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Association copies can be difficult to define, but they can add considerable value to your growing book and ephemera collection. Put simply, association copies are books owned by people of significance. Some collectors will argue that books owned by celebrities or other famous figures count as association copies, while other collectors believe association copies are books owned by people significant to the author or particular work. For instance, this special copy of The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac is inscribed by the author to the mother of one of Kerouac's dear friends and fellow Beatniks.
What makes associations copies so precious is the unique relationship between author and recipient. Instead of a book being signed at a typical signature event, association copies provide a deeper glimpse into the hearts and minds of the authors. However, association copies can also include books signed or unsigned that belonged to other famous or influential people in history. Although signed copies are almost always more valuable than unsigned, association copies of any kind are quite collectible and highly sought-after books.
London: Macmillan and Co., 1929. Blue cloth, elaborately stamped in blind, title lettered in gilt, t.e.g., others untrimmed. Portrait vignette on title. Light foxing at edges, a few spots of marginal soiling, cloth a trifle rubbed and faintly soiled, but...
London: A.H. Bullen, 1902. Blue cloth, elaborately stamped in gilt after a design by Althea Gyles, untrimmed. Edges and endsheets moderately foxed, light rubbing to extremities, else very good. First printing of the revised and enlarged edition, in the p...
New York: The Macmillan Co., 1908. Blue cloth, spine elaborately gilt after a design by Althea Gyles, t.e.g., fore-edges rough-trimmed, lower edges untrimmed. Fore- edge foxed lightly, a few minor spots to lower board, otherwise fine. First edition (afte...
London: A.H. Bullen, 1904. Green cloth, grey boards, paper spine label. Foxing early and late, a few small spots to boards, else a very good copy. First British edition. Lady Gregory's copy, with her bookplate. Inscribed: "Lady Gregory from [deletion] W...
London: A.H. Bullen, 1903. Green cloth and boards, paper spine label, edges rough-trimmed. Edges and end leaves foxed, lower corner bumped, a couple of scratches to label, else very good. First edition, British issue. One of 970 copies, from a total edi...
London: Macmillan and Co., 1919. Blue cloth, stamped in gilt after a design by T. Sturge Moore, edges rough-trimmed. Modest foxing to endleaves and edges, else near fine. First British edition, with additions to the text of the 1912 New York edition, but...
New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, (1952). First Edition. Hardcover. Minor rubbing to the spine tips of the book. Near Fine in a Near Fine slipcase. Outstanding association. Quarto (8" x 11") bound in full blue synthetic leather with gilt lettering on th...
From Charles Agvent
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892. Parchment and boards, wallet fore-edges, t.e.g., fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Frontis by J.T. Nettleship. Extremities worn, corners bruised, some small surface paper chips, spine darkened, bookseller's description affix...
London: A.H. Bullen, 1904. Cloth backed boards, paper spine label, edges untrimmed. Spine label darkened and soiled, minor soiling to edges, a trace of foxing to endsheets, but a very good copy. Half morocco slipcase. First British edition. An important ...
London: Edward Moxon, 1840. Two volumes. Polished tan calf, spines gilt, with gilt labels (small repairs), t.e.g. by Sotheran. Gift inscription (to Emily Vine from her mother dated 1857 on title of each volume); extremities, raised bands and edges rubbed...
London & Boston: Elkin Mathews & Copeland & Day, 1895. Original polished brown buckram, spine stamped in gilt, title printed in black and red. Corners a bit bumped, crown of spine frayed, cloth a bit rubbed, otherwise a very good copy. First edition of t...
Paris: E. Dentu and Alphonse Lemerre , 1879. "Les Femmes D'Artistes" , Alphonse Lemerre, Paris, 1874 and "Les Rois En Exil. Roman Parisien", E Dentu, Paris, 1879, both books SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR at 3rd front end page and...
From Dale Steffey Books
London: Henry Frowde, 1908. Original elaborately gilt decorated cloth, t.e.g., ribbon marker. Usual foxing to endsheets, otherwise a fine copy in lightly frayed and smudged (but very scarce) dust jacket. Slipcase. From the collection of Frederick B. Adam...
London: Chatto & Windus, 1887. Small octavo. Original polished brick-red buckram, t.e.g., others untrimmed. From the collection of Arthur H. Houghton, with his book label on front pastedown. Cloth evidently treated at an early date with some sort of shel...
New York: H. C. Kinsey & Company, 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Joints and gutters of book darkened but a superior copy in both condition and association. Near Fine in a close to Fine dustwrapper. A small, slim clothbound volume of 47 pages. Roosevelt...
From Charles Agvent
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