ABC for Book Collectors by Carter, John - 1978

Hardcover with dust jacket, brown cloth with gilt spine titles, 14 by 20 cm, 211 pp. Very good with light shelf wear, a small glue stain on the back cover, and minor foxing on the top edge of the textblock. There is a previous owner's embossed stamp on the ffep. From the front flap: "Foxed, not in STC, rare in boards, Q6 is a cancel as usual, secondary binding, Harleian style, made-up—do you know the meaning of these and hundreds of similar terms constantly used in the catalogues of antiquarian booksellers and auctioneers? If not, John Carter's expert but informal manual is the book you have been waiting for. Not only is the actual language of book-collecting full of jargon and special terminology. The rules, conventions, and taboos of the cult are also legitimately puzzling to the layman, and its technique involves many unsuspected subtleties. Here, under more than 450 alphabetical entries, ranging in length from a single line to several pages, may be found definition and analysis of the technical terms of book-collecting and bibliography. This is an essential reverence book for every book collector, from aspirant to addict. It belongs on the private shelf of all but the most omniscient of antiquarian booksellers. And it will entertain any general reader who relishes the niceties of connoisseurship for their own sake."