Comments on: What’s a doublette?

By: Trevor ap Simon

Trevor ap Simon — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 20:05:57 +0000

I think the solution lie in the gemstone analogy because the double seems to have more value than its doublee, the price differential presumably arising from a machine-defying imperfection that is either rare or unique. Simon Garfield wrote a thing for Granta a while back about his fetish for stamps with errors (without Post Office Towers), and the same kind of thing goes on in the book trade. Dibdin in Bibliomania calls them “true editions”

By: MM

MM — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 16:57:20 +0000

Dublette usually means a duplicate. Two copies of the same thing may be worth more than one, I suppose. Muret-Sanders does say Schmuck: doublet (i.e. ‘doublet, you schmuck’).
It does seem to be used for books released e.g. when a library buys up someone’s estate and finishes up with two copies of the same thing, so the spare copy can be sold. That seems the most likely meaning of Verkauf von Dubletten.

By: Trevor ap Simon

Trevor ap Simon — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 14:43:31 +0000

Thanks Aidan. It’s a specialist book trader who deals in rarities and doubletten. I’m trying to imagine what these are and and why they would be valuable. I’d ask him, but unfortunately he’s dead.

By: Aidan Kehoe

Aidan Kehoe — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:21:01 +0000

In a general sense any doubly-available item, especially in (art) collections, libraries and so on, see Replik. In a library a multiply-available work or catalogue entry. I’m not sure if that answers your question; what was the context you didn’t understand it in?