book with the original boards and endpapers... in essence, the book as it was issued in 1893. One may have to wait a while, but for 1800 dollars a very desirable copy should come on the market at some time. However, a long wait should be expected.

[mbhenty]

Now:

Some of the posts and photos above have been displayed at the beginning of this thread.

In those posts I have shown some copies of Porter's publication which exist at the Fall River Historical Society.

However, the photos below are of my personal copy of Porter's book. When I purchased it I was not in the market for an expensive Borden book. I just happened to be at a Book Fair on Cape Cod and came across it sitting on a dealer's shelf. It actually came with a very tattered period dust jacket. As far as I know the book was issued in 1893 without a jacket. Thus someone, (perhaps a book dealer) placed the jacket on the book. In any event it protected the cloth. Although the spine was completely faded, which meant it was subject to light or well read.

The year of my jaunt to the Book Fair was around 1985. I had walked by the dealer's display and pulled the book off the shelf to inspect it two or three times, undecided whether I wanted to spend 600 dollars. When the Fair came to an end I was walking by the dealer's booth when he called me over and offered the book to me for 100 dollars off. And I in fact 'walked off" with it for 500. That was nearly 40 years ago and approximately as I remember it.

In time I found a Seller's Sample copy of The Fall River Tragedy online. I think it was like 45 dollars. The ebay dealer was selling it as defective since most of the book was missing. In reality, he did not know what he was selling. The Salesman's Sample only has 58 pages, in which 10 of them are blank-lined for taking orders for the book by the sales person. There is one big difference between the sample copy and the published copy; that being a portrait of Andrew Borden as a frontispiece. Due to legal haggling, Edwin Porter had to remove Andrew's image from the finished publication and it only appears in the saleman's copy.

To this collector, a Saleman's sample of The Fall River Tragedy, which is indeed rare, is just as valuable, if not more, than the actual finished book.

The photos below are of my personal copy. As is common, the spine gilt is completely gone. Gilt work on this title was lacking when subjected to time. I rate this copy as very good. In the book world, I dare declare, that fine copies do not exist. Yes, you may find copies better than mine, but not many. The pages are slightly darkened but clean and the endpapers intact and clean. A real nice copy, if I should ring my own bell.

A further note on the terms "scarce" and "rare" as used in the book trade. Rare is more valuable than scarce, although dealers interchange the two terms all the time. A book of value can be determined to be rare if it comes up only once a year for sale, or less. A book that is scarce may come up two or three times a year. Edwin Porter's book was considered to be 'rare' at one time. But a more accurate description for a first edition of The Fall River Tragedy would be scarce.

[mbhenty]

And to finish off bragging about my copy of Porter's book, here are more photos displaying the Salesman's Sample Copy.

Salesman copy on right with the original published copy on left.


.

[Father Jack]

The late Bob Flynn's name has come up a number of times in this thread. I eagerly bought everything Mr. Flynn published as soon as it became available, including the wonderful "Tod Lunday" book (booklet?). I will be forever grateful for Mr. Flynn's efforts and his King Philip Publishing endeavor. He even published a pamphlet on the axes and hatchets available in Lizzie's day. All good stuff and I treasure them all.