NEW YORK – Humans are undeniably drawn to familiar things that are smaller than they should be, and books are no exception. Most miniature books postdate the year 1800, but their history begins before Gutenberg invented his printing press. To qualify as a miniature, a book can’t merely be little. According to the Miniature Book Society, publications produced in the United States must be “no more than three inches in height, width, or thickness.” If it is any smaller, the text becomes difficult to read without the aid of a magnifying glass. Other countries’ collectors are willing to accept books that measure as long as four inches on those parameters.

While miniature books are inherently delightful, for centuries, they were seen as functional and practical – they were tools that performed specific and vital jobs. It’s unsurprising to find that so many antique miniature books are religious texts of one type or another, but it is worth reflecting on the convenience that they provided the faithful. Standard-size Bibles, Torahs and Korans are often too big, heavy and precious to carry around outside the house. It made sense to invest in a copy of a holy book that fits in a pocket, despite the expense and the risks of theft and unfortunate laundry accidents.

Little Bibles and prayer books were also created expressly for children. Publications scaled down for smaller hands helped their young owners tackle the onerous but necessary task of learning to read. Later on, secular miniature books for children appeared and evolved into their own subcategory.

The utility of miniature books might elude 21st-century citizens who can instantly call up any information they want on their smartphones. An early 18th-century book with the long-winded title The Young Sportsman’s Instructor in Angling, Fowling, Hawking, Hunting, Ordering Singing Birds, Hawks, Poultry, Coneys, Hares and Dogs, and How to Cure Them was almost certainly more useful in its 2 5/8 by 1 5/8 form. A full-size version would have proven an obstacle and a drag to readers who were out in the field, actively hunting and fishing and in need of its wisdom. Few copies of this miniature book survive, which explains why one earned a hammer price of $7,500 against an estimate of $4,000-$6,000 when it was offered at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries in February 2016.

The portability of miniature books was liberating, and at least one of them was literally meant to serve as a vessel of freedom. John Murray Forbes, a 19th-century American railroad executive and abolitionist, funded the printing of a miniature version of Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation for Union solders to distribute to enslaved Black people to tell them that they had been freed. Exact publication run numbers are unclear, but it’s possible Forbes had as many as a million Emancipation Proclamation miniature books printed, of which vanishingly few survive. One such copy, measuring 3 3/8 by 2 1/4in, realized $5,800 plus the buyer’s premium at Merrill’s Auctioneers and Appraisers in November 2015.

It was around the middle of the 19th century when miniature books gradually stopped being tools and shifted to a more fanciful role. A miniature book printed in England in 1841 might represent a turning point in the genre’s history; it came equipped with a proportionately scaled magnifying glass and a luxurious carrying case for both.

As in most every category of goods sold at auction, provenance matters with miniature books. The provenance that matters the most, by far, is that of American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who amassed a collection of around 750 miniature books. If a petite tome resided in his library, that copy will be worth more than an otherwise identical one. A case in point is a group of five ex-FDR miniature books that was collectively estimated at $300-$500 and went for $1,100 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2022 at Clarke Auction Gallery. The FDR lot’s inclusion of a German-language miniature on the candidacy of his cousin Theodore Roosevelt certainly didn’t hurt.

Valuing miniature books for their size, and by extension the vexing technical challenges of creating them, had begun to take hold by 1904, when the St. Louis Exposition was held. One of the reasons World’s Fairs were held was to celebrate the achievements of humanity. It is fitting, then, that a souvenir produced for the 1904 fair was a miniature book bound inside a walnut and closed with a ribbon. An example that survived with its original box, which was emblazoned with the legend “St. Louis Exposition, 1904, All In A Nut Shell,” trounced its $40-$60 estimate to sell for $650 plus the buyer’s premium in December 2020 at Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers.

Producing tiny but legible books represents a supreme test of skill. As tough as miniature books are to make, some presses and artisans nevertheless take up the challenge of micro-miniature books, most of which are at a scale fit for a dollhouse. In April 2019, Ron Rhoads Auctioneers presented a lot of six super-small books with a correctly scaled mahogany book stand. One of the books, a rendition of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was the work of Barbara Raheb, who released more than 500 titles before retiring around 2002 due to losing her eyesight. Estimated at $100-$150, the lot sold for $325 plus the buyer’s premium.

Among the best-known artists to venture into the realm of miniature books is Edward Gorey, famed for his charmingly creepy illustrations. His first miniature book, The Eclectic Abecedarium, was released as a limited edition that encompassed a smaller deluxe edition of 100 that he signed and also colored by hand. An example that had retained its slipcase was presented at Ashcroft and Moore LLC in November 2021 and sold for $2,700 plus the buyer’s premium.

Digital and audiobooks have claimed many of the basic information-delivery tasks that printed books once handled. It seems that the elevation of the miniature book to an art object took place at just the right time. Those who seek petite versions of publications treasure them for their physicality, and for the technical achievements they represent. Neither spoken words nor strings of code can satisfy a reader in the way that miniature books do. Connoisseurs are certain to bid big for small books for generations to come.