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bookbarn · ‎05-26-2017

Hello all, haven't posted in a long time but I need to call on your expertise to help with a unique book we aquired in an estate buy.

From what we can tell the book is a Czechoslovak song book of national songs. It is entirely in the Czech language but we have translated the title as this:

Nas Treasure: A bouquet of 150 Czechoslovakian pianos
Bouquet of 150 Czechoslovak Songs, Pearls of Czech National Song, For Piano and Two Hands

There is not date but it looks to be from the late 1800's. We have found a few references in various catalogs and sites but have found no value ever attached to any of them.

We are stumped by this one as we can find none other listed for sale by any other dealer/site.

Any suggestions/ideas on this one. We can list in our stores and begin with a high asking price and always adjust but just wanted to see if any of you had any history with this type of book before we do that.

Thank you for your help!!

Kari C.

The Book Barn

taylor_memorial · ‎05-26-2017

It's in good condition. Probably better than that as a grade.

You might be a bit off as to the date on it: Czechoslovakia did not declare independence until after WWI, & the big diaspora from the area was closer to the turn of the century as the war began to look imminent. Look in the back of the book. European publishers often put data on the last page rather than up front when there is no real import to it (meaning a reprint of public domain stuff).

Provide a picture or two of the actual song pages: notation style has some value if it's not the common treble clef style. I know it will be hard to determine if the versification is complete but you can tell if there is more than one verse to each tune.

Lacking comps from the usual sources, I'd try Zvab (Choosebooks) and failing there I'd wing it aggressively. This sort of thing has a small but strong niche market. I'd park it at $50 or there abouts for a while I could find nothing to compare it with. If you think you can do better, go for it. I do sell music by shy away from this sort of thing as requiring more time than it's worth.

It should be priced in the same range as other ethnic collections. Higher if you can find some song about Vlad the Impaler or another tie-in to the entire vampire culture that runs so strong through our pop culture today.

Look on Addall or Abe for collections of native songs from the region. Czechoslovakia did not exist in 1880, which does not mean the people didn't. You need to look for Bohemian, Moravian, that sort of thing. Austrian... etc.

taylor_memorial · ‎05-26-2017

Google.translate provide "Our Poland" as the title of the book--in the Croation toungue.

bookbarn · ‎05-26-2017

Thank you for your input. No dates on last page or anywhere else throughout. Below is photo of one of the songs contained in the book.

argon38 · ‎05-26-2017

Náš poklad = "Our Treasure" in Czech (and Slovak).

As has been mentioned, the book cannot possibly pre-date the formation of Czechoslavakia (October 1918). There was literally no such place as Czechoslavakia prior to 1918.

argon38 · ‎05-26-2017

@argon38 wrote:

As has been mentioned, the book cannot possibly pre-date the formation of Czechoslavakia (October 1918). There was literally no such place as Czechoslavakia prior to 1918.

Sorry... forget the above! The title isn't referring to Czechoslovakia as a country - it's simply indicating the fact that there are Czech and Slovak songs in the book. So yes, it could date from the 19th century.

Here's the Czech Wikipedia page for Jan Malát (1843-1915):

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Mal%C3%A1t

oldmagazines · ‎05-27-2017

This book is listed on worldcat. You can look up the title by the words

Naš poklad : kytice 150ti pisni československých

It was published by Urbanek in Prague.

Worldcat lists the author as Ferdinand Sladek (1872 - 1943)

The book is available in a library in Germany.

Worldcat lists the publication date as 189?

argon38 · ‎05-27-2017

@oldmagazines wrote:

Worldcat lists the author as Ferdinand Sladek (1872 - 1943)

Yes, Jan Malát and Ferdinand Sládek. They were really the editors (or compilers) of the book rather than authors, since the music isn't of their own composition. I couldn't find much biographical information about Sládek, but there's some useful material in the Czech Wikipedia article on Malát (can be run through Google translate).

lachto5 · ‎05-28-2017

There are a couple of copies of a compilation songbook by Ferdinand Sladek on the river for under $20. One of them looks like a recent reprint. The title does not have a sales rank.