A celebrated collection of aeronautica : formed over fifty years by William Rhode, distinguished flyer, member of the Aviation Hall of Fame, historian of that institution. Now in the possession of Herbert R. Jacobs and offered as a collection for public sale. Two thousand four hundred and ninety six titles

New York, New York: North American Maps & Autographs, 1984. Disbound. Very Good. An offering of a major collection of aeronautica by firm North American Maps & Autographs (owners E. Forbes Smiley III and Lisa A. Benson). The offering includes:

1) Main catalog of the collection including:
a) Reproduced cover sheet "A CELEBRATED COLLECTION OF AERONAUTICA" noting 2,496 titles.
b) PREFACE by Forbes Smiley describing the collection overall
c) 152 reproduced typescript pages with simple listings of each book in the collection, numbered from 1 to 2496. Each listing includes author, title, publisher, date of publication, and occasionally a brief note (for instance if signed)

2) Original typed letter on watermarked Eagle A Trojan Bond 25% cotton fiber paper, with the firms's address and phone printed at top, consisting of a letter to Howland & Co dated 10.16.84 welcoming interest in the collection, and noting that the price of the collection had been set "well below the cumulative value of the books". SIGNED in ink by Forbes Smiley III.

3) 12 page flyer containing on page one an undated letter to "Dear reader" noting the William Rhode collection of over 2500 books, ,etc on the history of aviation "is now being offered for sale as single lots." Pages 2-12 contain a listing of books and sets on the subject, each priced, with numbers A1 through A187. For consistency, Smiley has included the number of the books on offer in the original collection listing. Prices on this listing range from $20 to $1000. Oddly, this first lot offer while from the same address as the original letter (97 Fort Washington Avenue, 6B" is now offered by "Hanover Flyer's Inc."

4) A manilla envelope containing the above, noting the price of the collection as a whole is $450,000, formed by William Rhode over 55 years, and currently in the possession of Herbert R. Jacobs. Disbound. Presumably bookseller Howland & Co was interested in the entire collection, asked for the entire collection listing which they declined, and later received the first selections when the collection was made available in parts.

The dealer E. Forbes Smiley III is best known today as a convicted thief who served four years in prison for stealing 97 maps from major institutional libraries worth more than $3 million. Online accounts note Smiley's business was not doing well financially and he became a thief in an attempt to make ends meet. Given the optimistic pricing in this collection (over $180 on average per item) this writer is not surprised it didn't sell as a collection, although it would be an interesting exercise to determine today what the collection might be worth. We have not been able to quickly determine what became of the collection, or whether additional selections from the collection were offered.

OCLC notes but a single example of this catalog, in the Beatrice Hitchens Memorial Collection at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. No doubt offered to Beatrice Hitches but not purchased (their OCLC entry notes it is not part of the Hitchens Collection).

An interesting piece of bookselling history from more than one perspective.