Written for The Collector’s Guide by Mary A. Benjamin

Frequently I am asked, “What is a safe investment in autographic material over a long period of years?” The answer may well come from my experience gained in this field during the past decade. The boom years of 1928 and 1929 sent many items of a literary, historical and musical character sky-rocketing, although subsequently they shot down just as suddenly, 1938 seeing prices at probably their lowest level in 25 years. And yet, just as in the case of rare books, some forms of autograph material suffered less than others. The knowledge thus gained, helps materially to light the pathway as to what is the best sort of autographic material to consider for future investment.

Today, the safest buy seems to be good Presidential letters written either before or during their terms of office, preferably the latter. These letters must have worthwhile contents. Uninteresting documents of our Chief Executives are all too common and sell at nominal figures. Signers of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution are also excellent, that is, if the contents measure up. In the literary domain, authors’ letters about their works are always sought for, although prices are more inclined to fluctuate than on historical items.

Of late, increased interest has been evinced in the “War between the States,” or, as it is called up North, the Civil War. An added lure is that prices for this sort of material, are almost at rock-bottom, as collectors are just beginning to wake up to its importance. The years will see good war letters of famous Federal and Confederate Generals go very high. The upward swing has already begun.

A new field which has sprung up recently is that of State collections. The country has heretofore been too young to care much for the historical records of individual localities. But with the development of the nation, this interest has steadily grown, and today, all letters relating to internal politics of individual states or cities are being sought, the competition having a healthy effect upon prices.

Early Mormon material, and records pertaining to Texas, Michigan, Colorado, Virginia, California, etc., are in active demand, thus enabling the average dealer to place them without difficulty almost as fast as received. Furthermore, whereas a collector may become discouraged in buying a complete set of Signers because of the super-rarity of a few names, there is little difficulty in obtaining the two or three Signers belonging to the collector’s home state, to say nothing of famous Generals, literary lights, composers, etc.

The one, almost unchanging code of the collector should be to buy hand-written letters of good date, and of unusual, historical, or otherwise excellent content. Fine items seem to hold their value pretty well, even in times of financial stress, and with the years should edge upwards in price. Less desirable items will fluctuate considerably. To sum up, good autographs provide the best expectation for at least a fair dividend on the money invested. On the other hand, common items that have little to recommend them except cheapness, are almost invariably a disappointment as far as the hope of satisfactory returns, are concerned. There are occasional exceptions but this rule holds true 98% of the time. In closing, may I also stress the importance of being sure that what you purchase is genuine. Unless you are an expert yourself, the safest way is to acquire your pen treasures only through a dealer on whose reliability and experience you can absolutely depend.

Walter Hart Blumenthal, rare book specialist at 1775 Broadway, New York, is frequently called upon to contribute articles on odd books, such as for example a Shorthand Bible, a Latin Life of Washington, “Alice in Wonderland” in Esperanto, and a book bound in human skin. Shortly THE COLOPHON will present an article by Mr. Blumenthal on books in which the text and illustrations are pierced into the vellum, letter by letter, the pages being backed by colored silk. In all the world, only seven such early volumes are known, he states.

Rare book dealers should make good chiropractors because they know so much about “spines”.... To make Book Week successful, avoid displaying Weak Books.... It requires no earthquake to produce “shaken” books.