BOOK-PRICES CURRENT, VOLUMES I. TO XVI. Being a Record of the Prices at which Books have been sold at Auction during the years 1887 to 1902, 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."-Athenæum. "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. 66 'Brunet, indeed, so long the book-buyer's chief delight, must yield to 'Book-Prices Current.'"-Notes and Queries. "It is beyond comparison the book-collector's cyclopædia. Its own 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, 1902, TO JULY, 1903, 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. "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. A CAREFUL analysis of the Sales reported in this volume would emphasise more forcibly than ever the demand that exists for what may be described as the Old English Classics, and for those comparatively modern works which will in all probability take rank with them in course of time. The high prices frequently realised for rare books of this class are invariably reported in the daily press, and the publicity thus given accounts, no doubt, for the large numbers that even yet find their way to the auction rooms. Not without reason did the auctioneers say that the undescribed work of Alexander Gallus, printed by Pynson in 1492, which will be found reported on page 479 as having realised £320, might “for the present, at least," be regarded as unique. This book had rested, practically unknown, for nearly three hundred and fifty years on the library shelves of Appleby Grammar School, and is the type of other books, perhaps of other copies of the same book, which will, if experience be any guide in these matters, assuredly emerge from the obscurity into which they have fallen. The same remarks apply to well-known books which for one reason or another lie hidden away, and, strange as it may appear, are only remembered when a record price is obtained, and proclaimed abroad as evidence of the increasing value of works which at one time excited comparatively little interest. One would have thought, for example, that all the early editions of Shakespeare's Plays, including the first four folios, would have been ear-marked and secured long ago, but this would not appear to be the case. The following pages disclose many references to single plays and collective translations in English, German, French and Dutch which until quite recently were by no means well known, and are only just beginning to be recognised as extremely important additions to the branch of literature to which they relate. Even the first four folios are not yet all absorbed by the public libraries of this and other countries. During the last season four copies of the first folio were sold, twelve of the second folio, four of the third, and no fewer than thirteen of the fourth. Many of these copies were, it is true, more or less defective; but that so many, whether perfect or not, should have made their appearance in the auction rooms during the course of a few short months is certainly very surprising. So also copies of the early editions of Milton's works appear to be coming into the market in increasing numbers, and the same remark applies to those of the Elizabethan and later dramatists, such as Marlowe, Shirley, Massinger and Beaumont and Fletcher, among many more. The comparatively modern English classics of Shelley, Byron, Keats, Sheridan, Goldsmith and others are also in great demand, and really good copies bring high prices. This is only to be expected, for they are on their way to join the others of which I have spoken, and as time goes on will be more and more identified with them in point of age, scarcity and other details which, when in combination with recognised ability, appeal with peculiar force to the bookman's fancy. The classes of books that attract at the moment may be roughly assigned to the departments of Archeology, the Drama, Poetry, Biography, Genealogy, Bibliography, History, Music, Voyages and Travels. On the other hand, Natural History, Science, Fiction, Agriculture and Sporting books generally seem to have fallen away in numbers and, to some extent at least, in price also. Americana have become very scarce, and the older and more important Theological works are more difficult to meet with than formerly. Original editions of the works of Dickens, Thackeray and other highly esteemed novelists maintain their position, but copies must be good and in their original covers, or they excite, for the most part, no sort of interest. Modern Art works occupy a rather unsettled position, but their tendency is to fall in the market, and the greatest care should be exercised so far as they are concerned. Closely allied to them are those older books with highly coloured plates which have recently been selling at greatly enhanced prices. These, too, should be carefully watched, as they come within the same category and may |