“BOOK-PRICES CURRENT.”

THE SECOND INDEX TO

BOOK-PRICES CURRENT.

VOLUMES XI. TO XX.

FOR THE YEARS 1897 TO 1906.

This Work, which will be uniform with the first Index to Vols. 1 to 10 of the Work, will present a key to the second ten years, viz., 1897 to 1906. By grouping the results of all the Sales of each Volume, it presents, at a glance, all the variations in price which any Work has been subject to during this decade. The use of the Work to Booksellers, Collectors, and Bibliographers is invaluable; indeed, no possessor of Book-Prices Current can dispense with the Index if he wishes to save the time and trouble of hunting through ten volumes for the price he is in search of.

Among the improvements in this Volume may be mentioned a very great increase in the total number of entries; anonyms and pseudonyms, in hundreds of entries, are attached to the real names of the Authors; the names of Editors and Translators are invariably indexed; to every entry, except in a few cases where the year cannot be ascertained, the date of publication is appended; in numerous cases, where the illustrations impart a special market value, the Artist's Name is indexed also. A valuable sub Alphabet under Americana is also given.

Subscribers' names should be sent in to the Publisher in advance to avoid disappointment. Price 25s. net.

A FEW COPIES OF THE INDEX TO THE FIRST TEN VOLUMES OF "BOOK-PRICES CURRENT" ARE STILL FOR SALE:

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

A

RECORD OF THE PRICES AT WHICH BOOKS

HAVE BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION,

FROM OCTOBER, 1906, TO JULY, 1907,
BEING THE SEASON 1906-1907.

In demy 8vo. bound in buckram, and printed on good paper, with fine margin for notes, price £1 7s. 6d. net.

BOOK-PRICES

CURRENT,

VOLUMES I. TO XX.

Being a Record of the Prices at which Books have been sold at Auction during the years 1887 to 1906, with the Titles and Descriptions of the Books in full, the Catalogue Numbers, and the Names of the Purchasers.

Some of the earlier volumes are out of print and others are at a premium. Reports will be made in answer to queries by the publisher.

Opinions of the Press.

"We acknowledge, with much pleasure, that 'Book-Prices Current' is now the most carefully edited work of its kind published in this or any other country. "-Atheneum.

"Book-Prices Current-the Whitaker's Almanack of book-buyers and booksellers."-Illustrated London News.

“A very useful and admirably edited and printed publication.”—Morning Post.

NOW READY.

In demy 8vo., bound in buckram, uniform with BOOKPRICES CURRENT. Price One Guinea net.

Constituting a Reference List of Subjects and, incidentally, a Key to Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature.

"If money, as Anthony Trollope neatly put it, be the reward of labour, too much is certainly not asked for the labour which has marshalled into order a manuscript involving 33,000 distinct titles and considerably over 500,000 numerals." The typographical arrangement of the volume will receive praise from those who can understand the difficulties of the printers' task." The Guardian.

INTRODUCTION.

THE sales by auction reported in this volume of BOOK-PRICES CURRENT, though rather more numerous than those in the two volumes immediately preceding, are not noticeable in that respect. Their importance lies in the fact that of late an exceptionally large number of very unusual and extremely valuable printed books and manuscripts have come into the market, and been sold at prices which a few years ago would have been looked upon as impossible. That American competition has been to a very great extent responsible for the great increase which has taken place of late in the prices paid for rare or unusual copies of the English Classics, whether in print or in manuscript, is common knowledge. But it is not only books of that class which have been affected in such a way; it may be said that all books, provided they are of sufficient importance, have been the subjects of much keener competition than usual during the past twelve months. As will be seen from the table of contents, some 31,800 works have realised very nearly £134,000, this disclosing an average of £4 45. 2d., the highest recorded since 1893, when the system of striking an average, and in that way shewing the comparative importance of each season's book sales, was inaugurated. In 1893 the average stood at £1 6s. 7d., gradually increasing to £2 19s. 5d. in 1899, falling again at the time of the Boer War, recovering to £3 7s. 10d. immediately after its conclusion, and during the last three years falling again considerably below £3. This year the average has risen, as stated, to £4 4s. 2d.; and it must be remembered that mediæval illuminated manuscripts, many of them realising very large sums, have not been brought into the computation. The average is based entirely on the results of the manuscripts of a literary character. this class have realised as much as

sales of printed books and Very nearly 200 works of 100 each and upwards, the

vast majority bringing a great deal more than £100, a sum which, though of comparatively trifling importance as matters stand has been made the standard figure for purposes of convenience, it being practically impossible to take any notice in a short preface of the very numerous volumes which have changed hands at substantial though somewhat smaller amounts.

The chief sales of the season, as reported in this volume, have reference to the Library of Mr. Van Antwerp (of New York), to the Libraries of the Duke of Sutherland, Mr. S. M. Samuel, Mr. L. W. Hodson, Sir Henry Mildmay, and to a number of Miscellaneous Sales of the very highest importance. Of these the Van Antwerp Sale, containing as it did many books formerly in the library of the late Mr. Locker-Lampson, was the most noticeable, and it is a matter for congratulation that the sale took place in London, which is unquestionably the chief bookselling market of the world. It was at this sale that a copy of the Kilmarnock Edition of Burns's Poems realised £700; Cicero "On Old Age" and other pieces printed by Caxton in 1481, £600; Hubbard's "Troubles with the Indians," with the "White Hills" map, 1677, £450; Shakespeare's first folio, 1623, £3,600; the third folio, 1664, £650; and Walton's "Compleat Angler," 1653, £1,290. Among the Manuscripts of a literary interest the Shelley Note Books, belonging to the late Dr. Garnett, sold for £3,000; the original MS. of Morris's " Earthly Paradise," bound in 7 vols., for £405; the "Decretales of Gratian," a fourteenth century MS. written on vellum, for £440; the collection of Swift's Letters, Poems and Essays, mostly unpublished, for £510; a fifteenth century "Speculum Humanæ Salvationis," on vellum, the precursor of the block book, for £695; Sir Walter Scott's "History of Scotland," partly in his handwriting, but chiefly dictated by him, for £510; and Pope's "Essay on Man" and other pieces for £895. These are a few of the large sums realised for books and manuscripts of exceptional interest, and are referred to here as being explanatory of the unusually high average which the summary of the season's sales discloses. A complete tabulated list of these highly prized works might be useful to point a moral, but as they are all mentioned in the index such a course is unnecessary.

It must not be supposed, however, that all, or even the majority