We buy

Areas of interest

We are always interested in buying valuable and rare books as well as important manuscripts and autographs. We take over individual items and entire libraries and collections. We are happy to appraise and buy large collections on location, even outside Austria.

  • We seek printed books from all subject areas, from the age of incunabula to the mid-19th century.
  • We pay maximum prices for manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. Apart from books of hours and illuminated manuscripts we focus on text manuscripts from the 14th to 16th centuries.
  • We buy autographs from the fields of history, literature, science, and from the performing and pictorial arts.
  • We have long enjoyed a high profile in selling literary archives and correspondence collections from the estates of important personalities in science and the arts.
  • We buy maps and plans mainly as independently issued works (rather than as sheets removed from atlases or books) printed before 1850. We will probably consider products of 20th century cartography only if they concern the Arabian Peninsula.

Only as an exception do we buy books printed after 1850 (we will consider signed and inscribed copies). We usually buy theology including Bibles, missals, and prayer books only if they are printed or written before 1700. It is unlikely that we will pursue copies with severe defects such as missing or torn pages or badly damaged bindings. We do not, as a rule, buy books or autographs with a selling price of less than 500 Euros unless they form part of a larger collection.

Prices

Our competitive buying prices are guided by auction results and the current market. We buy for our own stock. On occasion we will accept large collections on commission. We do not hold auctions.

We regularly pay maximum prices when buying from private owners as well as at auctions. In 2017, at Vienna's Dorotheum, we bought the most expensive book ever sold at an Austrian auction – an occasion also noted in the international media.

Procedure

Should you consider parting with items that fit our profile outlined above, please visit us on working days, during office hours, at our shop in Rathausstrasse (an appointment is not necessary, but appreciated). We will usually be able to tell you directly the book's or autograph's current market value and make you a buying offer if we are interested.

We pay cash up to 15,000 Euros; higher amounts must be paid by bank transfer. You will be required to provide identification and to sign a sales receipt.

We will be happy to view large collections and individual high-value items on site, anywhere in Austria and abroad.

If you wish to send us books or autographs by mail, please contact us first by telephone. We can assist you with collection and shipping through our courier service. Such shipments are insured at full value, which will need to be agreed on beforehand, so you will be covered against damage or loss.

We will get in touch with you with a valuation on the day we receive your shipment. If you agree to our suggested buying price we will transfer the sum to your bank account directly; if not, we will return the item immediately by courier, fully insured.

Cataloguing

For the purposes of advertisement and documentation we have published special catalogues of important collections. Our books about the Seemann collection of encyclopedias, about the library of the German Socialists in Cleveland, or on Franz Kafka's letters to Robert Klopstock were unanimously praised in the press and remain standard works in their fields.

Get in touch

If you have something to sell, need an estimate, or are interested in individual offers or ideas how best to commercialize your collection, please phone us. You can send us photographs, lists, and photocopies via email as well as by fax. For valuations of individual items please use our online form below.

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    We receive a large volume of offers and valuation requests every day and regret that we are unable to answer all of them. If you do not hear from us within a week, the item was probably of low value or not a good fit for our stock. If you have any questions, please call us or send us an email.