ILAB Book Fair Copenhagen 13-15 September 2002

Hugh Pagan, 15 October 2003 - [ E-mail a Friend ]

We live in an era when the customary book fairs have become so familiar in their character and so predictable in their financial outcome for participants (predictably good when the world economy is thriving, predictably poor when it is not) that they have become part of the forgettable routine of our ordinary commercial lives. The International Book Fairs organised by ILAB to coincide with their biennial congresses stand out from the norm in that they take place each time in a different country, with a different range of exhibitors and different challenges for those who do exhibit ; and although exhibitors at such fairs may do well or badly, for much the same reasons that govern the results of ordinary book fairs, our recollections of the different venues and of our commercial success or failure at them tend to be a bit more vivid.

It so happens that the Copenhagen Book Fair was the third such book fair in succession, after Vienna in 1998 and Edinburgh in 2000, to take place in a city which is off the normal itinerary of the international antiquarian book trade, and none of the brave band of exhibitors had serious expectations that their stands would be stripped clean by book-hungry Danes. Nonetheless those of us exhibitors who had attended the preceding ILAB Congress turned up more or less promptly at the Oksnehallen exhibition hall in central Copenhagen on the morning of Thursday 12 September to set up our stands and in the calm environment of this converted covered cattle market maintained good spirits, reinforced by the subsequent arrival of new faces from the exhibiting firms including Bernard Shapero and Simon Finch from London who, when they could detach themselves from their mobile phones, could enjoy the usual prerogative of picking over the real meat on dealers stands before the fair opened.

At 11.30 ("sharp") on the following day, we were treated to a welcoming reception at the City Hall, a speech from Copenhagen's Deputy Lord Mayor being followed by as lavish and as well-chosen a buffet lunch as any of us could have hoped for. Those dealers who remained behind in the Oksnehallen to finish the setting up of their stands and to partake of the rather ordinary sandwiches on offer later conceded that they had made the wrong choice.

Once the fair opened, at 3.00 pm that afternoon, it soon became clear that we would not be overrun by a tide of local humanity, and after some initial transactions, mostly with other dealers, it was a matter of adjusting our respective strategies to the challenge of how most usefully to occupy the two and a half days that lay ahead. For those of us who had already sold a few books, and who were thus fortified against what fate might bring, it was an opportunity, as in Edinburgh in 2000, to cast more attentive looks at the stands of our competitors than is normally possible on such occasions, and my own personal view is that among a number of very high quality displays of books by individual exhibitors, the very best was that put on by the Tulkens firm from Brussels, comprising only about a dozen volumes, drawn from differing centuries and of widely differing character, but of which every one was of real distinction.

(USA) offered his usual high standard of intriguing and slightly off-beat early books, (Los Angeles) displayed a stunning collection for those interested in both provenance and content, (London) produced an eclectic selection of items ranging from an early book with original chain attached from a chained library to modern manuscripts, while (London) included a rare jewelled renaissance binding among his more usual display of folio illustrated books.

The serious book collector or institutional librarian would have found books of real rarity or appeal on stands throughout the building, and it is a matter for distinct regret that there was no obvious presence at the fair by official representatives of the various Scandinavian national libraries, or indeed by institutional librarians from Berlin or from other cities in North Germany. As no other ILAB Congress and associated Book Fair is likely to take place in a Scandinavian country for many years to come, their respective national libraries' acquisition librarians should kick themselves for an opportunity missed. It was notable that two extremely discriminating dealers, Richard Lan of in New York, and Rick Watson of , London, although not exhibiting, considered it worthwhile to travel to Copenhagen to visit the fair.

The peace of the remainder of the fair, occasionally punctuated by inter-dealer transactions which created gaps on the shelves of our Swedish and Danish colleagues, if not elsewhere, engendered the customary fellow-feeling among all the participant dealers, culminating in a spontaneous decision to end the fair one hour before its appointed closing time, and a great many of us look forward to a reunion in two years time at the next such book fair, in Melbourne in October 2004.

I particularly look forward to seeing Paul Feain (Cornstalk Bookshop) at long last on his native Australian soil. As long as I have been exhibiting at the ILAB biennial Book Fairs, Paul has been there, displaying his customary good humour and taking the mixed fortunes of exhibiting philosophically. This year he livened up the quieter moments of Copenhagen by circulating with his digital camera and he has kindly provided the images for this article.

Indeed, the prospect of an ILAB Congress and Book Fair to be hosted by Robert Muir, Kay Craddock and their colleagues in the Australian and New Zealand Association, at which we shall amuse ourselves, enjoy the company of old and new friends in the antiquarian book trade, and will I believe do rather better in buying and selling books, is a particularly enticing one for booksellers from the English speaking countries or those who offer books in the English language. We are even promised the real boon of shorter sessions each day at the Melbourne fair ; and if the Australian and New Zealand Association could make the hours so short and buyer demand so great that in 2004 we were in a position to decide spontaneously to keep the fair open one hour longer, that really would be a milestone in book fair history !