Quite a few readers have written to let me know that the auction listings in the comments are getting to be a distraction. On the one hand, I want to make it easy for buyers and sellers to connect. On the other, I want to keep reader irritation at a minimum (at least, if anyone's doing the irritating, I want it to be me). So here's what I've come up with. There's a new Welcome post at the top of the site, which includes a notice about Auctions & Sales. The idea is that, when you have a listing you'd like to share, it can be added as a comment to that post. Hopefully that will prove to be a happy medium.
After this week, listings added to other posts will be deleted, so be sure to put them in the right place. And sellers, do please keep listing: I think it's a valuable way to let people interested in vintage and rare editions when they're available.
Bible Design Blog, as the name suggests, is a site dedicated to the physical form of the Good Book. Innovative design, quality binding, that's what it's all about. If you're looking for information about a particular edition, the right-hand column includes an ever-expanding list of reviews and features.
If this is your first visit, a great place to start is the Frequently Asked Questions. And don't forget the search function!
Selling a vintage Bible? Looking for something rare or unique? This is the thread for you. To help connect buyers and sellers, I've created this Auctions & Sales post as a master list, and I invite those of you who'd like to share auction and sales listings to post them as a comment to this thread.
I've been quiet lately, which is what happens when you have publishing deadlines and are about to leave for two months on the road (teaching at Worldview Academy). My apologies, and rest assured that I'll be back with a vengeance as soon as I have more reviews to post. In the meantime, I've decided to raise a little money to help support the site by auctioning a couple of items.
Remember the looseleaf Cambridge Concord wide margin KJV I wrote about awhile back? And the facsimile Geneva Bible bound in 7 oz. cowhide? If you're in the market for either, here's your chance to pick up a rare edition and help Bible Design Blog at the same time.
Geneva Bible Rembrandt Leather Facsimile Edition [eBay link] [review]
Daniel Doleys has listed a bread-and-butter edition of the KJV, the Cambridge Cameo. It looks like an older edition based on the placement of the words HOLY BIBLE, and that means the French Morocco binding should be the older, more flexible variety. Here's the link:
The intrepid David Farlow, who's beginning to look a lot like the Indiana Jones of vintage Bibles, has some more worthwhile listings to check out. This time, some beautiful red editions:
And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, J. Shelton Smith has listed some more from his collection, too. He's offering a copy of the latest Allan's NIV in brown goatskin, a real beauty I'll be writing about shortly. And he's also listing a jaw-dropping Cambridge facsimile of the Geneva Bible. I'm tempted to bid on that one myself.
Reader Christofily Ksethias e-mailed me with a list of Bibles he's posted on Craigslist in Atlanta, which includes some interesting editions. The individual listings have photos, but here's a group shot of what's on offer:
Some new reader auction listings for you! J. Shelton Smith is "thinning the herd," as they say, and plans to auction a number of nice editions in the near future. To begin with, he's listed three that are worth checking out, especially if you enjoyed today's piece on red Bibles, because two of the items in my stack photo are up for bid (well, two copies of the same thing -- you know what I mean):
Also, David Farlow continues to break the heart of every dreamer who's ever wanted to walk into an empty bookstore and find a wall of vintage Bibles on the shelf. He's listed a beautiful grey pigskin Ruby Text KJV, so check it out:
A couple of more eBay auctions for KJV lovers out there. First, David Farlow has posted a vintage Oxford Brevier Clarendon Reference KJV bound in red French Morocco with bison grain. I have a brown vintage Oxford very similar to this thanks to David, and it's superb. So if, like me, you're a fan of red bindings, this would make a nice edition. Here's the link:
Next, Nick Potratz is auctioning several copies of Cambridge's unique KJV/RV bound in flexible goatskin. I have an older hardback edition of this one, and it's quite interesting. Where the Revised Version differs from the KJV, the line splits, giving the two renderings one on top of the other. You can easily read either translation -- really, you can -- and the differences between the two are obvious in a way they simply aren't with a parallel layout. Nick has provided a number of nice photos of the layout and cover grain, along with his thoughts on the edition. It's well worth checking out. Here's the link:
I get a lot of e-mail asking for tips on sourcing vintage Bibles, and my recommendation is always the same: keep an eye on eBay. If your not fortunate enough to discover some old stock in a bricks-and-mortar inventory, that's your best bet. Naturally, you should scour bookstores whenever possible (especially when you travel), but there isn't an Aladdin's cave of vintage goodies waiting to be revealed, at least not by me.
Which is why I encourage those of you who have Bibles to auction to let me know once the listings are up, so I can share them with readers. About a week ago, I posted some auctions David Farlow listed. He's managed to locate a number of vintage editions -- the bookshops of Northern Ireland seem to be a good place to look! Now, he's gotten his hands on another out-of-print Allan's NIV bound in brown kid goatskin. Here's the link to the auction:
David Farlow has built up an amazing collection of Bibles, and -- good news for those of you searching for hard-to-find editions -- he's decided to offer some for auction. Three of his auctions are already up. A beautiful vintage Eyre & Spottiswoode KJV in red morocco and two out-of-print Allan's editions, an NLT and an NIV. Very nice stuff, so have a look:
If you're wondering what else he's going to part with, don't worry -- we have photos! Take a look, and I'll include the list of what's what after each picture.
A couple of impressive offerings came to my attention this morning, so I figured I'd pass them along. One is a vintage Cambridge KJV Turquoise Bible in saddle brown antique French Morocco. The Turquoise was a larger format, just over 6x9. I picked up a red cowhide one in Dublin back in the 90s, and it's quite pleasant to read. The cover on the one at auction (which dates from the 70s) looks beautiful, and it comes in the gold box.
The same seller is offering a Harper Brevier Text Bible bound in brown alligator grained calfskin. From the photos, it looks like an amazing and unique offering reminiscent of the extravagant editions I posted about last month. Check it out:
By the way, if you're thinking of taking the vintage plunge, it's worth checking out Ben Ting's piece about a vintage Cambridge he picked up recently. It's a beauty. In fact, he has a number of Bible-related posts complete with lovely photos, well worth viewing.
Welcome to BibleDesignBlog.com, a site devoted to innovative design and quality Bible binding. Read the reviews, explore the extensive comments, and feel free to join in. The links in the righthand column give you access to all the reviews, every category (including rebinding projects and "eye candy"), and links to other sites that might interest you.
J. Mark Bertrand is the author of Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and the forthcoming Nothing to Hide, crime novels featuring Houston homicide detective Roland March. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston and lived in the city for fifteen years. After one hurricane too many, he and his wife moved to South Dakota. Mark has been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, was the foreman of a hung jury in Houston, and after relocating served on the jury that acquitted Vinnie Jones of assault. In 1972, he won an honorable mention in a child modeling contest, but pursued writing instead.
Books by Bertrand
J. Mark Bertrand: Nothing to Hide The third book in the series takes March into the world of the paranoid conspiracy thriller: a headless corpse, the Mexican cartels, gun runners, and an ex-spook obsessed with Dante.
J. Mark Bertrand: Pattern of Wounds In his second outing, March hunts a vicious killer while trying to keep a decade-old conviction from falling apart. A compulsively readable follow-up that Publisher's Weekly calls "gritty and chilling."
J. Mark Bertrand: Back on Murder My crime novel Back on Murder, the first in a series about Houston homicide detective Roland March, is on bookshelves now.
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