Sorabji: Auction of master-copies

[ahinton]

During the 1980s in the early days of The Sorabji Archive, we prepared paper master copies of all of the composer’s music scores (mss., out-of-print publications and handwritten editions) as well as his published literary writings.

Some years ago, we decided to create .pdf files of all of this material from those master copies; these all entered the archive catalogue in June 2012 and have thereafter been available for electronic supply along with the paper copies that we have provided ever since the archive’s foundation in the 1980s.

The reasons for our decision included
1.   supply charges substantially lower than those for paper copies
2.   the avoidance of additional shipping charges
3.   almost instant transmission from archive to recipient
4.   ease of storage for both the archive and the recipient.

We retain all of this material in .pdf format on our main hard drive and it is backed up to an external hard drive. There are no copies "in the cloud" but there are further copies of the entire collection elsewhere, so its security for the future should be very good.

Excluded from these master copies are typeset editions which the editors have kindly sent to us electronically and of which we have therefore had no need to retain paper master copies.

From time to time since we created the .pdf files we have found the need to refer to the paper master copies in order to make the occasional correction; however, after more than three years, we have concluded that we no longer need to retain them. Accordingly, we have decided to sell them, not least to free up the space that they currently occupy.

The collection comprises some 15,500 A4 duplex pages; some are in portrait format but most are in landscape format. Each item is held inside its own zipped plastic wallet.

We now have pleasure in inviting bids via email to sorabji-archive@lineone.net from individuals and institutions for the entire paper master copy collection. An opening reserve of £350 is set for this collection as it is currently held, to include the cost of packaging for shipping but not the shipping costs themselves.

The successful bidder will agree to pay the amount of the successful bid for the collection in advance of shipping and also to meet all shipping charges which we will notify before shipping. We estimate the overall weight of the collection, inclusive of packaging, to be in the order of 55kg.

As with those copies of the material that we have been supplying since the 1980s, it is to be understood by the purchaser and his/her heirs and assigns that no items or parts of items in this collection may be reproduced or distributed in any format other than with the prior written consent of the Sorabji Archive at any time during its copyright term which expires on 31 December 2058; likewise, it is to be understood that acquisition of this collection will not affect the right of the Sorabji Archive to continue to distribute any of the material under its copyright.

Bidding will remain open until 31 December 2015 and the successful bidder will be notified as soon as possible thereafter.

We look forward to finding a new home for this important collection, as well as to the few cubic metres of space that its departure from the archive will release!

This is, by nature, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; once they're gone, they're gone!.

Thank you very much in advance. We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Alistair Hinton
Curator / Director
The Sorabji Archive

[thalbergmad]

I will start off with 50p.

Thal

[ahinton]

I will start off with 50p.

No - you will "start off" - as indeed you clearly already have - by wilfully omitting to read the post in which it is made quite clear that the starting reserve is 700 times that amount; if - or rather as - you don't want these items in any case (as seems pretty obvious), one might wonder why you've bothered to respond in this thread at all, but one may suppose that it is nevertheless your prerogative to do so, however absurd said response might be.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

OK, i will up my bid to £1.

Thal

[ahinton]

OK, i will up my bid to £1.

If, as seems clear, you wish to continue to omit to read the post that initiated this thread, then by all means be my guest if you have no particular objection to ridiculing yourself by so doing; that said, it will be clear to anyone who has read it that the starting reserve is £350 and so your "bid" is therefore not a "bid" and will be disregarded as such until and unless it exceeds that reserve amount.

Thank you.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

£2

[ahinton]

£2

If you still have nothing useful to post on the thread topic, why bother to post anyway? Again, to remind you, the starting reserve is £350; if you're really interested and want to bid a sum above that amount, then please feel free to do so and we will record it; if not, then my I respectfully suggest that you desist from making comments that can only be regarded as facetious?

Thank you.

Best,

Alistair

[schumaniac]

If you still have nothing useful to post on the thread topic, why bother to post anyway? Again, to remind you, the starting reserve is £350; if you're really interested and want to bid a sum above that amount, then please feel free to do so and we will record it; if not, then my I respectfully suggest that you desist from making comments that can only be regarded as facetious?

Thank you.

Best,

Alistair

I see that you are looking for serious replies, but £2 would be an AMAZING deal
So too would £350. But I wonder if there are any established artists (MAH??) who would be interested, so maybe you'd want to get in touch with them as well?? It'd be better than getting them in the hands of some of these forum users.....

[ahinton]

I see that you are looking for serious replies, but £2 would be an AMAZING deal
So too would £350. But I wonder if there are any established artists (MAH??) who would be interested, so maybe you'd want to get in touch with them as well?? It'd be better than getting them in the hands of some of these forum users.....

We will indeed be letting plenty of people know. M-AH already has quite a lot of these scores. We will be just as happy for the material to go to the right kind of academic institution as to an individual. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, thank you for your interest.

Best,

Alistair

[lhb_]

Thanks for posting. It's a great deal, but I wouldn't know what to do with them even if I could afford them. Here's to hoping they find a good home!

[visitor]

£2

i suspect you're shopping for bird cage liner?

note: I am not passing judgement on the music or insinuating that I believe that is the best use for them (I reserve that for those yellow Schirmer editions of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, and any score of Rob Schumann). But I thought your pricing was getting at something like that.

[ahinton]

i suspect you're shopping for bird cage liner?
...
note: I am not passing judgement on the music or insinuating that I believe that is the best use for them (I reserve that for those yellow Schirmer editions of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, and any score of Rob Schumann). But I thought your pricing was getting at something like that.

Whatever Thal had in mind (if anything), it's hardly of relevance to the topic; if indeed he thought that he would be shopping for bird cage liner (which is not the kind of thing for which one would expect to be invited to bid at an auction!), why might he have supposed that this was one of the products offered by The Sorabji Archive?

No, it's obvious that Thal wasn't being serious and so his observations need not be taken seriously and, as a mere diversion from the thread topic, for whatever reason or none, they deserve to be put back in the bird cage from whence they emanated so that the rest of us may return to the thread topic rather than to continue to give Thal's intentionally silly remarks any more kilometrage than they merit; after all, some jokes outlive their usefulness faster than others...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Well actually, i was planning to buy the lot and have the sheets converted to bog rolls.

Thal

[dogperson]

Well actually, i was planning to buy the lot and have the sheets converted to bog rolls.

Thal

WHY are you doing this?  Do you have a problem with the original email post or the auction? 

[ahinton]

Well actually, i was planning to buy the lot and have the sheets converted to bog rolls.

Fifty grand and it's all yours.

Best,

Alistair