What we can learn about book collecting from Joel Munsell
- By Bruce McKinney
A printer with a taste for history.
By Bruce McKinney
Joel Munsell [1808-1880] was a printer in Albany, New York. He was also a record keeper and we are indebted to him for this. In what would be a long career that begins in 1828 with his printing of the Albany Minerva, a newspaper that lasted 8 issues, he begins the record keeping that would, seven years after the Civil War ended, be the first entry in his Bibliotheca Munselliana [in the AED and provided as part of this article], a useful but incomplete record of the books and pamphlets and occasional ephemera he printed during his career. In Munselliana, there are 2,283 entries and on the internet today circumstantial evidence of perhaps another 750 unrecorded or simply forgotten items that will in time be added to the Munsell canon. With this information we can reconstruct his career, enumerate his works and learn something about pricing and availability logic on the net.
What makes his record keeping so valuable are two factors: the extensive range of the printing: a specimen of type faces, the by-laws of a corporation, the contents of a library, a bookseller's catalogue, magazines, sermons and of course books and the fact that he kept records of how many copies he printed. More precisely, for about half of the items detailed in his personal printing history, the number of copies is provided. So we know that he printed 200 copies of the Constitution and By-Laws of Eagle Division No. 306, of the Sons of Temperance of the State of New York; approved by the Grand Division, April 4, 1848 [pp.36.]. We can also see that he printed 580 copies of an Agreement between the Albany and Schenectady Rail Road , and Schenectady and Troy Rail Road Company,... in 1853 [pp.36] to name just two.
When we then search ABE using Munsell in KEYWORD in their advanced search screen we find a random selection of 2,257 Munsell-printed and Munsell-related items. Much of this material isn't applicable so now we add a date range: 1828 to 1870 and the matches drop to 433. This is not 433 different titles mind you. It is simply 433 matching items and they include 91 reprints. Of the remaining 342 matches there are 148 separate titles, an average of 2.31 matches for each. One item, recorded as only "18 copies printed" in Munselliana is found and others identified as "4,000 copies printed" are not. It is absolutely random.
Among the 148 titles on ABE identified as Munsell imprints a surprising number turn out not to be in Munselliana. In fact 25% of the ABE listings aren't there. This leads to the conclusion that the full world of Munselliana is probably closer to 3,000 items and here is how I get there. In Munselliana there are 2,283 items that Munsell identifies as his. Whether his indicia is present is not an issue as he says they are his. In the ABE listings I identify 148 separate Munsell items based on descriptions provided by sellers of which 37 are not listed in Munselliana. To confirm this I order a random group of these items and confirm they are "real." To me this strongly suggests that approximately one quarter of the Munsell printings are not accounted for in Munselliana. That said, if 2283 equals three quarters, then Joel Munsell actually printed 3,044 +/- items. For collectors this is either really good or really bad news. There should be no shortage of Munsell material but there is.
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What we can learn about book collecting from Joel Munsell
- By Bruce McKinney
Albany, New York where Joel Munsell made his reputation
Of the 148 separate published works 84 show only a single copy and the balance, 64 titles, multiple copies of which 17 have 5 or more examples available. John William Wallace's 1863 "An Address delivered at the Celebration by the New York Historical Society," is today's most common item with 12 copies available. At the same time we need to remember that 95% of the Munsell items show no copies at all. By adding up the print runs of all ABE items for which information is provided in Munselliana and then dividing by the number of such titles [76] I find the average print run is 1,079. Next I multiple this by the 3,044 items that I believe Munsell printed and we confirm he was no friend of trees because he printed 3,132,275 +/- copies over his career. And how many of them were on ABE recently? The answer: three hundred and forty-two including those with multiple copies available. This is 1 of every 9,159 copies he printed. Wow! What does this mean?
How can some items be present in 5 or more copies and 95% not be present at all? I have no absolute answers, just opinions.
My first impression is that, while books have found a home on the net, ephemera occupies a less certain position. Sellers decide what to post. They create an entry order based both on their own experience and what is implied by others in their listings on the net. Munsell may not be making the cut. Much of his production is thin. Most of what he printed was bound in paper, not boards and was slim as Betty Davis at the beginning of her career. To the dealer wondering "what can I charge and who will buy it?" I suspect the answer is often "Not much and I don't know." These questions are probably always pushing Munsell pamphlets and the like to the back of the line.
The second issue is that many sellers look to what other sellers have to say to get the descriptive language for their listings. Ninety-five percent of this material isn't listed. It doesn't look particularly important and no one else is offering a copy. How can you describe an item you can not place in context?
Dealers dominate the listings. Both what they put up and don't put up defines everyone's understanding of what is collectible and available. For Munsell material to be broadly visible implies that other similarly rare and comparably collectible material would also be visible on the net. But unless such material encourages new collectors to collect it could potentially divide the same pie into smaller slices. There are a large number of potential listings but they can be potentially dilutive. Some dealer groups may see this as counter to their interests.
My guess is that this material is around but simply not recognized. How much of this material will come out over the next five years? Mike Stillman and I disagree about this. Mike believes that about 20% will appear at least once while my guess is at least 50%. I believe the material sits just over the horizon and, with education and time, it will emerge. How many people want it is another question.
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What we can learn about book collecting from Joel Munsell
- By Bruce McKinney
The Munsell indicia on an example of fine printing.
I have also been watching for Munsell items on eBay. So far it's a very thin and unpredictable market. The few items that have shown up have tended to be priced with high minimum bids. This doesn't make any sense. What is the difference between a Munsell imprint listed on ABE for $100 and an eBay listing for the same book with a $100 minimum bid? The eBay listing is, comparatively speaking, nonsense. Since when do auctions start the bidding above the high estimate? The answer is you can do this only when bidders are uneducated and unaware. This may sell a few items but it hurts the collecting field long term.
One of the intriguing aspects of Munselliana is that it allows a "postage stamp" approach to book collecting. Conventional collectors go in every conceivable direction because most areas or disciplines have few bounds, a dealer invention that keeps their inventories in front of a collector's eyes. Other forms of collecting, such as stamps and coins, assume that the total number of items is fixed while the quality is variable. Start a coin collection and you'll see what I'm talking about. Some collectors impose strict limits on themselves but for the majority of collectors the boundaries never get set and their collecting focus tends to follow their dealer's inventory rather than collection logic. The Munsell material is very fixed and can be collected as an entire group, by period, subject or form. However you approach it there are clear parameters. And because the printing quantities are available for half of the titles, a collector can gauge the likelihood the other half will come up by comparing their appearances and prices to items with known quantities. It's work but interesting and entirely possible. In short there is enough information to pursue the goal of completeness in this field and to do so with a degree of knowledge that leaves you independent of outside opinion and suasion. You can absolutely know this field.
As to what else can be learned I suspect that there are other, equally interesting ways to collect in the book field where there are clear limits and these limits can be understood by collectors. Such information empowers collectors, builds confidence and perhaps brings a few new adherents into what is a very challenging field.
Whether anyone cares to join me in this specific pursuit, the search for Munsell imprints, is another matter. In this one subject area I find the history of the Hudson Valley, the history of printing and the future of book collecting. As the announcer used to say at Monticello Raceway during summers in the 1960's: ladies and gentlemen, it'ssssssss the trifecta!
Would you like to look at a spreadsheet of the Munsell material that was
recently available on ABE? Click here
To search all the listings in Bibliotheca Munselliana in the AED
To go to ABE directly to see what is available today click here.
Do you have un-catalogued Munsell imprints? Click here say YES or here to say NO.
If you would like to comment on the availability or non-availability of Munsell material click here: Munsell Message Board Postings.
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