R L Wilson book on Nimsche

[Bob Bullard]

I got a phone call the other day from a friend that is moving and he had found in rather large
l collection of gun books wilsons book on Nimsche .
I have a appointment to go see it next week and was wondering if someone could give me a rough
idea what it might be worth.
Bob

 

[alfrisillo]

Book

Bob,
I recently purchased a copy of Wilson's book of Nimschke's engraving from Rosemay Bone, the widow of Ralph Bone. Ralph was one heck of an engraver. The price on the book was set by Rex Pederson and DJ Glaser from GRS who were nice enough to assist Rosemary in pricing and selling Ralph's equipment/books. The price I paid was $180. From what I have been told by a few engravers, that is a difficult book to find and the prices could vary quite a bit. Anyone else out there recently purchased Wilson's book? The original price on the inside cover of mine is $25. Times have changed.... The book shows mostly smoke pulls from Nimschke's engraving. To me, it has been and continues to be, a valuable learning tool.
Al

 

[Markofx]

Hi Bob,

I've had this book for over 10 years now and I always seem to flip thru it for ideas on how Nimschke filled certain areas. The great thing about it is that 90% of the book is smoke pulls. I scan them and go into Photoshop and reverse the image giving me a positive to look at and transfer for practice plates.
I paid $100.00 and got it new. It was published by R&R Books 3020 East Lake Road Livonia, NY 14487
I hope this helps.

Mark

 

[coincutter]

saw one on the net the other day
600.00

 

[Peter E]

A while ago a fellow on Ebay had a lot of them that were reprints from the original claiming to be of better quality than the original. He first was selling them for around $125 and when he go to the last one, it was around $150. I bought a used one that was published by John Malloy in 1965 and the price on the dust jacket is $17.50.

It was sold on Ebay and I got it a while back for about $65. The book is in excellent condition and the dust jacket is kind of tattered around the edges.

It is a somewhat rare book I would say. My local libraries did not have a copy.

Peter

 

[fegarex]

I helped out Rosemary with selling/pricing equipment but I didn't have any input on the books as I'm not up on them but I do know that book is valuable. Marty Rabeno knows more about them but if I remember what he said, there is 3 printings of them. The earlier ones have more value.

 

[Sam]

I purchased the Nimschke book around 1980 from an ad in Shotgun News, and paid $100 for it back then. Nimschke made smoke pulls of hundreds of his engravings, from simple lettering jobs to amazing gun engravings. He was one of the most profilic engravers in the history of our art. The book is worth whatever price you have to pay for it. / ~Sam

 

[D.DOUGLAS]

I finally broke down and bought one 8 months ago. 200.00 was the cheepest i could get it. If you can get it for under 150.00 pretty fair deal.

 

[ED DELORGE]

How do I know if i have a first edition? Is the 2nd edition marked 2nd edition and so on?

Ed

 

[FANCYGUN]

!st edition has a plain dust jacket.2nd and 3rd have a light blue one with gun pictures on it. 3rd edition has some bad plates that are not clear. !st or 2nd are the better ones to get and cost more. !st edition can run upwards of $350.....2nd is running around $250 or more. #rd is whatever they can get usually 220 or more.
Hope that helps out.it is a MUST HAVE book

Marty

 

[Bob Bullard]

Are they dated as the publishing date or what printing it might be?
I have one that I have borrowed from another friend and it is signed and
has a notation in it that it is one of 1500
I has spent many hours going thru it and have already made up my mind it is one
book for sure that I must have. (I keep his book in my safe with my guns)
Bob

 

[ED DELORGE]

Hello Marty, I don't have a dust cover on this copy. But it was published by Malloy. Does that help?

Ed

 

[Patternweldor]

Hi Marty, Back in the 80's I took engraving from Frank Hendricks he told our class that the Nimschke book was the one to get, his copy was a very well worn original from the mid sixties. If I remember correctly it was a light blue-green color. I tried for a long time to find one as the reprints had't been available yet. finally a friend I used to do barrel work for, found an original deluxe edition of the book, I have heard that there were 200 copies printed in deluxe edition it has a marroon color dust jacket and it is number 188 of 200. It wasn't too long after I aquired this that the reprint came out. I would like to find out about the deluxe edition history on this book. I really enjoy the book even though I keep it wrapped up for preservation, The book was supposed to be new when my friend purchased it (and after all those years) so I am lucky its still in mint shape.

Thanks everyone for the information,
Chris

 

[FANCYGUN]

My 1st edition has a plain maroon cover also and is dated 1965.......now so is my second edition dated 65..go figure. The dust jacket is totally different than the 1st edition and would be the same as the third edition. I bought that one in the late 70's I never heard of a numbered deluxe edition. Wow wouldnt that be nice to own. The 3rd I believe came out sometime in the late 90's

 

[Patternweldor]

Hi Marty, It is intriguing to say the least, to understand what differences there are in the editions.
The copy that I have almost seems different in some way, to some of the others that I have seen
I just havn't had other copies together at one time to compare them closely. This book is also dated
1965, maybe it is the same but it would be interesting to see if there are any differences. The numbering
is in a bracket motif near the back of the book, and thats where it states the copy number and the amount
printed.

Thanks for your time,
Chris

 

[FANCYGUN]

Well what do you know...my 1st edition is a deluxe also. I never looed at the very back of the book. Mine is an edition of 200 also but it is not numbered as to the individual book. Maybe our 1st edition/deluxe is very special obviously and perhaps what we are calling a second is the production run of the 1st. What I have noticed with the 3rd edition si..some of the picture plates are rescreened off of the original screening for black and whit print.Thus with the double screening to create the dots.the image is badly blurred.
WOW...good way to get through my first cup of coffee.......

 

[FANCYGUN]

BTW........go to ABEBOOKS.com they list a few of the books for sale by various venders. Not cheap but they are there

 

[ED DELORGE]

Hello Marty, this copy has written in the back " This R & R edition of L.D. Nimschke Firearms Engraver is limited to 1500 copies".

What does that tell you? 1st, or Second edition?

Ed

 

[FANCYGUN]

Never knew this could be so intersting with such a good book. Mine says limited to 200 copies but is not individually numbered. There is a blank space to do so but it was never done. To rub salt into the wound...I just picked this one up at a gun show for $200 a few months ago. Couldnt pass that one up. My later one which I have had since the 70's I assumed is a 2nd edition does not say anything about limited numbers. The book jacket is a light blue with a few gun pictures on it. The 1st edition has no pictures and is a solid colored jackect that has faded a bit to sort of a maroonish color.

 

[Patternweldor]

It is really funny how this adds up, the fellow that I received mine from had stated that there was a standard edition and a deluxe, the standard I believe was $17.50 and the deluxe was $25.00 they were priced in the inside dust jacket, you know that was a lot of money back in 65 (get that) almost would have bought a new ruger semi-auto 22 pistol, that same pistol now is about maybe $250.00. remember 03A3's at $10 to $15.00 I guess its all relative, when I aquired my book in around 93 it was priced at $600.00, we made a deal cause I couldn't live without it, and I still love it. I am going to try to get a reprint to use more as I hate to take this book out. My copy Marty has some fading on the dust jacket which is maroon and this book hardly saw the light of day. the dyes must not have been too archival. Sorry to ramble but it is unique how the price of items have changed, you can almost add one more zero to everything from that time.

This has been fun, Thanks for the input.
Chris