Rain Rain Go Away!

After such a lovely June, July has been quite a let down on the weather front. We have ended up waiting 4 weeks for a clear window to make hay (no pun intended) and it looks like it may be a week or two longer for a dry spell.

I heard today that a old species of snake is being re-introduced into Devon. Hope they like wet weather :-( Typically the Lady on Radio Two's morning programme indicated that as she has never seen any snakes in Britain and they probally don't exist. After 10 years in North Devon I can def. say they do. She should try looking under more rocks :-)

Golden Books Group continues to tick over with our regular clients keeping the wolf from the door. We have been busy building an economics library and listing lots more interesting books on the website. The economics section now has over 100 titles.

Some interesting items are due in or may come over the next month. The most interesting of all is a collection of Arthur Conan Doyle letters in connection with a book he contributed to. There seems to be some connection with the occult but it may take a week or two to get more information. The same client has asked us to sell a early English bible that was issued to the Comonwealth in the early 1700's.

Oh some additional news is I have just put a few inexpensive books on ebay which you are more than welcome to browse. Hope this link works:

Ebay

Any coments or personal views welcome.

Ivan Golden
Golden Books Group

North Devon Natural History

We thought visitors to our blog might like to see images of insects birds and animals that visit our farm in North Devon. If you can identify any of the photos or would like to comment, please post.

Probally common and a little pastely in real life.

Very Pretty and again probably common.

Is this a moth or rare butterfly?

What are signed bindings

leather bound books have been signed by their creators for the last 210 years. The reasons for adding your name to a leather binding was initially to identify a higher grade of binding. In the early 19th century this changed to attractive advertising style paper labels. The binders name can be stamped to the edge of the inside cover or around the edge of the fly page . The name is often very small and difficult to identify. During the 19th and early 20th century London bookbinders started to introduce styles to bindings and it is just about possible to identify them even without the binders name.

There are a number of top book binders and these include Hatchards, Relfe, Ramage, Zangorski, Rivière, Bayton, Cedric Chivers, Stoakley, Morrell , Maclehose, Crosscup, Tevor Jones, etc...

A signed binding can increase the value of a book.

Welcome to the Golden Books Group Blog

Golden Books Group was established in 1991 in Whistable, Kent. We are a husband and wife team with a wealth of experience in book, antiques, fine art, maps and prints. Our speciality is antiquarian leather bound books and six years ago we started building bespoke libraries. Following a series of International exhibitions we found ourselves with a very full client list. We are currently building collections and libraries in the U.K., L.A., Singapore, Austalia and Ireland. Unusually for a bookseller I am dyslexic and find every day a challenge. We are happy to take on new clients and encourage good communication.

Please post your questions, thoughts and complaints.

Best wishes,

Ivan Golden
Golden Books Group