Collecting Old Books

Most ordinary people think that old books are anywhere from 20 to 100 years old. The fact is that the term old books refer to books made in the 1700s or earlier. Before the 1800s books were typically printed on small hand presses that were only able to turn out a limited amount of books. Larger presses were not used in the mainstream printing community until around the mid 1800s.

Books printed pre 1800 were generally printed on laid or wove paper. Laid paper was made from pulverized cotton and linen. Laid paper was named so because the final product was dried on wire racks. Wove paper was dried on woven mesh and created a distinctive criss cross pattern on the paper that cannot be mistaken for anything else. A quality wove or laid paper book made in the 1700s can easily outlive a book printed in the mid 20th century.

In the mid 1860s book publishers began making paper out of wood pulp. Because of the high acid content of this paper it disintegrates much faster and is a much poorer material than cotton or linen rag. This fact simply makes old books much more collectible than newly printed books that may seem old. If you're only looking for books to decorate your shelves with it doesn't matter what kind of old books you get. You can find brightly colored books with decorative bindings, or even finely crafted volumes for a fraction of the original cost, but the value here is all based on what the books look like.

If you are seriously interested in collecting old books pre 1800s there are several places you can look. Flea markets and estate sales are great places to find reasonable prices on lots of books (10-20 or more books). Since there is such a wide variety of book subjects and authors available you should consider looking for books within a specific category. Titles that were also socially or historically significant should not be overlooked. Books like "Robinson Crusoe" and "The Adventures of Mark Twain" although printed often over the years, are still quite valuable.