What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

I recently returned from Australia, where I saw the Magnus Victor Anderson collection in the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. Several thousand volumes are in view to the public - I posted some photos on Facebook, including the shelf where a couple of dozen "recent" issues of Chess Canada Echecs rest. Here is what the library does:

Collection and Resources
Development Policy
M.V. Anderson Chess

The Library’s Chess Collection is one of the three largest public chess collections in the world. The
Collection was originally donated to the Library in 1956 by Magnus Victor Anderson, a Melbourne
accountant and keen chess player. Anderson personally looked after the collection for the next ten
years, continuing to purchase books for it. By the time he died in 1966, the M.V. Anderson Chess
Collection had expanded from 1500 to over 6000 volumes. It now comprises more than 12,000
volumes.

Collection overview

The Library has continued to acquire at a comprehensive level materials relating to chess. This
includes:
• all works published in Australia regardless of format
• most books in English and major works in other languages
• chess magazines in many languages
• reports of tournaments from every country
• a range of manuscripts and ephemera
• novels and other creative works which feature chess.

Material not generally collected

• chess sets, except for a few examples
• chess internet sites.

More detail about this interesting gentleman and his collections (art as well as chess books):

http://www.mvanderson.com.au/sites/d...on-Profile.pdf

[Wayne Komer]

Re: What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

Three questions:

Is it possible for me to see the Anderson Library photos without my being on Facebook?

Is there a catalogue in print of the collection?

Were you able to wander among the books? Most such libraries will only bring the books you want to your table after a written request.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

Wayne wrote:

Is it possible for me to see the Anderson Library photos without my being on Facebook?

I tried to post the photos here, but they are too big. I'll try some other way.

Is there a catalogue in print of the collection?

Go to: http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_l...ch.do?vid=MAIN Enter "chess"; you can leave "I want to search" as the default; the 3rd field select "In subject". I got 11,322 entries. The left margin shows 5,250 in "open access", so that would be the number on open shelves. 644 are "rare books". Of course - you can restrict your searches even further. The top author is Euwe - edging out Reinfeld. :-)

Were you able to wander among the books? Most such libraries will only bring the books you want to your table after a written request.

5,250 books and publications were on open shelves. The rest would have been available upon request.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

I envy you your visit.

I really would like to see in the photos what Canadian chess magazines it has – especially if Vlad Dobrich’s Chess Canada is there.

So, the Anderson has more Euwe than Reinfeld? And in a previous thread you told me that McGill had 636 “entries” in the catalogue for Ray Keene.

Who is the most prolific writer today? Kasparov? Nunn? A quick look at my collection gives these authors with a large number of titles – Botvinnik, Harding, Soltis and Wade.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

Most of the Keene entries at the McGill library are "articles" - i.e. newspaper chess columns. I'm not sure how the Anderson collection catalogs these.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

August 10, 2015

As far as I know, the Schmid collection of chess books remains unsold.

The other premier chess book collector, David DeLucia, visited the Schmid collection in 2014.

NIC - In November 2014, American chess book collector David DeLucia visited the chess collection of Lothar Schmid in Bamberg, Germany.

Lothar Schmid, who had arguably the biggest private chess library in the world, passed away on May 18, 2013.

DeLucia’s visit has led to a book entitled, Seven Days in Bamberg – The Best of the Lothar Schmid Collection.

Lothar Schmid (publisher, grandmaster and arbiter of Spassky-Fischer fame) always was quite secretive about his collection and never published a catalogue or any other publication on his library.

For many this book will be a first opportunity to see the highlights of his collection.

The book encompasses the best books in the Schmid collection and is quite similar in structure to the first edition of David DeLucia’s 'A Few Old Friends' (the first book on his own exquisite collection).

The book is a deluxe hardback edition, 246 pages with 265 photos, and is presented in colour without collations as there was not enough time to do them during his visit. Only 100 copies of this title are available.

________

In Chess Notes Edward Winter gives a photo of the main room of Schmid’s library. My only observation is that there are far fewer book piles on the floor than collectors usually have!

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/i...ays_in_Bamberg

See Chess Note 9421
_______

Copies are not cheap, running over $500 CAN each.

More later

[Wayne Komer]

Re: What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

What Will Happen to Lothar Schmid’s Library?

May 23, 2017

Dale Brandreth, the outstanding chess bibliophile, made an attempt to value the library on what data he had.

His website can be searched but is inactive because of his illness.

http://www.chessbookstore.com/home/just-out-1

Frankly, I would not under ordinary circumstances quote Dale’s analysis of the worth of the collection, except that I am afraid his website will be taken down and this excellent example of his writing lost forever.
________

Although three auctions have already been held of the rather arbitrarily classified duplicates, the bulk of this great collection without catalogue still lies dormant in Bamberg with a dizzy price of some three million euros and at least a few hundred passionately interested but wisely cautious collectors of today.

DeLucia’s evaluation of the dilemma of a sans-catalog insect infested accumulation of otherwise wondrous chess books and manuscripts is right on the money because only dreamers buy what is ill-defined and bug parlous. Here is my estimate of a fair price based on my seventy-four years as a collector of chess material (books, manuscripts, and ephemera) and forty-two years as a dealer in same.

However, this is based on phase one: Cleaning and Protection followed by Sorting and Boxing (phase two) for Type One Items ( the 75 best items as noted by DeLucia) followed by C&P and S&B for Type Two items (cripples of rare books, long runs of magazines, better than average items) and finally Type Three items (all items not in Type 1 or 2).

Cleaning & Protection: Buy clean standard fiber-board boxes, about 10 x12 x 24-inches. Vacuum clean all items after xeroxing each book’s title page. Make two copies with one enumeration page listing all titles in that box being pasted to box end. After packing each box, add moth balls (naphthalene or camphor or equivalent–exposure limits vary from country to country).

Sorting & Boxing: Type One items total= $410,000 Type Two items = $250x number of Type 2 items Type Three items= $32 x number of Type 3 items

Sum all three types. If one assumes approximate values of 500 Type Two items and 7000 Type 3 items, a figure of $759,000 results. However, one also must calculate the costs of cleaning and boxing, etc. I figure 80 8-hour days at say, $15/hr, comes to $9600. So, one comes to a reasonable sale price of about $750,000. How realistic is this? Well, to begin with, I doubt very much that there are 7000 Type 3 volumes. Certainly not unless there are several more rooms full than are in the photos. Secondly, no allowance has been made for several hundred compromised Type 3 volumes which are of zero value. Nor is there a subtraction for some of the high end Type 1 and Type 2 items that are cripples.

So, on a realistic basis I see $750,000 as a high value for this collection. Due to the additional expert advice to price and list all the items as well as the time value of the money invoked in the purchase, it is obvious that no dealer stands to make a profit even using these optimistic calculations. The only rational conclusion is that the collection should be donated to a willing library along with a tax write-off... if available.

In any event, a special rubber stamp should be made with an impression saying: “From the Lothar Chess Library”. This should be stamped on the back endpaper of each book as it is cleaned and boxed.