standpoint that has ever been held in this country. The great and costly library of William Beckford, of Fonthill, realised £89,200, and so far heads the list of important sales, though the next instalment of the Huth sale will assuredly depose it from the position it holds in this respect. As matters stand at present, the following table gives in order of monetary importance the twelve most noticeable sales which have been held in this country during the last hundred years :- These sales are tabulated, it must be remembered, on a pure commercial basis, their degrees of intrinsic importance being another matter altogether. If, for instance, the Duke of Roxburghe's library were sold now, it would doubtless realise a sum out of all proportion to the amount obtained for it in 1812. The Beckford library would bring a great deal more than £89,000, and the same remark applies to every library in the list except, perhaps, that of Lord Amherst, which was sold quite recently, and therefore comes within the scope of present-day conditions. The fact is that all the libraries above mentioned contained large numbers of books of the very kind for which there has been an ever-increasing demand-works printed by old craftsmen whose types are catalogued and studied by bibliographers and collectors who make a speciality of incunabula, editiones principes of works of classic renown, illustrated books of a very early date, and original editions of the works of the masters of English and other literatures. Books in these classes are unaffected by the fleeting decrees of fashion. Their progress is surely and steadily onward, and their mercantile importance to-day is altogether beyond the estimate which prevailed even twenty years ago. For this reason it is not possible to draw a comparison between one and any other of the libraries I have catalogued, except by eliminating dates and looking at the bare financial results as they are set down in the table. Leaving the unfinished Huth sale out of the reckoning, the season which has just terminated has not been more remarkable than usual. It just about holds its own with an average of something less than £3, which, though good, has been touched before on several occasions, and exceeded on some. Generally speaking, books which do not, for one reason or another, appeal to the richer class of collectors are more accessible than they were a few years ago, and realise smaller sums than they did then. They afford, at least, some compensationfrom the buyer's point of view-for the many disappointments which the collector whose resources are not unlimited is continually meeting with, and which he cannot avoid in this ever-growing war of prices. THORNTON HEATH, SURREY, J. H. SLATER. ERRATA. Vol. XXV., p. 492. The name "Huntingdon" in the second paragraph should be Huntington, and the following prices also stand in need of revision: 53 Sales. Total No. of Lots, 36,295. Total Amount realised, £181,780 18s. |