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News - March 2001
Meeting of European
Miniature Book Friends 		 Conclave 2000 in Rutland Award Best Miniature
Books  1999		 Work in 
Process
New  Books
from Russia		 Miniature Book Edition
from Italy		 New Auctions
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European Miniature Book Meeting 
in Berlin from May 18 - 20 2001

As part of this meeting 2 events are open to the public on Saturday May 19, 2001. 

  • from 10 - 13 : Talks about Miniature books
        •  Speakers:
         Ian Macdonald, Scotland
         Dr. Martin Znidersic, Slovenia
         Dr. Siegfried Hempel, Germany
  • from 15 - 18: Miniature Book Fair 
Entrance fee:  5.00 DM each for morning and afternoon

Address for both events:

Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, 
Breite Str. 36, 10178 Berlin
Ribbeck-Haus, Berlin Saal (2 floor)
In the hall in front of the Berlin Saal there will be 2 exhibitions on display: part of the Miniature Book Collection of the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek and Falk Thielicke's exhibition. The MBS Traveling Exhibition will be shown in the Berlin-Saal. 

It is possible to optain refreshments during the noon break. 

Participants are expected from Scotland, England, Slovenia, Hungary, France, Russia, Ukraine and Germany.

With there miniature books we expect: Miniaturbuchverlag Leipzig, Handwerkstatt Fliegenkopf, Markus Scholle, Faksimilie Verlag Luzern, Kathrin Schlachter, Hubert Silvain, Walter Steinert, Siegfried Spengler and others. The Miniature Book dealers Falk Thielicke, Addi Lange and Kurt-Gerhardt-Franke will offer their assortment. Many miniature book collectors will offer their spare books for sale or trade.

Please let us know if you are coming by May 5, 2001.

Angelika Jaeck
Schivelbeiner Str. 10
10439 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 444 23 97
Fax: +49 30 883 55 95
E-mail: ajaeck@knuut.de

This event is organized by Freundeskreis Miniaturbuch Berlin e.V.
 
Conclave XVIII in Rutland, Vermont

About 120 Miniature book lovers gathered in the beautiful state of Vermont to participate in the MBS Conclave XVIII. 

Our host Jon Mayo selected the Hotel Holiday Inn to accommodate the Conclave, most participants stayed there and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality and organization. 

On Thursday the first guests arrived, a few with big delays because of train diversion. 
One of the first trips most of the miniature book friends took was downtown to Tuttles, Jon's antiquarian book store. On 3 floors, you can find an enormous selection of old books and in the top floor is a small room filled with miniature books. A paradise for every miniature book lover! 
After this foretaste of upcoming events, the registration started and we were able to check the program, participants list and auction catalogue. The traveling exhibition was set up and many people enjoyed beautiful books that are missing in their own collections. 
During cocktails, a "Silent Auction" was held. Valuable books, donated by various people, were laid out for written bids. A minimum bid was set and people who wanted to bid were prompted to put a higher bid on the list for that book. Some people waited until just a minute before closing time, so they could have the last bid. After exactly 1 hour, the lists were collected and the winners were announced after dinner. This kind of auction was a new at a Conclave. But since everyone enjoyed it, I think it will become a regular event. 
After the Welcome dinner Marvin R. Hiemstra, a well-known poet and author of many miniature books held a humorous talk about "A book in your hand". 
Saturday started off with the yearly members meeting. After that, a row of workshops was held. First, Bob Massmann introduced us to his "mobile" bookbinding: a little tablet with the most important tools, that fits on his lap. He demonstrated the steps in binding one of his miniature books and his dry humor kept us laughing. 

Paul Devany showed some of his Hungarian books and talked about the development of the miniature book in Hungary. 
Neale McAlbert talked about his collecting passion, assisted by bookbinder Gabrielle Fox. He buys the sheets from a miniature book producer and has them bound by different book binders throughout the world. The bookbinder has a free hand to the design, Neale only knows what becomes of it when he gets it back. He had some of these wonderful books to show us.
Jill Timm displayed slides of how she produced her latest book: "Yellowstone Winter". She makes wonderful nature photos and showed us how many tests and trials go into the making of one of her works of art. 
Donna Thomas demonstrated the making of a "One-of-a-kind" book. A photo of her book table at the Conclave is shown below. 
Stuart Chopans held a talk together with Audrey Arellanes about book plates. He was astonished to find out that many people had bookplates but didn't put them in their books! A lively discussion between collectors and book makers: is an art book "ruined" by a bookplate or does it raise it's worth? There were different opinions and the suggestion that a book artist could include a bookplate in his conception of the book. 
The last workshop was held by the Australian book artists, Joy and John Tonkin. In Canberra they have a workshop for fine design binding, restoration and conversation. But sometimes they take a sabbatical, go traveling and set up an improvised workshop in the middle of the Australian bush! They show us photos of such a trip and also some beautiful samples of their book binding, in large and miniature format.  After there talk we were able to see some real samples. The photo shows Joy Tonkin holding up "ABC", a miniature book with a simplified binding. 

Between the workshops another Conclave novum was held, a "Swap Meet" About 10 people arrived with there swap books and a larger number of surveyors. Swap partners were quickly found and some of the suveyors regretted that they did not have there swap books with them. Personally, I thought the Swap Meet was a good idea and hope it will become a Conclave standard. 
After this eventful day, we just had time to change to evening attire and on we went to inspect the auction items. The auction began right after dinner and auctioneer Father Joseph Curran managed to keep us awake during the long procedure. There were 118 lots and so it took about 2 hours to finish. This year I had more luck and managed to get 2 lots. 
Sunday is the day of the Book Fair, in the morning for members and in the afternoon for the public. About 45 people exhibited an enormous number of books, it was impossible to see and register every single book. I'm sure I overlooked many them and hard to decide which books to buy. 
 
I presented a little sales exhibition: Miniature Books from Germany. Many people were interested, but most of them only want to buy books in a language they can understand. There are a few very international collectors that buy a book because of it's design or content, regardless of the language. 
During the Book Fair, the books entered in the competition "Distinguished Miniature Book of 2000" were displayed. The best  3 books were selected by a jury of 3 people, who are not members of MBS, and announced on Sunday evening after dinner. 
De Walden Press: Shakespeare: Man of Property (Foto)
Shoestring Press: Mother Goose
Donna and Peter Thomas: The History of the Ukulele
Last highlight of the evening was a lecture by Stephen Stinehour, president of Stinehour Press in Lunenburg VT.  He talked about "e-books" and the future of the printed book. He also showed some slides of his company and his books. 

It was a wonderful Conclave and Jon Mayo and his team did an excellent job. 

Hope to see everyone again in Indianapolis!
Award "Best Miniature Book 1999

Over 50 members and guests came to our annual book fair on the last Saturday of September. The head of the jury "Best Miniature Book" announced the winners for 1999. All participating books were displayed. 
Only 10 books were entered for the year 1999. Not all of them could be taken in to the contest because they were brochures or not issued in 1999. 
The Jury held its meeting on 11.08.00 and judged the entered books. 
Here are the results:

Best German Miniature Book 1999
in the category A - Books from publishing companies, group 1 / General Literature 
"Klassisch gut - Goethe-Zitate"
BuchVerlag für die Frau 

Best German Miniature Book 1999
in the category B - Books from private presses, group 1 / General Literature 

"Über Bücher"
issued by Freundeskreis Miniaturbuch Berlin e.V.

Best German Miniature Book 1999
in the category B - Books from private presses, group 4 / special books:

"A. Stifter, Die Sonnenfinsternis"
published by M. Scholle

The books (Leporellos):
E.Kästner: Die kopflose Stecknadel
E. Roth: Märchen

Handsatzwerkstatt Fliegenkopf
recieved an "Honorable mention for good work"
Work in Process

In 2001 we are expecting 2 interesting reference books for all miniature book enthusiasts to look foward to. 

Dr. Reinhold Janus, from Kiel, Germany, is working on the manuscript 

"Miniature books - a miniature history of their culture".

He will illustrate the miniature book in its European evolution and change over the last 2000 years. The manuscript will be issued as a miniature book in the series "Editions of the Sammlerkreis Miniaturbuch Stuttgart e.V.", probably in 2 volumes. 

We will keep you informed.


For several years, Andreas Wolf and other members of our society (FMB) have urged the Miniaturbuchverlag Leipzig to issue a bibliography of German miniature books. 
Now Miniaturbuchverlag Leipzig has announced this bibliography in its newest catalogue. It should be released in September 2001. The German miniature book specialists Dr. Siegfried Hempel and Dr. Erhard Walter, both from Leipzig, catalogued all books that were issued in the former GDR from 1949 to 1990 in the 

"Bibliography der Miniaturbucher"

The set consists of 3 volumes with 1280 pages together. The books are each 60 x 78 mm, bound in taft, in a case. Every book in the bibliography will be shown with a photo.
There is also a luxury edition in leather, with gilt top edges and numbered. 

Here is a photo of this bibliography, together with 2 other new editions: Jüdische Witze (Jewisch Jokes) and Don Juan.

Please, contact us if you need further information about these books!

New Books from Russia

Yaroslav Kostyuk brought 4 interesting books from Moscow to the Conclave. Details are found under the Titel of the books. Yaroslav is publisher and/or initiator of these books and wrote the forwords for them. 

Gabriliade
Puschkin and Muse
The first Slawonik Miniature Books
Micro-Bookplates
He collects miniature books since 1980 and has about  3.000 of them. His special interests are old russian books,   bibliophile Editions, books with good illustrations and bindings. He is member of the Miniature Book Club Moscow and  MBS.
IntraVidére - from the past into the new century 
The Instituto Ricerche Territoriali Indgini Spermentali in Potenza, Italy, has a special idea for publishing a research project.
The research project is offered as a miniature edition, the first book on paper and porcelain. The edition consists of 9 books (monographs) and 3 porcelain prisms, that mirror the covers of the 9 books. 
The content of project is the a journey to 7 Christian worship places in Italy, that were selected from a larger research for this project: “S. Maria del Casale” in Brindisi, “S. Maria della Bruna” in Matera, “S. Gerardo” in Potenza, the“Cathedrale” in Benevento, the “Basilica Benedettina” in S. Angelo in Formis, “S. Erasmo” in Formia, “S. Prisca” in Rom. 
It is a synthesis between knowledge and culture. The consequences of the research show secrets and domestic truths that the human eye can not comprehend. 
All texts are in 7 languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Latin. 
The books are 10 x 6 mm, bound by hand in Canvas Extra (100% cotton). All books are signed. The books have between 138 and 320 pages each, the ninth volume also contains 23 color photos and 2 graphs. Each of the volumes 2 to 8 are dedicated to one of above mentioned worship places.
The edition was already shown in Strasbourg for the Parliament of Europe and in the Louvre, Paris. In 2000 it was shown at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
New Auctions

At the end of year 2000, some miniature books were offered in auctions.  At Christies, Los Angeles, USA, the complete collection of Bela Blau was put up for auction, over 1100 books with a starting bid of  US $ 30.000,-. Bela Blau (1914-1993) was a well known hungarian book binder, who lived in america many years. From 1964 - 1992 he recieved 179 rewards for his book bindings! His collection (photo) was offered in 7 mirrored cabinets and includes not only his own work but also many books from well known presses, mostly 20th centuary. 

The collection wasn't sold, probably because the right people weren't at the auction!

Christies, London auctioned a beautiful Book of Hours, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Bruges, circa 1470s], 75 x 55 mm. The book was estimated for 2,000 - 3,000 British pounds but went off for 14,688 pounds!

At another auction in South Kensington, London, a lot of 42 miniature books was sold for 411,-Britishe pounds. In this package were among others: "The bible in Miniature or a history of the new and old testaments", London 1780; "History of the Bible", New York 1813; "Oeuvres" by Arnaud Berquin, 6 volumes, Paris about 1820; "Westminster Abbey" by Thomas Boremann, 2 volumes, London 1742-43 and a german Bible: "Bibla oder Inhalt der gantzen Heil(gen) Schrift, Halle: J.H. Hesse 1769, 46 x 28 mm.

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