Old sheet music - valuable?

[alywin]

Not sure if this is the best place to post, but ...

I'm just having a turn-out of some old sheet music, and found a copy of something that my parents had valued at Sotheby's in the mid-80's for £40. Given that I've got quite a few copies of music dating back a century or more (and even more that feel old, but don't appear to have a publication date on them), I'm wondering if any of them might be valuable, and how I might find out if they are, short of sending them at random to some auction house and then maybe finding out they're worth less than the paper they're printed on. Also, quite a few have been mended with bookbinding tape, which I assume would greatly reduce their value.

Does anyone have any pointers, please? I've no idea what the market would currently be like.

[salymap]

Not sure if this is the best place to post, but ...

I'm just having a turn-out of some old sheet music, and found a copy of something that my parents had valued at Sotheby's in the mid-80's for £40. Given that I've got quite a few copies of music dating back a century or more (and even more that feel old, but don't appear to have a publication date on them), I'm wondering if any of them might be valuable, and how I might find out if they are, short of sending them at random to some auction house and then maybe finding out they're worth less than the paper they're printed on. Also, quite a few have been mended with bookbinding tape, which I assume would greatly reduce their value.

Does anyone have any pointers, please? I've no idea what the market would currently be like.

It's probably not worth the trouble IMO, unless you have something very old and rare.

I gave a number of books and some sheet music to a local music school.

As I was the last to leave the editorial office of my job when the firm was taken over I also gave alovely collection of postcsrd portraits of Victorian musicians, mostly well-known singers, to the Library of the Royal College of Music. They seemed delighted with them.

Never throw music away though - someone will be pleased with it,.

[MrGongGong]

Some music books can be worth huge amounts
my local library "disposed" of it's copy of Karkoschka's Notation in New Music (I think they threw it in a skip)
without realising that it was worth over £100
similarly some other texts (Cage's Notations for example) can be worth large amounts of money
but even though I have these and others I'm not in a hurry to sell them.........

it all depends on what the music is

[Dave2002]

my local library "disposed" of it's copy of Karkoschka's Notation in New Music (I think they threw it in a skip)

Ouch! I wish they wouldn't do things like that - they don't take the trouble to find out what's worth keeping or at the very least passing on to a good home.

[MrGongGong]

Ouch! I wish they wouldn't do things like that - they don't take the trouble to find out what's worth keeping or at the very least passing on to a good home.

Absolutely, I used to borrow it once a year to try and keep it on the shelves. Where I live we used to have a wonderful city music library with a specialist librarian (who now works for one of the London music colleges) but sadly as part of the "modernisation" they got rid of things that people didn't borrow very much......they also had a copy of Daphne Oram's book and a collection of Stockhausen scores etc but all gone now to be replaced with DVD's and Jeffry Archer "Novels"
A local piano teacher told me that she found someone throwing large collections of bound piano music (complete Beethoven Sonatas's etc etc ) into a skip ....

[Stephen Whitaker]

http://www.cecilcourt.co.uk/travis_emery.php

Still hanging on I hope and definitely used to be helpful and knowledgeable.

[umslopogaas]

You could try ebay. Having said that, I've just had a quick look and cant find a sheet music category under 'Music', but I think it would be worth a more detailed look. You could try offering it under 'Books'.

[salymap]

http://www.cecilcourt.co.uk/travis_emery.php
Still hanging on I hope and definitely used to be helpful and knowledgeable.

Yes Stephen, a happy hunting ground for me about 50-60 years ago but Amateur51 may know if they are still open as I haven't been to London for ages now.

[MrGongGong]

Yes Stephen, a happy hunting ground for me about 50-60 years ago but Amateur51 may know if they are still open as I haven't been to London for ages now.

Still going strong last month

[Flosshilde]

my local library "disposed" of it's copy of Karkoschka's Notation in New Music (I think they threw it in a skip)
without realising that it was worth over £100

In what condition? remember that a library copy will have ownership stamps, possibly repairs, etc. Its value can be very different to the value of a copy that's been in a private collection.

I wouldn't neccessarily defend the disposal in such a way of stock, but as an ex-librarian I am very aware of the pressures - political & accommodation - that might be behind it. Most libraries do try to sell off 'redundant' stock to the public - it doesn't usually go from shelf to skip.

[pastoralguy]

I have a very rare copy of Ida Haendel's autobiography that I got for 'only' £40 on Amazon. (A present from my late father in law). Almost all surviving copies of this book are ex-library copies since it sold poorly upon publication. (Happily, she autographed it for me - one of the great moments of my life!)

[MrGongGong]

In what condition? remember that a library copy will have ownership stamps, possibly repairs, etc. Its value can be very different to the value of a copy that's been in a private collection.

Much better than my copy which I paid a good £75 for
the Library copy was pristine and bound
mine is a bit hammered
but a great work all the same

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's worth looking on the Sheet Music Warehouse website, which specialises in second hand music, to get an idea of what old sheet music might be worth. I rarely throw music away; when I do, I seem to spend weeks or months trying to find another copy

[alywin]

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback, and particularly to Stephen for suggesting Travis and Emery. I'll try and make time to go in there this week.

[ardcarp]

I hope I'm not too late to join in this discussion. The basic principle seems to be (leaving aside rare editions, etc, etc) that if you want a piece of music it costs a fortune to buy, but if you want to get rid of any it's worthless! The ardcarps have a vast collection of music of all sorts, haphazardly catalogued and often difficult to find when you need it. Much has been bought, some inherited and loads wished on us ('cos people know we can't say 'no'). I have long since stopped bothering to try to sell anything unwanted...and I have a feeling that when we pop our clogs it will all go in the skip. Sad isn't it?