Mark Your Calendars!
The 38th Akron Antiquarian Book & Paper Show is just around the corner!
Dealers: If you are interested in exhibiting at the Show, click here for more information and here for the 2024 contract. Note the deadline!
We can’t wait to see you in Akron!
Happy New Year Fellow Bibliophiles!
We’re working on putting together our slate of 2024 Forums, so watch this space for more details!
Meanwhile, join us on January 25, 2024, at 7:00 PM for our annual Show & Tell Extravaganza! See more details on our Events page.
What: NOBS Annual Meeting
When: Sunday, November 12, 2023, 12:00 – 1:30 PM
Where: Pacific East Kent, 100 E. Main Street, Kent, OH 44242. There is parking on Main Street, as well as a free parking lot behind The Kent Stage. See map below.
Why: We’ll gather to recap the previous year’s activities and plan for 2024! Our program for the day includes lunch (everyone pays for their own) and a white elephant book exchange. Bring a wrapped book, new or used, and we’ll swap! After the meeting, explore downtown Kent, which features Last Exit Books and Coffeehouse.
RSVP: Email Freddy@logan.com by Sunday, November 5th!!
Vice President Wendy Wasman and NOBS member Pam Eyerdam greet members in the beautiful CMA atrium.
Photo by Don Kastner
Laura Martin, CMA docent, describing Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth, c. 1640 by Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish (1960.117) located in Gallery G212.
Photo by Don Kastner
Review of the NOBS Tour of the Cleveland Museum of Art
NOBS member Bridget Crosley reflects on the July 9th tour of bookish exhibits at the Cleveland Museum of Art
On Sunday July 9th 2023, NOBS met at the Cleveland Museum of Art for an interactive tour of books and bookish art that the museum has on display.
The tour, give by docent Laura Martin, began with the Book of the Dead of Hori, 1969-945 BCE, papyrus; Egypt, and ended with a sculpture, Saint Jerome, c. 1495 by Tilman Riemenschneider, alabaster. Squeezed into a few hours, Martin showed the NOBS group more than twenty old paintings, rare books, and art fit for bibliophiles.
The types of books that the Cleveland Museum of Art has on display vary; some of what Martin talked about captivated the NOBS audience with a commentary about books (like Set 3, from the series Les Septs Stations Celestes, 2018, by Rachid Koraïchi), which was a more modern take on book creation, reminiscing on historical book creation. Other works that Laura showed the group were devotional books of hours, like the Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain, c1550, by Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximillian, (Flemish).
While giving the tour, Martin presented hands-on materials like kangaroo vellum and examples of the colors used to create, decorate, and illuminate Medieval manuscripts.
This unique experience was for NOBS members, but each work that Martin showed is available for viewing online through the CMA website at https://www.clevelandart.org/.
Laura Martin, CMA docent, describing Gothic Medieval art: Christ’s Mission to the Apostles, c. 970-980, ivory; Ottonian, Milan, Gothic period (1967.65) located in gallery G106C.
Photo by Bridget Crosley
One of the most unique objects is this Book-Shaped Reliquary, c1000, Circle of the Master of the Registrum Gregorii, German, which can be found in Gallery G106C.
Photo by Wendy Wasman
That’s a wrap! Thanks for all who helped make the 37th Akron Antiquarian Book & Paper Show a success!
Spotlight on a Dealer:
Norman Graubart, Cleveland Book Company
Norman Graubart, Proprieter of the Cleveland Book Company, is not new to used and rare books, he comes by it genetically. But he is new to Cleveland, (2017) - welcome to Cleveland, Norman!
Norman Graubart is the owner and operator of a one-person operation, the Cleveland Book Company. A member of the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America (ABAA), NOBS, and several other prominent trade organizations, he works out of his home in Rocky River, and sells chiefly online, at rare book fairs, and through direct quotes to clients. He is a generalist dealer, with wide-ranging interests, from modern first editions and signed books to manuscripts, ephemera, and archives.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he is the son of another book dealer, Cliff Graubart of the Old New York Book Shop. The elder Graubart operated an open shop for more than 25 years in Midtown Atlanta, before moving his operation into his home (that’s Norman’s childhood home) in the late ‘90s. Norman’s exposure to the book trade was so constant, that he hardly realized what an impression it made on him until he left home. He graduated from NYU in 2012 with a B.A. in History, after which he spent a few aimless and disenchanting years in the modern publishing world. After proposing to his college sweetheart (a Cleveland girl), the couple moved to her hometown in early 2017, after which he opened the CBC. Working out of his third-floor attic in Lakewood, he began in the middle of winter hitting every library book sale and estate sale in northern Ohio, eventually expanding into a storage unit (up to 3 at one point—a misadventure he is trying desperately not to repeat…). The bulk of his inventory is organized by inventory number, and thus his in-home “shop” is not really browsable, though he will occasionally arrange for browsing by appointment.
Norman is always buying books of significance, as well as interesting ephemera, manuscripts, archival material, photographs, scrapbooks, and journals—anything that “tells a story” and is worthy of preservation. Of particular interest to anyone buried in books of which they wish to relieve themselves, Norman makes house calls! He can be reached at norman@clebookcompany.com, or by his cell phone at 216-352-3940.
The Ohio Literary Trail Map
From The Ohio Literary Trail: A Guide, by Betty Weibel, Annual Meeting guest speaker
Purchase from Loganberry Books
Purchase from Bookshop.org
