Lost for words at first edition finds

MAX Baldwin was sorting through yet another pile of old books that had been delivered to the Oxfam bookstore in Petergate when he came across one he thought might just be worth a few bob.

It was nothing special: a dusty old hardback copy of children's favourite Watership Down. But it was a children's book by a popular author - and so it was probably going to be worth a bit more than the £2.99 he might otherwise have priced it at.

The York University student and Oxfam volunteer put it to one side, and then showed it to his boss, the store's manager Lee Spracklen. "And I just had a hunch it was worth something," Lee says.

He began to do a bit of research. The book was published in 1972 by a small publisher he'd not heard of: Rex Collings. It was cloth-bound, with a brown dustcover showing a drawing of some rabbits. At the back of the book was a beautiful pull-out map of 'Watership Down', the slice of mythic English countryside where Richard Adams' classic tale of a group of refugee rabbits is set.

Lee began to get excited. A bit more research established that what Max had stumbled upon was a rare first edition, one of a quite limited number of copies published before the book became a cult classic.

And its value? "Anything between £1,000 and £2,000," Lee says.

Max, who is in the third year of a Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree, admits he's still a little bemused.

There's no way he would ever have dreamed the dusty volume he found at the bottom of a box of books could be worth anything like that, he says.

"And to be honest, I'm still not quite sure why it is!" he admits.

The first edition Watership Down isn't the only valuable book unearthed by Max and his other volunteer colleagues from among the thousands of old books delivered to the store every week.

Most of the books brought here are second-hand paperbacks - thrillers, science fiction, literary classics and the like. They're the lifeblood of the shop. But every now and then, hidden among the old paperbacks, there will be the odd little gem.

One of Lee's favourites is a two volume, cloth-bound book entitled Battle-fields Of The South, which turned up in an old banana box. It's an eye-witness account of some of the key battles in the American Civil War, written by "An English Combatant (Lt of Artillery on the Field Staff)", dedicated to the Confederate president Jefferson Davis, and published in 1863, while the war was still raging.

One of the things Lee loves about it is the subtitle.

The book covers all the major battles "from Bull Run to Fredericksburg" the title page proclaims proudly, before adding "With sketches of the confederate commanders and gossip of the camps".

The two-volume set comes complete with beautifully drawn pull-out maps of some of the major battlefields - but what really tickled Lee's interest was the idea of an unknown Englishman taking part in the great events.

Again, he began to do some research, trawling the internet to see what he could find. He pulled up nothing, except a reprint of the book published in 1963, 100 years after the original.

Eventually, a few weeks later, still intrigued, he tried again - and this time he hit gold. "I found there was one other copy available in the world, being offered for $4,000," he says.

That makes the Oxfam shop's copy of the book worth something like £1,800 to £2,000, he reckons.

Not surprisingly, both Watership Down and Battle-fields Of The South are being held in a safety deposit box until Lee decides what is best to do with them.

He's leaning towards an internet auction - but until that can be arranged, he's open to offers. He'd also like to hear from anyone who might know a bit more about the Battle-fields book. "The more we know, the more valuable it becomes!" he says.

The shop has a duty to maximise the amount it can make from the books, he stresses, so that the money can be put towards Oxfam's work overseas. Plus, it would be failing the people who donated the books to sell them for less than they were really worth.

Does he really think that the people who donated them had any idea of their true value? Maybe not, he concedes. In the Watership Down, there is a cancelled library stamp.

"And because somebody has bought it from a library, they might not have realised its value," he says.

But certainly there are donors who do realise the value of the books they are giving.

"We had a gent who brought in a Dylan Thomas book, which he said was worth £100," he says. "We had it checked, and sure enough it was worth £110. He was effectively making a donation of £100 to Oxfam in the form of a book."

The book-loving store manager wouldn't want all this talk of volumes worth thousands of pounds to put off ordinary punters who simply want to pick up a cheap and cheerful second-hand paperback, however.

True, the Oxfam bookstore has a 'collectables' shelf featuring some of the more valuable books they have been given - a first edition Jack Higgins, some beautiful photography books, a complete album of cigarette cards from the Weimar Republic dating from 1936 and a children's book by Alan Sillitoe among them.

But it's the bread-and-butter paperbacks, most of them in excellent condition, that make this shop such a bookworm's dream.

There's nothing dowdy or depressing about this charity shop. For anyone who loves books, it's a wonderland. Shelves and shelves of books, all laid out in neat categories: thrillers, literature, horror, romance, biographies, history - you name it.

There is even a section dedicated to maps.

The average price of a good condition book is £3.49 - and if there's ever been a book by a favourite out-of-print author you've been looking for, this would be a great place to start.

There are something like 13,000 books in stock in Petergate at any one time - with 2,000 'new' books coming in every week. And in Micklegate, where there is another Oxfam bookstore Lee manages, there are 10,000 books in stock, with 1,500 'new' titles every week.

That £3.49 average price for a book means you can stock up on plenty of good reading without busting the bank - and know that you're doing something for charity at the same time.

Lee says: "£3.49 will pay for ten textbooks for children overseas."

Anyone with books to give can donate them directly to the bookstore, or else drop them off at one of the several 'book-banks' in the city. Alternatively, if you have a lot of books, you can ring the store on 01904 652749 and arrange for them to be collected.

We found it in the attic...

If you think discovering a first edition of Watership Down among a pile of old second-hand books is a cause for celebration, imagine the joy at Castle Howard when a 500-year-old drawing by Michelangelo valued at about £7.5m was found in the attic three years ago.

The drawing, entitled Study of a Mourning Woman, was thought to have lain untouched since it was bought by Henry Howard, fourth earl of Carlisle, in 1747.

Valuable finds can turn up in the most unlikely of places. In the past 12 months, auction house Sotheby's - which has an office in Harrogate - has realised the dream of many an antiques hunter by turning goods bought for a few pounds into treasures worth thousands.

Last November, a paint-splattered vase bought for £3 in a car boot sale in Newmarket sold at auction for £7,285. It turned out to be a Lalique glass vase from the 1920s.

Just last week, two vases bought in Yorkshire for £15 sold for £5,400. They were coveted Doulton Lambeth Stoneware vases by Hannah Barlow, dating from 1890.

And later this month, a rare 18th-century microscope, found in a box of bits and bobs bought at a car boot sale for £50, is expected to fetch between £5,000-7,000 for its lucky owner at auction.

Alice Luker of Sotheby's says fortuitous finds such as these are "not uncommon" and says lots of people could be sitting on hidden treasures at home.

For people who go out looking for valuables, she had this advice: "Buy what you like, because you may not know whether it is really worth anything. If you like it and will enjoy it then it's worth what you paid for it. If we take it and find it is worth more then that is obviously a bonus."

Updated: 10:14 Thursday, December 04, 2003