Shire's New Titles
Paul Gilberg
Like many collectors of Shire Books, I thought that once the company changed ownership that would be the death of Shire. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by the new titles. Books like Worcester Porcelain and Village Shops are just like the Shire of old. So congratulations to Osprey. My only criticism is the weird numbering. I keep a database and find it difficult. I have listed numbers from 461 to 491 but cannot find anything after that until 499. I know you combined the albums with the Lifelines etc and I think that was a mistake. Brunel will always be Lifelines Number One in my mind. I hope you will see this as constructive criticism from a customer and I know you cannot change it back. I find it hard to make sense of it. Thanks. Paul Gilberg
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| Joe@Osprey |
1
Dear Paul,
We are thrilled to hear about your Shire collection, and that you’ve been paying attention to our numbering system. The decision to combine a number of Shire series into the Shire Library was a tough one, but we believe that it was the right thing to do, and when we changed the numbering of some books we did bear the collector in mind!
As you have realized, Shire Library keeps the same numbering system used by the Shire Albums, and any book that was originally a Shire Album will keep its number if it is reprinted as a Shire Classic in the Library Series.
When other series books (Garden History, Lifelines etc) were included in the Library series we allotted a batch of numbers, so that any future re-releases from this series could be given adjacent numbers. It is numbers 500-564 that have been reserved for this purpose, but only some of these have been used so far.
Also, since books are assigned a number when they are commissioned, they are not always released in strict numeric order, which is why London Bus (number 499) has appeared before some of the earlier numbers.
I can’t give you all the details yet, but I can reveal a few numbers to fill
in the gaps in your database and give you something to look forward to:
Victorian Public School (Number 494) and Land Rover (Number 499).
I hope that helps clear things up.
Posted: 21-Jul-2009 16:32
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| Paul Gilberg |
2
Dear Joe
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I always judge a company on how (or if) they respond. Shire was a brilliant company and I am pleased that Osprey seem of the same type. You cannot quite convince me of the benefits of the numbering scheme but this is a small issue. It is amazing how useful even some of the long out of print Shires are. I always use my 37 county guides for reference and recently did an essay on Pugin and so my Lifeline book was invaluable. Great series the Lifelines and probably my prize collection is the 46 titles. I bought Alma Tadema from France. Hope the books are selling well and I wonder if any of the newer ones will go out of print and become great rarities. Hope you get a chance to look at my other post on this noticeboard and wonder if you know the answer about the Wines of Madeira book. I still cannot believe I managed to get Ipswich. All the best. Paul
Posted: 21-Jul-2009 19:34
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| Joe@Osprey |
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Paul, I asked around about the Wines of Madeira book and uncovered an interesting little story. Apparently, 15,000 copies were produced. However, due to an error by the printer, the book suffered from poor binding, and thousands of copies ended up being destroyed. Many did make it out onto the market, but have probably continued to suffer from poor binding. Thus, intact copies of this book probably are extremely rare. Good luck on your quest!
Posted: 22-Jul-2009 11:41
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| Paul Gilberg |
4
Hello Joe
Thank you for your reply about Wines of Madeira. I am not surprised as many of the early Discovering and Lifelines had poor binding and hence low print runs. I understand that books like Ipswich were given away at petrol stations and no doubt destroyed shortly afterwards. Hopefully I will stumble across a Wines of Madeira one day. I do like the old Shires as they have a great history to them. All the best. Paul
Posted: 22-Jul-2009 18:36
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