…while waiting for the rest of the world to become as tired of virtual book fairs as I am.
Got an email from a colleague last week that resonated with me. He said something to the effect that he didn’t recognize the names of half the people in the ABAA directory (editor’s note – or ¾ of them in the local directory) and that “I don’t know the way they think anymore.”
This was my reaction earlier last week, when I learned via ABAA email discussion, that the Northern California book fair committee had been in favor of going ahead with February’s 2022 Oakland, CA International Antiquarian Book Fair despite a current shortfall of applicants, but that the Executive Committee decided to call the fair off.
This occasioned a couple of thoughts.
In the first place, maybe we don’t recognize the names of many of our colleagues, and have lost touch with “the way they think” because we haven’t had any personal interactions with them for a-year-and-a-half or more. And maybe this is a direct result of the lack of live, “in-person” book fairs, provincial and international, as well as the impracticality of visiting other dealers on scouting trips, and even the shortage of dinners, barroom brawls, and in-person conferences and meetings that we’ve been enduring since March, 2020.
Secondly, it seems to me that this conservative thinking might reflect the wishes of the dealers that the Executive Committee represents. In other words, maybe the book fair wasn’t canned by a bunch of old fuddy-duddies but in response to the will of the people they represent. And maybe this conservative attitude toward “live” book fairs is also pandemic-driven, the reaction of a newer generation of dealers who are more at home in a digital environment.
This puts us in an interesting situation. The President of the ABAA, Brad Johnson, is the titular head of the Executive Committee. As I understand it, his wife, Jen Johnson is one of the promoters of Rare Books LA, which is in the process of scheduling a 2022 book fair in Pasadena to fill the slot vacated by the canceled ABAA Oakland event. If these guys were running for office, the scandal sheets would’ve had a ball with the ABAA/promoter connection. But they survived similar questions when Jen & Co. promoted a successful shadow show to accompany the last ABAA Pasadena event.
All I can say is, “Rock on, Brad & Jen!” I’m delighted that someone in this next generation has the creativity and initiative to find ways to keep live book fairs alive. Maybe, if this trend continues, I’ll meet that half of the directory still unknown to me.
Finally, a quick story regarding the ongoing slide of virtual events. Someone alerted me to an interesting “nautical” item in the Daguerreian Society virtual show. I recognized it as an item that had surfaced several years earlier. I didn’t go after it then because it was clear to me that the item was not what it seemed to be. Now, here it was, years later, still misrepresented, and offered at 3X the price it had been when I first laid eyes on it. If you’ve been in the trade long enough, it’s probably happened to you. But the fact that it happened in a prestigious national event is further evidence of what I’ve been whining about for months – Too many damned VBFs and too little fresh material!
Well, enough of that. Here’s a little nugget from our forthcoming catalog of rarities, Maritime List 304. It’ll be published on our website as soon as I finish it, which probably would have been a lot sooner if I hadn’t spent all this time blogging. I’ve already got about three pages of notes on this gem. Here are a few of them.
Manuscript. Opium Trading Journal of Samuel Brimblecom, Aboard Barks “Coquette and “Antelope,” and Onshore in Bombay and Canton, 1845 – 1847. Square 8vo, 20 cm. Unpaginated (about 100 pp manuscript entries)
This is an American opium trader’s – for lack of a better term – commonplace book. A brief summary of contents is as follows:
Recognition views of Malaysian coast. Opium transported for Sassoon (wealthy opium-dealing family) aboard ships ”Starling” and “Harriet,” 1844 – 46. Shipments of Malwa via “Antelope.” Two pages on “Division of time at sea” showing the number of hours Brimblecom spent “on deck” and “below,” how much he slept and ate, and what he did with his free time. “Opium Squadron” of Russell & Co. – five ships – with “number of guns” and “stations” including the “Coquette” of which Brimblecom was 2nd officer. Similar list for the “Augustine Heard & Co.” opium squadron. List of officers sailing for Russell & Co. Brief abstract log of “Coquette’s” course from China to Bombay, February, 1847. Nine pages listing “Old Stock, Russell & Co. New Malwa,(opium)” with consignor’s mark, number of chests, carrier, and delivery date. Three pages of goods carried by James Endicott, presumably for Russell aboard the ship “Great Britain,” for P & D Nesserwanjee Camajee, opium traders in Canton. Five pages of same for two other Indian companies trading out of Canton. Interesting shopping list dated January 17th, 1847, of goods Brimblecom was to procure for the “Shanghai market and for persons there,” including such articles as “1/2 doz. fine pleated shirts @ 15$ per doz.” for Mr. Coolidge. The second half of this list contains similar items “For H. Kong,” including a “Chinese Letter” for Boston Jack, a compradore who was the first Chinese person to have lived in Boston (brought there by pioneering China trader John Boit in 1796). Page of “Articles to be Obtained at Bombay.” List of clothing for “Ah Soo Washerwoman.” Four pages of deliveries for Augustine Heard & Co. aboard the “Antelope.” Two pages of itemized payments made to Boston Jack in 1844. Four pages of shipments to Cowasjee Pallanjee, opium traders in Canton, made by the “Antelope.” Two-page punchlist of goods and services “required by the Barque Coquette.” A similar half page of “Improvements” required.” Pencil draft of a 5-page letter by Brimblecom to his mother from Bombay in 1847. “I am now Second mate of the Barque Coquette, one of the Russell & Co’s clippers and am serving as such in order to obtain experience sufficient to enable me to command a vessel…” He goes into detail about how he spends his days in Bombay, and tells her that “one great fault to be considered when contemplating residence in China is the almost total absence of female society.” He speaks of a girl back home and hopes she’ll come with him when he “obtain(s) a command in China.” She’s 21 and he’s 24, and he wants to marry her and take her with him. He reveals to Mom that she is “Miss Holden of Barre Mass.” All this is interspersed with poetry (about women), drawings (of women), navigational reckoning, and miscellaneous notes pertaining to the trade. A personal, detailed, and intimate portrait of the life of an American opium trader. The back pastedown has a fine pencil drawing of the “Antelope,” her masts raked back in true opium clipper style. Bound in 1/4 calf over boards. Entries clean and legible.
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