BOOK-PRICES CURRENT, VOLUMES I. TO XIV. Being a Record of the Prices at which Books have been sold at Auction during the years 1887 to 1900, 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 by the publisher in answer to queries. 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. "To praise Book-Prices Current' is unnecessary; it has become indispensable to book collectors, and of vital interest to all who care for literature."-Globe. "Brunet, indeed, so long the book-buyer's chief delight, must yield to 'Book-Prices Current.'"-Notes and Queries. Its own "It is beyond comparison the book-collector's cyclopædia. earlier volumes, curiously enough, command very high prices."-Daily Chronicle. "The practical utility to buyers and sellers of an authoritative annual work of reference like this requires no demonstration. The knowledge and skill displayed in this compilation merit cordial recognition." Standard. "To all classes of bookmen, the issues of 'Book-Prices Current' may be fairly pronounced indispensable."-Literary World. "It may be said without exaggeration that the annual volumes of Mr. Slater's admirable compilation are indispensable to such as desire to follow with any closeness the record of sales and the movements of the secondhand book market."-Times. "The work supplies a finely printed record which will be valued, not by the bookseller merely, but by the collector and librarian."-Daily Telegraph. "The book collector's Bible."-Pall Mall Gazette. "The record is extremely useful for buyers and collectors of books, and is a valuable index to current phases of book-collecting, and to fluctuations in the market."-Saturday Review. Book-Prices Current: A RECORD OF THE PRICES AT WHICH BOOKS HAVE BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION, FROM OCTOBER, 1900, TO JULY, 1901, D37.10 1901, may 6: - how. Il NOW READY. In demy 8vo., bound in buckram, uniform with BOOK- THE INDEX TO THE FIRST TEN VOLUMES OF BOOK-PRICES CURRENT (1887 to 1896): 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. "The 'Index' will be of great value to all who possess or have access to the annual volumes, and it is issued uniform with them."-The Westminster Gazette. "No well-conducted library should be without this useful and praiseworthy adminicle of order."-The Scotsman. "Supplies to a considerable extent the vacuum caused by the want of an up-to-date Lowndes.""- The Bookseller. "A work of independent and undoubted value, and should be in the hands of every bibliographer."- The Clique. "We cordially recognise the value of Mr. Jaggard's compilation, which is much more than a mere mechanical amalgamation of the ten annual indexes.' -The Athenæum. LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. INTRODUCTION. THOUGH the present volume of BOOK-PRICES CURRENT does not contain so many entries as the preceding one, it is, nevertheless, rather more bulky. This is due to the fact that a large number of rare books of an unusual kind came into the auction rooms, especially during the months of June and July, and books of this class cannot be dismissed in a few lines. On the contrary, they monopolise more space than they would do had they been at all likely to re-appear at an early date. A considerable number of books in this volume have never been seen in the auction rooms since BOOK PRICES CURRENT was started, and, in all probability, many of them will not be seen again for some years. On the whole, this fifteenth volume may be quoted hereafter as containing a large proportion of books which, to use a popular phrase, “no one ever heard of before." In other words, many of these books are not generally known, and had to be described more fully, perhaps, than the importance of some of them would warrant. That they should make their appearance in such numbers would be surprising but for the belief that, in all probability, they have been kept back from the previous season or seasons. The season 1899-1900 was very bad, as may be judged from the figures38,151 lots realising but £87,929. This volume shows 38,377 lots, and the total amount realised was £130,275 98.-the largest total with which, so far, I have had to deal. The average sum realised per lot is thus £3 7s. 10d.-the highest on record. This shows that the value of books of an important kind is still rapidly advancing, and that money is of comparatively no importance so far as they are concerned. The season has witnessed the payment of such sums as £1,720 for the first folio of Shakespeare's Plays, £1,550 for Caxton's "Ryall Book," and £1,475 for a copy of the original edition of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," containing a portrait of the author, which some people think appeared in a few copies of the book when it was first published. Whether it did or not is a matter of pure speculation, and the amount paid, especially when contrasted with that realised for the Caxton, can only be described as fanciful in the extreme. There are not many changes to chronicle. The original editions of Mr. Kipling's various stories are now neglected; the Dickens-Thackeray-Cruikshank collectors still sleep; the Badminton books have fallen away; and the works from the Kelmscott Press are apparently resting, all except the Chaucer, which has now advanced to eighty-three pounds. Speaking generally, however, old books are in the greatest demand, and the best among them have, naturally enough, advanced in price. They are aided in this respect by the new century which, in imagination, has suddenly aged them by a hundred years. CROYDON, SURREY, September 28th, 1901. J. H. SLATER. |