Berg Books with handwritten anotations

[Sivart31]

Is there any way to authenticate these? Any Berg gurus have an immediate reaction? Thanks!

https://m.ebay.com/itm/1-Book-w-Hand....c100890.m2460

[bgar3]

I am not an authenticator, but I can tell you these have been around for a long time, and a number of Berg owned books have been in the book collecting hobby for years and are considered real. Some are more interesting than others and these are likely of the less interesting variety. I have checked recently but at one point the very highest end, top rare booksellers had some at extremely high prices, of course these were also very interesting or related to some significant event.
As far as books owned by famous people with their note and comments, these are my favorite. In book collecting circles they are called association copies and are highly sought after, much more than just autographed copies etc. I have a number of early baseball histories and books annotated by George Wright and Henry Chadwick and they are by far my favorite pieces. Too bad you have to rely on sellers choice.
Good luck

[Sivart31]

I am just trying to decide as to whether it is worth the extra $200 for a book in which he has written in versus one he owned and stamped as such. Those are $50.

[bgar3]

That is up to you, but in my opinion the value of an annotated book by Berg would be superior to one he just owned, and books on certain subjects, (japan, languages, baseball, linguistics etc, ) with extensive annotations would be worth substantially more, to me. I am sure there are many who would prefer a simple signature over multiple annotations without a signature, but that is collecting.

[David Atkatz]

Originally Posted by bgar3

As far as books owned by famous people with their note and comments, these are my favorite. In book collecting circles they are called association copies and are highly sought after...

No. An owner-annotated book is an owner-annotated book. An "association copy" is a book inscribed from the author or subject to another person of some interest.

[bgar3]

My apologies David. When I began book collecting 47 years ago, the prevailing view of association copies came from John Cater’s ABC, and included copies owned by persons of interest in their own right. I quess I have not kept current.