Exlibris, the masked book sellers of Nottingham, marked an end to their 20 years of charity book sales with a final event in Carlton over the weekend.
Bob and Chris Cann, the founders of the charity booksale, organised a final sale at their property in Vernon Avenue.
The mammoth event started on April 15, and ran for 3 long weekends, finishing on May 2
The unsold books will now be donated to Books for Good Causes foundation in South Yorkshire and a collection of children’s books will be given to foodbanks.
The profits from the final sale will go to the local charities WE R HERE and Host Nottingham.
The charity has also collected tins of vegetarian food from the visitors to hand over to Netherfield Food bank.
Chris said that they are both sad and relieved with the end of the venture.
She said: “it feels almost as if we’ll be losing part of our identity.
“We’ll very much miss the excitement of receiving new book donations, the thrill of sorting and shelving them, the pleasure of meeting customers and seeing them delighted with their finds, the ecstasy of having our toilet monitored, and the satisfaction of handing over useful amounts of money to good causes.
“It also makes us feel relieved. No more worrying about getting enough publicity done; an end to the heavy box lifting; no more book sale related chaos in our house.”
The team also set-up a silent auction for rare collection of books.
Exlibris will be running a final stall at this year’s Green Festival in September and have vowed to keep a box of books for free outside their house for keen readers out there.
Since 2006, they have raised and distributed £24,636.85 to lots of different local good causes with main beneficiaries being Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum, Hayward House end of life care, Nottingham Green Festival, We R Here, Sharewear, Host Nottingham.
They follow the tradition of victorian bibliophile Josiah Saithwaite and pay homage to him by wearing masks.
Many bibliophiles of Nottingham are saddened with the end of these book sales.
A Nottingham-based booklover said: “I thank them for running these events.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed finding great books, some by authors I know, others by new ones, whilst supporting charities.
“I am really going to miss it.”
Chris and Cam thanked the supporters through their Facebook page for their constant love and support over the years.
Hi. Chris from ExLibris here. We will give children’s books to food banks, not selling them!