The special world of rare manuscripts

Lot 109 astatine the April 29 auction held by Vergos Auctions featured autographed manuscripts of 5 poems by the Nobel Prize-winning writer Giorgos Seferis, dating from October 1941 to November 1942. The worldly was placed successful a bifolio bearing the title “Kalligrafimata” / 41-42, referring to the posthumous postulation “Book of Exercises II” published successful 1976 and edited by G. P. Savvidis.

The auction house’s archetypal estimation for the “Kalligrafimata” postulation – which is chiseled for the information that the verses are handwritten successful calligraphy signifier to make an illustration related to the subject of each poem – ranged from €4,000 to €6,000. With bids rising archetypal successful increments of €500 and aboriginal €1,000 – something uncommon successful the manuscript market, which is typically much restrained – contention for the poems was fierce.

‘Its value lies not successful exhibition, but successful the discreet, astir solitary ‘dialogue’ its holder develops with it’

The auctioneer’s hammer ultimately fell astatine €16,000, and the postulation went to an instauration that has chosen to stay anonymous. But the grounds merchantability was not simply the precocious constituent of the evening. It was besides a motion that the uncommon manuscripts marketplace – agelong a comparatively cloistered world of librarians, academics and a small ellipse of passionate collectors – is opening to look arsenic a chiseled class successful its ain right.

“A manuscript is simply a very special item: It is not meant to beryllium displayed, arsenic it needs to beryllium very cautiously stored distant from airy and humidity, while adjacent framing it tin harm it,” Petros Vergos, an adept connected the subject, tells Kathimerini.

In its aboriginal years, Vergos Auctions specialized successful uncommon books, manuscripts, maps and engravings – a tract that had not been systematically developed successful Greece astatine the clip – and is still regarded arsenic a starring authorization successful the category.

Literary cache

“The narration betwixt the proprietor and a manuscript is astir fetishistic. It is an entity that resists nationalist display; its value lies not successful exhibition, but successful the discreet, astir solitary ‘dialogue’ its holder develops with it,” Vergos says.

Auction houses successful different parts of the world person seen a steady emergence successful the bids astatine akin income implicit the past decade. Letters by authors that erstwhile mightiness person passed mostly unnoticed present pull aggravated planetary bidding. Medieval texts that had been tucked distant for decades successful backstage libraries suddenly look astatine auction and alteration hands astatine prices that would person seemed excessive a fewer years ago. Is the aforesaid the lawsuit successful Greece?

“The representation changes depending connected the category,” Vergos says. “Historical manuscripts person dipped, particularly those related to the 1821 War of Independence. Literary manuscripts, by contrast, person remained comparatively stable successful caller years. The marketplace is small – possibly 5 to 10 radical – but these are informed and profoundly committed collectors.”

The acquisition of a uncommon manuscript is usually a discreet process. Owners attack an auction location for its expertise, or, conversely, the auctioneer learns of an archive’s beingness and contacts the heirs. The process relies connected acquisition and accumulated knowledge. An informal representation takes signifier of which households clasp material, which archives person already circulated and where something unexpected mightiness emerge. Often, heirs observe documents they ne'er knew existed – notes oregon adjacent full bodies of work – and question an appraisal. That is however a manuscript’s travel into nationalist view begins.

“Manuscripts correspond thoughts that are still warm,” remarks Tasos Sakellaropoulos, a historiographer and caput of the humanities archives astatine the Benaki Museum, established by Antonis Benakis, who was known for acquiring manuscripts astatine precocious prices.

“For years, manuscripts and humanities documents person been sold by ragpickers astatine the flea markets of Schisto and Elaionas. Every ragpicker searching done landfill sites has their ain collector, and the two sides of the speech are often linked by relationships that past for years. Frequently, the third procreation inheriting a postulation decides to bare the location and wide retired the drawers. In the best-case scenario, they consign the worldly to an auction; successful the worst, they propulsion it into the recycling bin,” says Sakellaropoulos, describing 1 of the main channels done which valuable manuscripts still circulate successful the market.

This travel is besides confirmed by Sophia Bora, lawman manager of the literate archives astatine the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA) of the National Bank of Greece’s Cultural Foundation (MIET), which holds much than 200 archives spanning from the 19th period to the contiguous day. Whether they get arsenic donations from descendants oregon collectors, oregon are rescued from the trash – arsenic was the lawsuit with the implicit archive of the writer Tellos Agras – they are still priceless humanities records.

“What makes literate archives each the much special is that writing – until precocious the archive’s superior worldly – is itself the very worldly of the authors’ art. Works successful progress; layers of writing abandoned, revised oregon near unfinished by premature deaths; antithetic stages of checking and editing; monologues, dialogues, circles of friends – a insubstantial world made up of narratives, reflections and small mundane moments,” Bora says.

The Cavafy Archive

Is there a “Holy Grail” successful the marketplace for literate manuscripts?

“Demand is still precocious and values are steady for definite writers, such arsenic CP Cavafy,” says Vergos. “The available worldly is highly constricted and surfaces lone sporadically. Even so, nary 1 rules retired the beingness of unknown worldly successful backstage archives.”

It is worth recalling that the Cavafy Archive passed from the poet’s heir, Alekos Singopoulos, and then to the modern Greek student GP Savvidis, who restored and organized overmuch of it, and yet passed successful connected to his son, Manolis Savvidis. It was acquired by the Onassis Foundation successful 2012 and, aft being processed and catalogued, was incorporated into the integer Cavafy Archive postulation successful 2019.

“We person been incorporating caller worldly into the postulation since 2013, chiefly done purchases astatine archive and papers auctions and, to a lesser extent, done nonstop acquisitions oregon donations from backstage individuals. These caller acquisitions are digitized, documented and published successful our integer postulation so that they tin participate into dialog with and link to the main assemblage of the archive, ever with a enactment indicating that they are post-2013 acquisitions,” Antonis Papadimitriou, president of the Onassis Foundation, tells Kathimerini.

The monetary value of a literate manuscript varies according to whether the text is unpublished, published oregon wholly original, a origin that importantly increases its price. Publication tends to stabilize value without diminishing the manuscript’s entreaty arsenic an entity successful its ain right. In the lawsuit of highly prolific authors, such arsenic Kostis Palamas, the sheer volume of surviving worldly tends to support prices successful check. By contrast, for poets with much compact bodies of work, rarity enhances value.

Greece’s top 5

If we were to marque a database of the 5 writers for whom request is highest comparative to the constricted availability of manuscripts, Cavafy would unquestionably fertile first. He is followed by Seferis (whose manuscripts bid peculiarly precocious prices, particularly successful unpublished versions oregon variations), Yannis Ritsos (whose extended assemblage of work means idiosyncratic poems often surface connected the market), Palamas (whose prolific output sustains steady interest, though astatine little terms levels) and Nikos Kazantzakis (primarily represented done letters, whose value mostly depends connected the recipient). There is much involvement for poets than for prose writers, since a poem exists arsenic a self-contained work, often survives successful unpublished signifier and carries an aesthetic prime that is embodied successful the manuscript itself.

“With prose writers, the worldly is much often epistolary. Value, successful such cases, depends connected the recipient: A missive addressed to Nikos Kazantzakis, for example, has a antithetic value from 1 sent to a lesser-known author,” explains Vergos.