The Rare Books of Brass

Ever wondered how much rare books cost nowadays? Consider this: the oldest printed book is the Gutenberg Bible printed in the year 1455. To get a scale how much it’s worth today, if you had just one page of that book, it could be worth anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000. That’s according to David Brass, owner of David Brass Rare Books.

In David Brass Rare Books, you can find all sorts of rare books from American English continental literature, children’s books, fine bindings, color plate books, private press books, and many more. Each has been examined, dated and priced by Brass himself with the help of Steve Gertz, an expert researcher who’s also the executive director of the book store.

Brass was born (or in his words, “published”) into a family of book lovers. Brass’ great grandfather, Emmanuel Joseph, started the business in 1876 in Holywell Street, Strand. In 1901, Joseph moved the business to Charing Cross Road in London, a location famous for bookshelves in the old country.

Interestingly, 84 Charing Cross Road, a best-selling novel, which was turned into a movie, then into a Broadway play is all about Brass’ family. The movie starred none other than Sir Anthony Hopkins, and you can tell how historically relevant Brass’ family is when it comes to books.

Brass joined up with the sons of Emmanuel Joseph, Jack and Sam to continue on with the book business.

But before becoming a bibliophile, Brass was your typical teenager. He wanted to be a rock and roll musician until he turned 21 when his family knocked some sense into him and encouraged him to go into the family business.

At first he hated it. Hated it “until my grandfather once sent me off to Paris. I went to Paris the first time and I went to this bookshop where I have a look around and I found this book and I thought ‘that’s really a great, great copy of this book’ and it was quite expensive. I think it was like 500 pounds,” says Brass.

Though his grandfather thought he was crazy for buying such an expensive book, they were able to sell it for £850, a profit of £350, and that was the “turning point for me,” says Brass.

It wasn’t about the profit or the money though, Brass says what netted him was the thrill of the chase. “That’s what enlightened me and that’s what started my thrill of the chase and that’s what it’s been ever since,” says Brass.

David Brass Rare Books store is located in Calabasa in the San Fernando Valley. Opened eight years ago, Brass tells us the reason why he opened his book store in Calabasas is simply because “We live here. We live in Calabasas.”

Brass continues, “We moved to the states in ’93 from London and I was the vice president of Harris’ Book Shop in Los Angeles and I was there until ’94 and then we started up on our own here. I didn’t want to commute anymore. I didn’t want to drive down the Beverly Hills every day.”

And Brass isn’t just well-known in the Calabasas area either, he’s a world-renowned figure in the world of books.

He says, “I was the president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association in Great Britain and I am a member of ILEB which is the International League of Entrepreneur Booksellers. We’ve attended shows and conferences all over the world. I go to Japan every year, I’ve been there 34 times, a lot of business with the Japanese, a lot of business in Europe. We’ve been to Australia, we’ve been to South Africa, buying books, selling books, our customers are worldwide.”

When it comes to hunting for the books, Brass tells us, “I generally go for the authors that I know. I have a very wide knowledge of the great books in most fields and that’s what you need to be a bookseller. You need great knowledge to be able to recognize things and you need taste and flare to fix something up and say, ‘I’ve never seen this before but it looks interesting.'”

But despite the worldwide fame of Brass and hiss rare books, you won’t find his store easily and saunter in unannounced.

Brass explains, “I don’t want to have an open bookshop. Our business is really entirely done on the telephone and our online presence and the catalogs that we put out. Very few people unfortunately come and see us and say, “We got to see more, but we want to see collectors.” You couldn’t have an open bookshop with this type of material, you just couldn’t do it.”

Old books usually come in volumes instead of one single book, and the reason for this, Brass says, is because there was no television, no radio, at the time. He says, “reading was the main form of entertainment and if they made it too thick of book, people couldn’t fit it in their pockets. So they made them three books as you could take one with you, put it in your pocket.”

Of course, books with an author’s autograph tends to be more valuable. But other than the author, even the recipient can add value to a books. Brass explains, “When you get a presentation, the recipient counts as well, so for instance, we recently had a copy of a first edition of Charles Dickens which is inscribed by Dickens to Hans Andersen and that’s great. And then we found out the story about and this was an amazing thing, it was one of twelve books that Dickens inscribed to Hans Andersen in London in 1840’s.”

This suggests that if you ever have a chance to get a book signed, do so if you can. “Because you never know,” says Brass. “For instance, the real first edition of the Harry Potter book, the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, that’s now $20,000 to $30,000 book.”

The other man behind David Brass Rare Books is Steve Gertz, executive director and a skilled researcher in his own right.

Gertz tells us his role with the book store, “Aside from selling books, when we buy books, it’s up to me to figure out just exactly what the book is, research its history, find out as much as I can about that particular copy because sometimes the copy will have a book plate, the book may have belong to somebody famous or there could be an inscription that belong to somebody famous, and that famous person may have known the author which makes it even more interesting.”

Unlike Brass who had to be pushed into the family business, Gertz says, “I have been a book lover since I was a child. I had no social life as a kid, my parents had to push me into boys scout and all that kind of stuff. My idea of a good time was to sit in my room and read.”

For budding book collectors, Gertz tells us what it is that makes a good book to collect. “Basically the collectors like to have a book in its earliest possible published appearance. So you not only want the first edition but the first printing and sometimes the first printing will have different issues. So ideally, you want the first edition, first printing, first issue, collectors love it when the book is signed by the author. They love it when it’s belong to somebody who is associated with the author or someone that didn’t know the author at all but is someone of note in and out themselves.”

Gertz adds, “They also want to know for instance the provenance of the book, where it came from, the chain. Some books we’ve had that passed through our hands have been around for 300 years so it’s always interesting to know who the owners have been over the last few hundred years.”

With regards to his job, Gertz loves it, he says. “It’s fascinating. If every book tells a story, every book has a story. So it’s up to me to tell the story of the book.”

For book lovers and collectors who would like to see what David Brass has in store for them, you don’t need to travel to Calabasas.

On August 10-11 Bustamante Shows will be having an Antiquarian Book, Print, Photo and Paper Fair at the Pasadena Center. David Brass Rare Books will be one of the dealers participating, so mark your calendars.

To get in touch with David Brass Rare Books, you can call (818) 222-4103 or visit http://www.davidbrassrarebooks.com for more information.

To find out more about the Bustamante Shows Antiquarian Book Fair at the Pasadena Center, visit http://www.bustamante-shows.com.