A century-old board game endorsed by Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson will be on sale at this year's New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.
B&B Rare Books
Memorabilia from the first five members of the Baseball Hall of Fame will be available for sale at the annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair.
The 66th annual fair will occupy the Park Avenue Armory from April 30-May 3. More than 170 exhibitors from three-dozen different countries are expected to attend, according to organizer Sunday Steinkirchner.
Because she and her husband are baseball fans, this year’s items include artifacts and books, many of them signed, from the five charter members of the Hall of Fame: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson.
B & B Books, the rare books firm Steinkirchner started in 2003, is bringing a dozen items from the Hall of Fame’s 1936 Class, its first.
The signature of superstar Honus Wagner is visible on this ancient ball, headed for New York's rare books fair.
B & B Rare Books
The most valuable are a boxed baseball single-signed by Wagner, priced at $16,000; a ball signed by Ruth and an umpire, containing a price tag of $17,000; and an original hard-drawn signed portrait of Ruth, available for $15,000.
B & B is also bringing a ball signed by both Cobb and Eddie Collins, a later Hall of Famer, priced at $11,000, and an extremely rare single-signed ball by the late Yankees captain Thurman Munson ($13,000), who died in a 1979 plane crash at the peak of his career.
Future home run king Babe Ruth not only began as a pitcher but wrote a book about the art.
B&B Rare Books
Ruth’s How to Play Baseball and How to Throw Curves will also be there, as well as Walter Johnson’s Own Life Story and Mathewson’s Won in the Ninth. A board game called Walter Johnson Base Ball Game – with the sport described in two separate words – is coming too.
In addition, early baseball rulebooks plus century-old printed references to those rules will be available at the fair. Such works, along with 19th century publications and artifacts that document how baseball evolved from sandlots to stadiums will be on display at the armory show this year.
The material shows how print culture shaped the sport’s early decades before the development and expansion of broadcast media.
“We’re young people in a graying trade,” Steinkirchner said, “learning from veteran sellers while adapting the business to the 21st century. We are the very definition of a small business, starting with the goal of creating extra income from our bookstore.”
After four years, they gave up their day jobs.
“We never looked back,” she added.
A book by future Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson will be on sale at the annual New York rare books fair.
B & B Rare Books
B & B buys and sells old books, including first editions of Pride and Prejudice, signed Ernest Hemingway novels, and The Catcher in the Rye, which is not a baseball book despite its title.
Produced and managed by Sanford L. Smith + Associates, the New York event is widely considered the world’s top antiquarian book fair.
In addition to its baseball items, the event blends history, art, and literature, attracting both new and seasoned collectors seeking items ranging from $50 to millions of dollars.
The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America has 425 bookseller members, including B& B Books.
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, also established in 1949, includes 22 national antiquarian booksellers associations representing 1600 booksellers in 39 countries.
Single-day admission is $32, with student tickets priced at $10 and run-of-show tickets at $75.
The Park Avenue Armory is located at 643 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065.
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