About the ABF
The Danish Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association (ABF) is an association for professional antiquarian booksellers with thorough knowledge of antiquarian books and more than three years of full-time employment within the trade. The association is the only Danish one to belong to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB ), and affiliation with these two associations guarantee professional and fair trade with antiquarian books. Dealing with a member of the ABF assures the customers that they will be treated correctly and professionally when buying or selling. In every country there can only be one professional antiquarian bookseller’s association affiliated with the ILAB-LILA, and these national organizations stand surety for the professional antiquarian book-trade in each country. Members of ILAB-LILA are assured goodwill in foreign countries, and this also benefits the customer. As a member of ILAB-LILA, the ABF is also subject to the rules and ethical code of this international organization (ILAB’s Code of Ethics ) which ensures the standard of the antiquarian book-trade in Denmark.December 16th 1920 marks a turning-point in the history of Danish antiquarian book-trade. Earlier this year it had been decided that the second-hand- and pawnbroker-law should be renewed, and that the law should also comprise the used book-trade. Since the middle of the 19th century Danish antiquarian book-trade had grown considerably, and was now a fairly large trade with a great deal of buying and selling. The intended law would mean that the antiquarian booksellers would have to register every single book that was bought, and this would mean the end of the trade, -it would simply be impossible to register every single thing that was bought in a trade, in which most of the buying was done in form of larger collections. Thus three antiquarian book dealers, Carl Frederiksen, Martin Jarler and A.L.E.V. Ørnø, summoned a meeting that was to take place on December 16th; -on this meeting the Danish Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association was grounded.
The decisive meeting was held in the assembly rooms of National, and a committee consisting of the three inviters as well as Grandsgaard-Christensen and V.J. Jensen from Johan Rasmussen’s antiquarian bookshop was established. Carl Frederiksen was president of the committee; he negotiated with the Minister of Justice, Svenning Rytter, and the crucial paragraph was finally decided not to form part of the law. As a result of the mmeting J.P. Madsen Lind suggested forming an association for antiquarian booksellers, which was unanimously agreed upon. Martin Jarler was elected the first president, and in 1924 he was succeeded by J.P. Madsen Lind. At the end of the year the association consisted of 27 members.
The Danish Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association is the oldest league of antiquarian booksellers in Scandinavia as well as one of the oldest of its kind in the world. It is only preceded by the English one, grounded in 1906, and the French one, established in 1914. The purpose of the association has always been to standardize the descriptions of books, preserve and develop the trade and thereby the general recognition of it, represent the trade as an assembled unity in public and official contexts, making requirements for the members in order to raise the standard and generally uphold the trade. Books (and the descriptions of them) offered by a member of the ABF are subject to certain demands that ensure the customer that they live up to reasonable expectations. Defects and wants must be clearly stated, and if after all measures a book should not live up to the expectations of the buyer, every member of the association is obliged to accept the book returned within a reasonable amount of time.
A Dane, E. Grønholt Pedersen, was a founding member of the international organization, ILAB-LILA, and another Danish member, Hans Bagger, was president of the league from 1985 till 1988. Since 1991 Poul Jan Poulsen has been treasurer of the ILAB-LILA. Today twenty national associations make up the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.
The ABF currently counts 31 antiquarian bookshops each with their own special subjects [link tilmedlemmer med deres specialer]. There are 38 personal members entitled to vote and seven retired members, of which one is also an honorary member.