SHARJAH: More people than anticipated have been visiting the 39th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), which runs from November 4 – 14 at Expo Centre Sharjah. This year’s edition is also witnessing a constant stream of visitors interested in rare and very expensive antique collections that carry price tags of several million dollars.
UK-based Peter Harrington; Antiquariat Inlibris; and Antiquariat At Forum share a pavilion and specialize in antiquarian books and display several rare and collectible books. Around 500 rare first-edition books are on display. The crowning glory at the stall that might be smaller in size, but huge in value, is a collection of books from the research library of Jean Jacques Pierre Desmaisons (1807-73), described as an oriental scholar, diplomat, secret agent, and writer.according to Yasser Raada Al Tamimi, manager, Inlibris, it costs $1.24 million.
Other books include a limited edition copy of The Book of a Thousand and One Nights, by Richard F Burton, published in 1897; a rare 3-volume first edition of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital; a first edition of David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature; a first edition On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin; and a 1704 edition of Isaac Newton’s Opticks among many others. The pavilion also displays the Middle East antiques including a rare copy of a rare copy of a 1593 edition of Ibn Sina’s The Canon of Medicine, and a 19th Century Arabic manuscript of The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari, which was completed in 1206, among many others. Al Tamimi said that the total value of the 900 books displayed is over $12 million.
The Le Prince Art Consultancy’s pavilion showcases the most expensive collection of Qurans and atlases. A huge atlas by Nicolaes Visscher, circa 1685, with 226 pages of engraved maps, hand-colored and finished in gold, is priced at a whopping $1.5 million. There are 60 items for sale here, including a pair of rare terrestrial and celestial globes, dated around 1632.
Over 80,000 new titles in English, Arabic, and other languages are displayed by 1,024 participating publishing houses from 73 countries.
