Refers to the standard reference book about wine books printed in the English language, Wine Into Words: A History and Bibliography of Wine Books in the English Language by James M. Gabler. Originally published in 1985, it was reissued in a greatly enlarged version in 2004, and with the numbering system used to identify the books changed. Thus if someone quotes a Gabler number at you, you'd better find out what edition they used to determine what book they are referring to. We purchased Mr. Gabler's collection of wine books in 2005, so we used his own copy of the second edition, shown here, when citing his reference.

As in "original cloth gilt" – gold decoration or lettering applied to a binding or page edge. Gilding the top edge was desired not only because it looks attractive, but also because it makes the books easier to dust off. Often condition on books that have been gilded is at least partly determined by how much or little the gilding has tarnished or rubbed. This copy of Charles Dickens' Sketches by Boz, offered in our Catalog 119, had elaborate gilt decorations on the boards and spine. Not to be confused with the feeling of shame you get when you buy from some other bookseller and we have to put the cats on a diet.

Thin, partially transparent paper product, either printed, or most often not, used as a dustjacket on some books, perhaps most frequently on limited or small press editions. This two volume first edition set of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, offered in our Catalog 113, has the French-folded glassine jackets as issued.

Bad. Not to be confused with the phrase more commonly used in the English rare book trade "extremely good," which doesn't mean extremely bad, but something closer to "of exceptional mediocrity." We avoid the phrase good (and for the most part, avoid books that we have to call good), unless we can honestly say the book is good. We’ll use "fair" sometimes, or "poor," or on rare occasions, "pissed on by rats." You probably want to avoid copies in this latter category. Can you guess which of these two copies of Rafael Sabatini's The Sea Hawk is the "good" one? Can you guess which one costs more? See – this collecting stuff is easy.