[Under this heading vs notice such Books of Ike tom*
as haws not been reserved for review in other form.] Auction Prices of Books. Edited by Luther S. Livingston. 4 vols. Vol. I., " A—Dick." (Elliot Stock. 28 83. the 4 vols.) —This book is compounded, with additions, from the eighteen volumes of the " Book Prices Current," which began to be pub- lished in this country some twenty years ago, and the twelve volumes of the American work of the same name, together with a number of earlier catalogues of sales in both countries. Every important book sold in England since July, 1864, and in the United States since March, 1870, has been included, or, rather, will be when the work is complete. The obvious convenience is that instead of having to search through thirty, volumes of "Book Prices Current" and an indefinite number of catalogues, some of them difficult or oven impossible to obtain, the whole of the commercial bibliography of thousands of works is here brought together and rendered easily available. The collector will find this a most useful, we might say an indispensable, bb6k of reference. It is by the collector class that the seven hundred and fifty copies of which the issue consists will be chiefly taken up; but those whose function it is to read rather than to buy— an authority, eminent but anonymous, quoted by Bulwer Lytton, tells us that those who buy seldom read--will find it of consider- able interest. The biggest price reached by any one of the books dealt with in the present volume, so far as our observation has gone, is the 41,475 given for the first edition of "The Pilgrim's Pro- gress" (at Sotheby's, May 6th, 1901). It had the portrait and two autographs of Bunyan's friends. Bibles of various kinds occupy twenty-seven pages, and some of them fetched considerable sums, as the first edition of Miles Coverdale's translation 4400, and the second edition 4680 ; yet another from the Ashburnham Collection brought £820. The average prices rule higher than for any other book. The first twenty of the " Bible in English " averaged more than 4200. Some of the Robert Brownings fetched good prices; but the records showed something like caprice. The most costly were the " Paulines " ; seven copies averaged 4147, the highest figure reached being 4325 for a presentation copy to J. Dykes Campbell. A proof, copy of "The Ring and the Book," with manuscript revision, was priced at 4132. On the other hand, a printer's proof of " Strafford," with manuscript correc- tions, was not valued at more than 42 6s. These were not, we suppose, in the poet's handwriting, for a similar copy, " with revisions in Browning's autograph" of Dramatis Personae, was priced at 491. "La Saisiaz," however, similarly corrected, went for £7. The element of chance is evidently considerable in these matters. Among the high-priced Burnses was an original edition of " Poems," with autograph, 4250, and another of " Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect," 4350 (this had been made perfect with leaves from another copy).
or lost ?
Previous page
