Old Books Newly Received

We do like these old books, and we like to share the pleasure of buying books: A little Christmas every day, when you open those boxes and empty the boot of the car to see what we just got in.
The first entry will give you a view of the last few hundred books catalogued. The entries below describe particular acquisitions in a bit more detail, and display the books from these sources when you click on the image to the left

Tuesday September 07, 2010
Recent Acquisitions
	Click on the calendar image for the most recently catalogued books (any error corrections gratefully received!)
Friday July 17, 2009
Earth Sciences in Cambridge
	The department of Earth Sciences has a wonderful library of stones and ore samples: Just as complelling as any library of books would be. And more weighty. And they also had some departures recently, which left them with a surplus of reading matter.
Thursday July 09, 2009
Madingley Hall
	The library has the finest (finest) position among all the fine libraries in Cambridge. Far from the maddening crowd, in an estate set up by Capability Brown, we found a few old books which needed to move on and get out a bit. The stock is in excellent condition, not least because by buying books the library ran out of space to accomodate their readers - The collection also includes books from the Cambridge Board of Extramural Studies and some bear a Stuart House bookplate.
Thursday May 21, 2009
Timber Research and Development
	High Wycombe Content: Woodworking, Forestry, funiture making, a specialised library
Tuesday December 02, 2008
The Leys School
	A newly refurbished Library for the Leys - not at all your ordinary circulating library - and we take away the books that won't fit.
Saturday April 12, 2008
Victorian Mansion in Balsham.
	The Lady and the Gentleman are downsizing. Many trips to a magical Victorian Mansion with a collection of books to match as well as several boxes of unused tomes written by a famous Welsh Clergyman, the Lady's father. One of our favourite pick-ups - we were given coffee and cake!
Saturday April 12, 2008
Emmanuel College
	Emmanuel College
Wednesday January 23, 2008
Humid in Algeria
	Storing books in Algeria is never easy, to do it for many years does not improve the results. In this case, quite a few titles could not be saved, and what remains may show traces of imperfect storage. But the subject matter (esoteric travel and islamic mysticism) is compelling - incorporates some stock from the British Library in Tangiers.
Tuesday January 16, 2007
Cambridge Union Society
	This is a library set up for the use of students outside the colleges. Over the course of time the use of the library ceased, rainwater seems to have taken an interest in some of the books, and recently some stock was sold off. The books have a nice bookplate, often more than one on top of each other, and offer an interesting view of student reading in the past. Most books date back more than 50 years, - too old for the students of today.
Saturday August 05, 2006
Going to India
	We knew him from the local Car Boot Sales, where he would, always impeccably elegant, bow to the same depth as any other dumpster diver or living book cemetery. Sometimes he had sales in the front of his lovely house (slightly humid though) with the Joshua tree, and many of his books were scrupulously inscribed with prices or "prices". In the end we took away three car-loads full, plus three pigskin suitcases. But only a certain proportion is actually sellable. India, Indian Fiction and History, plus many other interesting subjects. Good luck for your "retirement" in India!
Sunday July 09, 2006
Finished with Chemistry
	I ask him for a photocopy of his entry in the Who is Who, and he says he is now Finished With Chemistry. No anger, but a bit of sadness is in the air. We promise to find a new home for them, including the magnetic resonance books from his former wife. Click on the picture if you have not yet finished with chemistry
Wednesday July 05, 2006
Five Boxes Poetry from London
	Five boxes of poetry from London, and a few copies of a poetry periodical bearing the pencil note: Not Jack. Go figure, inscribing books with what is missing in them, now there is a thought!
Tuesday May 16, 2006
Distance Education
	The International Extension College advised and offered consultancy services for many Developing Countries regarding distance education and adult education. We were neighbours on the Rattee & Kett site, but recently they had to close shop, and we were to look after their books. Their parking spaces are still marked, but their services are now only available in their crude form: Not as expertise, but as books
Thursday January 19, 2006
von Lippe
	From the Library of Johanna von Lippe, 1888 - 1982, who was married in the Frauenkirch, Dresden, 1913, to William Holden Duke, fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. She came to Cambridge in the 1920ies, back when the collected works of the classical authors really did mean a lot. I mean it really mattered that you had your Goethe and your Schiller, and perhaps there were points to be had for who was on the top shelf. Her daughter looked well after the library, and added her own books. Desperate piety perhaps, that is what books induce in some, and then it is left to the bookseller to sort out the remains. The nephew would look at every book carefully, just as one ought to, and he wore the same sweater, - well almost.
Saturday December 17, 2005
Department of Applied Economy
	There was a time when the University of Cambridge took pride in applied subjects, and it is still a good rhetorical move to discount your colleagues by calling yourself applied: In Cambridge it was Applied Mathematics and then Applied Economics with many important names. In a recent move partly led by applied economic considerations the library has now been merged with the Marshall Library of Economics just a staircase away and in the process a few duplicates have come to light. We went through them one by one and now you can take your pick: All in very good nick and from a prestigious source!
Tuesday December 06, 2005
Germanistik in London
	. . . und stell dir vor, der Ehemann ist der Doktorbruder des Buchh
Wednesday November 30, 2005
Animal Nutrition in Depth
	Ever worried what to feed to your dog? How to get the best out of your cat? Or the cow, if you have one? Here is a whole library of books devoted to the subject - bon appetit!
Friday November 25, 2005
Library of Education
	Big upheaval in the educational department of the local university: Colleges and departments re-arrange their respective responsibilities, departments raised to a new level, and new buildings are built. Not all the books could make the journey, here is was left behind. Note the conscientious erasure of prior ownership, almost pedantic probably
Monday November 14, 2005
Hirschhorn Libray: Blinds, Canopies, Rolling Shutters
	These books are connected to the firm of Hirschhorn, which operated in Wood Green in the 50ies and 60ies, supplying blinds, canopies, rolling shutters: There is a bit of Spanish Civil War interest, anarchism perhaps, and some standard literary texts, and a fair bit of European history. The books were delivered in old whiskey boxes, and came to us in a slightly dusty condition, but most of them are quite OK. And we have retrieved a large amount of business cards from the Hirschhorn Enterprises, habitually inserted into the books at various points, and if you want one, just let us know
Sunday November 13, 2005
Girton College
	Girton College had a new and beautiful library extension built recently, and as it happens with library building work, the librarian finds it is a good time to go through the shelves and get rid of the un-used books. Plus, these interventions often reduce the total amount of shelf-space. Something has to give. All subjects, all formats, often with a very nice bookplate, very good ex library (VG ex lib)
Monday August 29, 2005
Evolution Protest Movement etc
	Adelaide: Lutheran Publishing; Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing; Biblical Creation Society; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; San Diego: Creation Life and not to forget the ever popular Evolution Protest Movement, with a sprinkling of Satanism, Anti-Communism, A Christian View of Origins, and the answer to the old chestnut: Why Colleges Breed Communists. Plus a nice collection of Doorway Papers by Arthur Custance"
Monday August 29, 2005
Germanistik frühe Neuzeit
	Here we have parts of the working library, rich in review copies, from a scholar of the early modern period, mostly Germanistik, and all in excellent condition. Und das meiste auf deutsch!
Monday August 29, 2005
Homerton
	Homerton Text
Tuesday August 16, 2005
Sweet Honey
	Someone said, conversations with Mr H contained many words, mostly his. He was a linguist of received pronuncation (RP), a historian of education, and an academic in the 20th century, with all the embarrassements this involves. He brought together a substantial collection of school histories, of which only a few still remain (find them by combining "Education" and "Local History" on the Book Kitchen Page ) and among his books we found a bookplate which is strikingly wrong, wrong in a philosophical manner: This book has been lost by (or stolen from) J R de S Honey how hollow does it sound in the longer perspective, how naive in its notion of the ownership we can exercise of books.
Tuesday August 16, 2005
His Lordship
	Actually, it turned out to be a bit embarassing. I was so much looking forward to meet the eminent scholar of European prehistory, archaeology and linguistics, - that I ended up missing the appointment by arriving one hour early, with plenty of scholarly questions for the gentleman who wanted to dispose of his Hansard Volumes.
Monday June 13, 2005
Villiers Park
	They foster inspirational learning and teaching for 14 to 19 year olds by facilitating the sharing of knowledge and best practice. A few books fell by the wayside on the outskirts of Cambridge.
Tuesday April 19, 2005
Molteno Library
	We acquired the remains of the Library of the Molteno Institute a number of years back, but some of the material on tropical Medicine is still available, and curious and special material indeed it is. If you are into ticks, or some of the horrible tropical diseases which make life miserable for millions, you have come to the right place. And if you are lucky, your book will carry this lovely bookplate, a design based on an ancient Roman mosaic, and inserted by A E Shipley in the books which he left to the library.
Thursday January 20, 2005
Board of Education
	Today arrival of a whole pallet load of interesting educational literature from the turn of the century: This material seems to come from a ministerial library no less. It includes many reports of what today we would call the charities commission, and what then was called Friendly Societies Commission. Comparative educational literature from Germany, Belgium, Italy, France etc, some bearing the traces of the political progress in action in the form of marginalia or interleaved copies.