Jack Hampshire’s classic work Prams Mail Carts & Bassinets was re-published earlier this year by the Jack Hampshire Pram Museum Trust. This is an absolutely wonderful book; a hodge-podge of photos of the 300-odd prams Hampshire himself collected, images of old advertisements, tidbits about pram history written and collected by the author. The original edition was a thoughtful gift to me back when the book was new, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves prams.
The first edition has become a collector’s item, selling for horrendous amounts of money – up to $400 USD, though, of course, people sometimes find it for less. The re-issue itself is a shocking 135 British pounds on Amazon UK, and offered for the nearly-as-shocking price of 125 British pounds from eBay UK. The Amazon listing is surprisingly desultory, not even offering a proper description of the book, and accompanied by a very bad photograph apparently uploaded by a customer.
The Trust tells me that there are only 17 copies remaining of the re-print, and that there are no plans to do another printing, as “it’s been too expensive to do”. I’ve suggested they look into print-on-demand, as well as a quality paperback printing, as this kind of title (and this particular book) is not likely to be a best-seller in the short term, but should have steady sales value over time. No word as to whether my suggestions have reached receptive ears.
I believe Jack Hampshire died in late 1995; many people worked madly to save as much of his collection as possible, but, inevitably, it was broken up. Here’s an image of the back of my own copy, showing Hampshire himself, surrounded by some of his incredible collection:
Hundreds of carriages, his own and many others, fill the pages of Prams. Inexplicably, there’s no mention of the book, or of its availability for purchase, on the Trust’s page on the Internet. Something’s a bit wonky with the marketing scheme here, and that’s a great pity.
