3 NOVEMBER 1906, Page 38

Book Prices Current, 1906. (Elliot Stock. 27s. 6d. net.)-The past

year of bookselling (reckoned from October to June) was, we are told, a busy one, though few books of great importance-as importance is reckoned in this matter-were brought under the hammer. There was no "Compleat Angler" of the first edition, and no rare Shakespeare. It would not be prudent to say that the valuation of books by mankind is more dominated by common- sense than it used to be, but one can perceive that some particular crazes are weakening. We see, for instance, that six first editions of books by Charles Dickens, from "Nicholas Nickleby " down to "Little Dorrit," "in original cloth, uncut," went for £7 17s. 6d., a price which would have been thought very inadequate ten years ago. Similarly a " Sordello " in original green cloth fetched £2 5s. The writer of this notice sold such a copy-and to a book- seller-for 9.4 some ten years ago.