When asked the definition of a rare book, there’s a good chance Ken Sanders will say, “A book that I have and you don’t.”
And for someone who has been in the rare book business for more than 50 years, Sanders has accumulated a vast, unique collection in his downtown Salt Lake City bookshop. But he still gets excited when a book that is especially unusual comes his way.
Such a moment occurred on an “Antiques Roadshow” Salt Lake episode that aired Monday, April 3. Sanders has been a book and manuscript appraiser with the show for 10 years, and in this episode he examined an 1844 "Bellows Falls" Latter-day Saint hymnal that he had come across only once before.
“I was quite shocked when (the lady) brought it up to the table,” he said in an interview with the Deseret News. “It’s pretty doggone lucky for me to get (to appraise) a rare Mormon book.”
Hymnals from the early years of the LDS Church are uncommon, Sanders stated. Used in weekly church services, the books would quickly fall apart, get tossed out and be replaced with new editions. He added that this hymnal, named for the Vermont town where it was printed, was one of the first to use musical notation along with the words of the hymns.
“Of the handful of hymnals that were actually printed and distributed in the 1830s and 40s, (the 1844 Bellows Falls) is one of the very rarest ones,” Sanders said. “Of the pre-1850 LDS hymnals, there are only handfuls of any of them that still exist. They’re extraordinarily rare.”
On the set of “Antiques Roadshow,” Sanders appraised the 1844 hymnal for $40,000-$50,000. He said his evaluation was based in part on his selling price of that same hymnal several years earlier — $50,000. He mentioned that a first-edition 1835 hymnal in nice condition could be worth as much as $100,000.
Sanders added that in general, hymnals are “exceedingly rare” compared to Book of Mormon editions. As an example, he mentioned that while an 1830 Book of Mormon edition is of great value and importance, the one thing that it isn’t is rare, as he has come across hundreds of copies in his career.
“A rare book is rare when just because you’ve got the funds to acquire it, you can’t do it,” he said. “You have to wait until a copy manifests itself in the marketplace. There were 5,000 copies (of the 1830 Book of Mormon) printed, and to the Mormon people this is a holy, sacred text. When your Book of Mormon gets a little tatty, or the covers come off and the pages get loose, you don’t throw it away. You keep it, no matter what condition it’s in. No one threw away the Book of Mormon, just like nobody kept the hymnals.”
The art of appraising is often “tricky business,” as it requires considering both rarity and value, Sanders said.
“They’re connected, but they’re not the same thing,” he said. “In theory, you could have the rarest book in the world — the only copy! But if no one wants it, what’s it worth? The market for early LDS books is very lively and it’s very active, so you combine that with it being truly rare and it will probably go over the estimated value.”
In the “Antiques Roadshow” context, appraising can be extremely challenging given the short time frame allotted to each person.
“We were absolutely slammed all day long,” Sanders said. “At 5 p.m., we still had 200 people waiting in line for appraisals. We don’t go home until the last guest has gotten the last appraisal. I was there as late as 9 at night after a 7 a.m. start. It’s an intense, intense day.”
And while being an appraiser for “Antiques Roadshow” often brings out his best game, Sanders said that sometimes the best answer he can give a guest is, “I don’t know.”
“That’s the beauty of this rare book world,” he said. “No two days are ever the same.”
The episode is the first of three taped in Salt Lake that KUED is airing. The remaining episodes will air Mondays, April 10 and 17 at 7 p.m.
1844 LDS hymnal appraised for $40,000-$50,000 on 'Antiques Roadshow'