Personal / Collections / Rare Antiques & Books
Rare Antiques & Books, Insured the Way Collectors Actually Own Them.
Built for collectors who bring scholarly precision to their acquisitions, and want their insurance to match.
You've held a first edition with the original binding intact and felt the specific quiet that comes from knowing you're touching something genuinely irreplaceable. You've had an opinion about the difference between a first issue and a later printing based on a printer's mark most people would skip over. You've navigated auction rooms at Swann, Christie's, and Sotheby's Books & Manuscripts, and you know that catalog descriptions are conservative for a reason. WAX Collect was built for the collector who approaches their library with the same rigor they apply to every acquisition.
The foundation
WAX Collect covers theft, accidental damage, fire, flooding, worldwide travel, and pets. For rare books and antiques, fire and flooding are the most acute threats. Single events that can eliminate holdings built across decades. Accidental damage is critical for fragile pieces: a dropped first edition, a handling incident with a delicate binding, a climate mishap with a vellum document. All covered.
That's the spine. WAX Flex™ is the full binding.
Lever one, your colophon choices
Two optional coverages, each independently configurable. Your premium adjusts in real time with every change, no calls, no waiting, no bundled packages you didn't ask for.
Checked Baggage Coverage
Covers items lost or damaged through airline baggage handling. If you transport pieces to international book fairs, the California Antiquarian Book Fair, the London Book Fair, TEFAF, and anything travels in checked luggage, this is relevant. If everything ships professionally or carries on, easy remove.
Unattended Auto Coverage
Protects pieces left in an unattended vehicle. You're transporting a freshly acquired piece from an auction house or estate sale. The car is unattended for twenty minutes. This coverage is for that scenario.
Want Mysterious Disappearance? It's included as standard on WAX Classic™.
Lever two, the edition that fits your collecting
Traditional insurers apply the same 150% payout structure to every collection, regardless of whether it includes a Shakespeare First Folio or a well-preserved run of early-20th-century fiction in dust jacket. These aren't the same insurance proposition.
WAX Flex™ lets you choose:
100%. Agreed value, paid in full. For collections where the value is stable and well-documented, modern firsts in good market conditions, antiques with established auction records, pieces collected for personal significance rather than market appreciation.
125%. Up to 125% above agreed value. Subject to the class limit. For pieces demonstrating steady appreciation, first editions from authors gaining critical reevaluation, antiques in categories experiencing collector renaissance, signed presentation copies whose historical importance is being reestablished.
150%. Full market appreciation protection. For incunabula, pre-1700 printed books in exceptional condition, manuscripts, signed firsts from foundational literary figures where auction results have been redefining market expectations, and antique furniture with significant provenance, important maker attribution, or exhibition history.
A vellum leaf from a Gutenberg Bible and a signed modern first are not the same insurance conversation. WAX Flex™ finally lets you make that distinction.
Lever three, the complete library rate
Rare book and antique collectors frequently collect adjacent things. Maps, prints, ephemera, decorative arts, manuscript letters, natural history illustrations. Some collect alongside art. Some alongside watches. WAX Flex™ rewards the collector who consolidates.
One category: base rate. Two: automatic discount. Three: greater automatic discount. In real time, no calls required.
The bibliographic detail on your coverage
- Agreed value, guaranteed. Supported by current auction records from Swann, Christie's, Heritage, and period dealer catalogues, not a generalist estimate.
- $0 deductible in most U.S. states. Losing a first edition to a flood is already an irreversible event.
- 90 days of newly acquired coverage. Acquired a significant piece at last week's auction? Covered for 90 days, automatically.
- Worldwide coverage. TEFAF Maastricht. The New York Antiquarian Book Fair. Private sales in London.
- Claims via the WAX app. Streamlined and direct.
- AM Best A+ (Superior) rated carrier partners with deep experience and a documented history of saying yes.
You've spent years developing the knowledge to know what matters and why. You've built a collection that will outlast most things in a room. Your coverage should be as considered as the collection itself.
