The 45th annual Boston Antiquarian Book Fair was notable for three days of unseasonably lovely weather, with sunny skies, gentle breezes, and temperatures well into the 70s. Also notable was the fact that Beantown seems to have mistaken itself for the Big Apple, at least as far as Halloween-weekend hotel prices are concerned. Walk-ins could stay at the convenient Sheraton for $400 a night. If you were driving, you’d spend an additional $70 per night to park, or $135 if you chose the valet option. Rack rates are negotiable, of course. While the ABAA offered a reduced rate for a limited number of rooms, and Hotels.com and similar apps found deals where deals were to be found, the overall trend was, well, annoying to say the least. I mean, the Sheraton’s not getting any younger, but she’s still asking top dollar for sharing her charms. And why can’t she figure out how to hang her schlocky lobby art? I mean, this 3 x 5-foot painting at the top of the “Down” escalator is hung up sideways, no?
Top – The way it is. Below – The way it oughtta be
As far as logistics went, Julie Roper and her crew did their usual excellent job of getting us into the venue with minimal stress. However, getting out presented challenges. The sunny days marking the beginning of the weekend had passed, and we were looking at a steady drizzle. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Most years, Hall B – the space between our exhibition center and Dalton St. – is empty, allowing us to drive in, load out and head home. This year, however, Dalton St. was under construction and Hall B was closed. Oy.
I was so uptight about the whole situation that I wheeled three cartloads of Ten Pound Island stock down the front elevator to Boylston St. where wife and vehicle awaited. It was the equivalent of half an hour at the gym, and it got us to our traditional post Boston night spot – “The Continental” (where it’s always 1955)
just in time for dinner and the last quarter of the SF-Cincy football game. Foreign dealers – who made up a typically large percentage of exhibitors, as well as many Americans from far away – had private shipping companies or friendly locals to carry their goods out of the Hynes. A few other hearty or desperate souls lugged suitcases and pelican trunks out to Boylston or through the Pru. That left local drive-in dealers with a wait, while union guys schlepped them down to the loading docks where cars lined up and waited, and waited and, by early reports, waited some more. At 6:45 I received a text from a dealer friend who was one of the first packed up. He was still in line for a spot at the loading docks. I was in the Continental waiting for my first Manhattan.
As far as the show itself went, those lovely sunny days might have worked against us. Who wants to go to the Hynes Convention Center when you could be at the beach or walking in the woods, or on the golf course? The book fair was fairly well attended (at least we avoided any “bowling alley” days)
but attendees seemed somewhat distracted, slow to reach for their wallets. “Subdued” was a word I heard several times.
Maybe it’s just me – I barely broke $10,000 for the weekend – but this seemed to be a rather slow fair. Subdued, indeed.
But hey, it’s still exciting and fun to be surrounded by the best of the best of rare books. As with every such event, I learned things (including the fact, pointed out to me by two knowledgeable civilians, that my two large-format photos of Boston by Southworth & Hawes actually made up a single panorama).
Continuing the positive thread, the fair itself was well organized. The list of speakers and related events varied and interesting. Setup lunch and morning coffee hit the spot, and security was excellent. In fact, even getting into the Hynes had a TSA feel to it. I had a brief conversation while being strip searched by one of the guards at the entrance from Prudential center, and she told me her last job had been for TSA. “This is better.” She said. And it was.
Meanwhile, down the block, Duane Stevens and Richard Mori are to be heartily congratulated for finding a viable and convenient site for a Boston Shadow Show. In the midst of the absurd and discomfiting inflation of Boston hotel prices, they managed to secure a venue on the second floor of the Hilton Hotel (a 5-minute walk from the Hynes) that was clean, accessible and wonder of wonders – affordable.
These days it’s almost impossible to find a big city Shadow Show booth for less than $1200, but they pulled it off. Our new employee Jared Turner (more on Jared next week) paid only $600 for half a booth. And he made his booth rent!
So, I suppose you could say it was a typical Boston Book Fair weekend. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly were all in attendance and, unlike what seems to be going on in the rest of the world, the Good prevailed.
In closing, I’d like to crow for a moment about the buying which, for me at least, was excellent. Eye-popping material abounded, and some of it was even affordable. A few memorable items included boudoir and cabinet-sized cigarette cards upon which were mounted albumen photos of the great America’s Cup yachts of the 1880s,
an 1850s Pacific whaling log with whale stamps and drawings, some splendid privateering manuscript material, blueprints from “USS Constitution’s” 1881 overhaul, and Saturday dinner at Bar a Vin, 1855 on Newbury St.
Final tally by the Weinstein formula (bookfair number = amount sold + amount purchased) was $24,450. Not the best, but by no means the worst.
It’s the luck of the draw, ain’t it! I was not supposed to go to Boston due to recent surgery but I “had a feeling” and went anyway, wife in tow (she was eager to reconnect with collectors and Grolier Club members whom she mostly hadn’t seen since COVID), and at the opening we were off to the races with a $12,500 less 20% sale to a newbie (to me) who, it turns out, is well known to (and utterly despised by) Americana specialists. Well, be that as it may, his money is good. ‘Nuf said… then we sold a Cook’s third voyage to a dealer less 20%, about $30K’s worth of William Blake to a proper gent, a very rare (4 known) Cosway binding to a UK dealer on approval, a couple of modern firsts (yes, really!) and a few bibs and bobs to Americana dealers for the better part total of $90K — which equals the grand combined total of my last half dozen Boston Fairs. I’m now less than desperate to do well in CA and NY and may skip the LA shadow fair a week before SF… but see you all at one or t’other. (p.s. a couple of very serious nibbles at our two most expensive books might make this the best Fair ever — but not counting on either, let alone both)… For the Latinists amongst us: “nunc scripsi totum pro christo da michi potum.” (Now I’ve had my say for Christ’s sake give me a drink).
Thanks for the report, Greg…I haven’t done an ABAA fair in Boston in more than 30 years and they were always my poorest. Unlike Californians, Bostonians never seemed to appreciate my melange of mostly inexpensive oddities. I am amazed that the dumpy Sheraton can get away with $400 a night on weekends but am totally dumfounded that valet parking is $135…that is about twice what I pay at the Huntington Hotel in Pasadena which is a lot nicer than the Sheraton, to put it mildly. At this point, my main goal doing a book fair is to have fun and at least break even. Sounds like I wouldn’t have done either if I’d had a booth at this one.
First off, why in the world park at the Sheraton? We parked in the garage on Dalton, directly across the street from the Hynes, as we always have done, a 2 minute walk from the front door of the Sheraton. Pulled in at 2:30 PM Thursday, pulled out at 6:00 PM Sunday, total $156.00. Yes, the glitch at the loading dock Sunday night wasn’t great, but still, rather than making it home at 8:30 after a 2 1/2 hour drive, our usual landing time, a whiskey on the rocks had to wait an hour until 9:30. Entertainment was provided while I sat in our van waiting to get in to load up. At one point I saw movement to my left, over near a port-o-potty called “Flush,” and noticed a bunny rabbit hesitantly scanning the way to the dock heading south. He/him/she/her was very careful, then flushed (pardon me) with courage, ran across the street, and disappeared under the vehicle in front of me, exiting on the sidewalk, and, clever beast, knew exactly where to go to get under a gate in a long chain link fence. Shortly after, a young man herding cars in the loading line walked by and I told him about the bunny, and he asked, “Sure it wasn’t a rat?” I was sure. Ten minutes later, here comes another bunny also going south, it too going under the SUV and then the 3 inch space at the bottom of the gate. 15 minutes later, a larger bunny goes under the same gate, but going north, across the road, towards, I admit, the “Flush” port-a-potty. I wondered, family members who knew what they were doing? I don’t know, but I admired their local knowledge, and pluck, and silently thanked them for putting a smile on my face on such a dismal night. And still, my entertaining mammals weren’t done with me. 10 or 15 minutes later a small rat ran across the street in front of my van, going the same way as the last bunny. I may have imagined it, but it seemed to hesitate, looking to see if it was safe, then made the journey across. The question occurred to me, were Hynes Convention Center bunnies and rats cohabitating? I saw one human use “Flush,” as well as three rabbits and rat. As you can tell, it kept me occupied, certainly on the lookout. Other exhibitors, waiting to load up, some out of their vehicles, pacing, seemed a wee bit upset by the long wait, while I was entertained by the local inhabitants traversing what was obviously their turf. Oh, yes, the fair. It’s quite possible anyone who reads my remarks here and gets this far down the page, remembers me saying that every Boston fair has been very good for us, and we have done them all, having now finished Numero 45. I never give dollar totals (unless they are bad), but without exception every Boston fair has been excellent, and this was in the top five. Despite our good record, I will cop to anticipating it with fear and trepidation, as I always do. That said, buying was less than I would have hoped, but two are worth mentioning; one a Revolutionary War manuscript archive, the other a large folio poetical broadside on the death of George Washington (1800), printed on silk. I have seen it before, but only once. Rare Book Hub kindly showed me that one sold at auction in 1894 for fifty cents! I’m hoping to do better. Many dealers know I sold (most) of our 50-60 year family collection of printing on silk and satin from around the world (1670-1900), en bloc, but some don’t know we still buy such things. Anyway, I thank our furry friends for keeping me in a good mood.
Greg, I don’t think the painting was sideways. It was backwards. The side showing should be facing the wall.
Other than the load out – which was frustrating, but not the end of the world, though I would have done better pushing my boxes the 5.5 miles home – it was a fun fair. Pretty good sales, good crowd, good vibes – I didn’t exactly make a mint off it, but I sold a ton of $20 books to young folks; good dealer sales early. I was really lucky on neighbors which makes a big difference. Didn’t buy much, but didn’t try hard enough. My 16 year old daughter worked the booth with me which was great fun.
Much younger crowd than usual – I think they would dig your stuff, Taylor. It wasn’t like that years ago.
Wish I’d seen some urban bunnies.
We had a very good fair, our sales in Boston the last few years have been pretty good. Usually I buy well there but not so much this time. Even with the nice weather out I thought the attendance Friday and Saturday was pretty good. Still would not mind seeing a modest admission fee for Saturday. Sunday was very quiet but we did have a good last minute sale. Load out was very discombobulated, I was fortunate to get out of the Hynes at 7p. My wife was on the loading dock for forty five minutes before they let me in which at the time I was number one in the line. Nobody seemed to know what was going on. The hotel rate at the Sheraton ended up seemingly a bargain a $269 a night. I monitored rates for better deals and most the hotels around did not budge under $400 a night. One of my good customers who decided to attend late in the game ended up at over $400 a night nearby. Parking at the Sheraton for valet was $70 a night, self parking in the garage was $45 per 24 hours.
jk
I was a non-combatant at the Hynes and an exhibitor at the Salon de Refuses. At the Hynes, an anti-social, socializing (if weakly and awkwardly). There we are. People happy to see me and I often reply, “Why?” For some reason I still like to be among my own kind. This is what we do – our world has shifted – rail against it all you want, but ultimately, it’s not the seventies, it’s not the eighties, etc. We are now the old guard, the super-annuated. Some years ago, a colleague noted how we had so much to learn from our elders. I replied that our juniors had so much more to offer. Whether we accept it is another thing.