Many dealers supplement their income and feed their curiosity by doing professional appraisals of individual books and entire collections. Lieberman calls rare-book dealers, whether selling or examining, "temporary custodians," and Stypeck's appraisals, for example, have included the collections or estates of Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winners. Surrounded by all of these monuments to learning, Stypeck settles for the substantial pleasures of living vicariously.
"Sometimes I feel like the sous-chef, always dealing with other people's recipes," he jokes. "But there's a real pleasure in being a jack-of-all-trades. You do have to know something about each of the books you sell [but] without the pressure of having to be an expert in any one field."
Allen Stypeck owns the region's three Second Story Books stores and also appraises rare-book collections.
(Scott Sullivan)
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Fair patrons who already own rare books or other fine works on paper can also take advantage of the dealers' knowledge to put a dollar value on their treasures at an appraisal station (shades of "Antiques Roadshow") set up over the lunch hour on Saturday. Such in-person consultations are becoming rarer and rarer in the Internet era, which has had an enormous impact on the collectibles business, book collecting included. Stores have been harder hit than fairs, but for the Washington fair to be celebrating its 30th year in the face of eBay competition is still something of an accomplishment.
"The rare-book business was really a different place in 1976," says Don Reisler, who researches children's books for Jo Ann Reisler Ltd., but leaves the buying decisions mostly to his wife. "We call the time before the Internet the prehistoric years," he says. "It was much smaller, more local. Being online makes it easier to reach people, but the Web is not really a place to learn or teach anything about the books. That's what a fair does. They're more important than they've ever been."
Don Reisler and the others attribute the longevity of the Washington Antiquarian Book Fair to the quality and quantity of its dealers, but also to geographic and seasonal fate. Nestled in a middle latitude and sandwiched between the winter shows in Florida and on the West Coast, and the New England book fair season, which begins in April, the Washington fair has managed to avoid the direct competition that might sap away attendees, especially from farther-flung locales. Finally, all involved give credit to loyal local patrons and a steady stream of newcomers hungry for a good buy, an interesting lead or just an enlightening chat.
"It's a comfortable environment to nourish old collectors and cultivate new ones," Lieberman explains. "We also get to meet and greet our colleagues, our competitors, and we get to rub shoulders with a lot of good books."
WASHINGTON ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR -- Holiday Inn Rosslyn, 1900 N. Fort Myer Dr. in Arlington. Friday 3 to 9 and Saturday 10 to 6. $12 admission Friday (good both days), $6 Saturday. Expert appraisals Saturday 11 to 1, $5 per item. Proceeds benefit the Concord Hill School. For information before 3 on Friday, call Debbie Duff at Concord Hill at 301-654-2626. After that, call the Holiday Inn at 703-807-2000.www.wabf.com.
Scott W. Berg is a frequent contributor to Weekend.
