Price. Price.
£ s. d. £ s. d.
'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' 1818 18 0 0 385 0 0
'Much Ado About Nothing,' {1797 7 10 0
{1818 17 17 0 267 10 0
'Love's Labour Lost,' 1818 40 10 0 316 10 0
'A Midsummer Night's Dream' {1805 2 2 0
{1818 12 10 0 116 0 0
'The Merchant of Venice' {1815 9 9 0
{1818 22 1 0 270 0 0
'King Richard II.,' 1598,[143:A] 1800 4 14 6 108 3 0
'2 Henry IV.,' 1797 (one leaf MS.) 8 8 0 225 0 0
'Henry V.,' 1818 5 7 6 211 0 0
'1 Henry VI.,' 1801 38 7 0 50 0 0
'Richard III.,' 1818 33 0 0 351 15 0
'Troilus and Cressida,' 1800 5 10 0 110 0 0
'Romeo and Juliet,' 1800 6 0 0 160 0 0
'Hamlet,' 1812 4 13 0 36 0 0
'King Lear,' 1800 28 0 0 70 0 0
'Othello' (1622), 1818 56 14 0 155 0 0
'Pericles,' 1812 1 15 0 40 0 0
'Lucrece' 21 0 0 250 0 0
'Venus and Adonis'[143:B] (Malone's copy) 25 0 0 315 0 0
'Poems' 70 0 0
'Sonnets' {1800 3 10 0
{1812 21 0 0 230 15 0
[Illustration: _Title-page of the First Edition of 'The Compleat
Angler.'_]
What is true of the Shakespeare quartos and folios is also true in a
slightly less accentuated degree of the first editions of the sixteenth
and seventeenth century poets and dramatists. Dibdin describes a Mr.
Byng as having purchased the only known copy of Clement Robinson's
'Handefull of Pleasant Delites,' 1584, at a bookstall for 4d.; at his
sale this 'Handefull' was sold for 25 guineas to the Duke of
Marlborough, at whose sale, in 1819, it fetched £26 15s.
[Illustration: _From the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' Part II._]
Puttenham's 'Art of English Poesie,' 1589, and Gascoigne's 'Works,' are
two other striking illustrations of the increase in the value of old
English poetry, although the books themselves are of comparatively minor
importance from a literary point of view. Isaac Reed well remembered
when a good copy of either might have been had for 5s. In the first and
second decades of this century the prices had gone up to about £5, but
the present values would be nearer £20. Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,'
1590-96, early in the century could have been had for £3 12s.; it now
realizes ten times that amount if in fine condition. Milton's 'Paradise
Lost' has increased in the same ratio. Lovelace's 'Lucasta' has risen
from 11 guineas to nearly £50. The market value of a first edition of
Walton's 'Compleat Angler,' 1653, in 1816 was 4 guineas; in 1879 this
book fetched £52; it has since realized £310. Rarer even than the first
Walton is the first edition of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress,' 1678;
Southey, writing in 1830, declared that the date of the first
publication of this work was at that time unknown, since no copy could
be traced. Not long after this an example--still in possession of Capt.
Holford, of Park Lane--turned up, and was valued at £50; during the last
few years four more have been unearthed: three of these are in England,
and the other is among the treasures of the Lenox Library, New York. The
commercial value of a copy is probably not much less than of a first
Walton. Although the first edition of the first part of the 'Pilgrim's
Progress' has always been considered so rare, the second part is even
rarer; indeed, only three copies are known to exist: one (very
imperfect) in the Astor Library in New York, one in the Rylands Library,
and the other in the hands of a collector in London. Till some ten years
since the two English copies were not known to exist; they were both
bought in one bundle for a few shillings in Sotheby's sale-room. The
imperfect American one was supposed to be unique till these came to
light.
Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield' sixty years ago was 'uncollected'; a
quarter of a century ago it sold for £5; ten years ago it was worth £10;
in 1891 a remarkably tall and clean copy, in the original calf as
issued, sold at Sotheby's for £94. Gray's 'Elegy,' 1751, sold for £1
16s. in 1888, and for £70 since then. Apropos of this 'Elegy,' there are
only three uncut copies known, and one of these was obtained by Mr.
Augustine Birrell, Q.C., a few years ago by a stroke of great good luck.
He happened to be passing through Chancery Lane one day, and, having a
little time at his disposal, dropped into Messrs. Hodgson's rooms, where
a sale of books was in progress. At the moment of his entry some volumes
of quarto tracts were being offered, and taking one of them in his hand,
he opened it at random, and saw--a fine uncut copy of the famous
'Elegy'! He bought the lot for a few shillings. It may be mentioned that
the original manuscript of Gray's 'Elegy' sold for £130 in 1854.
Such are a few of the excessively rare books, whose appearance in the
market is at all times an event in the book-collecting world. Partly as
an illustration of our forbears' wit, and partly as a list of curious
and highly imaginary titles, the following article from the _London
Magazine_ of September, 1759, is well worth quoting here:
'_BOOKS selling by Auction, at the Britannia, near the
Royal Exchange._
_By_ L. FUNNIBUS, _Auctioneer_.
'"Gratitude," a Poem, in twenty-four cantos, from the original
German of Lady Mary Hapsburgh, published at Vienna in the year
1756.--"Machiavel the Second, or Murder no Sin," from the
French of Monsieur le Diable, printed at Paris for le Sieur
Dæmon, in la Rue d'Enfer, near the Louvre.--"Cruelty a
Virtue," a Political Tract, in two volumes, fine imperial
paper, by Count Soltikoff.--"The Joys of Sodom," a Sermon,
preached in the Royal Chapel at Warsaw, by W. Hellsatanatius,
Chaplain to his Excellency Count Bruhl.--"The Art of
Trimming," a Political Treatise, by the learned Van-Self, of
Amsterdam.--"Self-Preservation," a Soliloquy, wrote extempore
on an Aspen Leaf on the Plains of Minden; found in the pocket
of an Officer who fell on the First of August.--"The Art of
Flying," by Monsieur Contades; with a curious Frontispiece,
representing Dismay with Eagle's Wings, and Glory with a pair
of Crutches, following the French Army.--"The Reveries of a
Superannuated Genius, on the Banks of Lake Liman, near
Geneva," by M. Voltaire.--"The Spirit of Lying," from
"L'Esprit Menteur" of Monsieur Maubert.--"Political
Arithmetic," by the same Author; in which is proved to
Demonstration that Two is more than Five, and that Three is
less than One.--"The Knotty Question Discussed," wherein is
proved that under certain circumstances, Wrong is Right, and
Right is Wrong, by a Casuist of the Sorbonne.--"A New Plan of
the English Possessions in America," with the Limits
_properly_ settled, by Jeffery Amherst, Geographer to his
Britannick Majesty.--"The Theory of Sea-fighting reduced to
Practice," by E. Boscawen, Mariner.--"A Treatise on the
Construction of Bridges," by I. Will, and I. Willnot,
Architects, near the Black-Friars, at Louvain.--"The Spirit of
Treaties," a very Curious Tract, in which is fairly proved,
that absolute Monarchs have a right to explain them in their
own sense, and that limited Princes are tied down to a strict
observance of the letter.--"The Conquest of Hanover by the
French, in the year 1759," a tragi-comic Farce, by a French
officer.--"A Letter of Consolation from the Jesuits in the
Shades, to their afflicted brethren at Lisbon," the second
edition.--"The Fall of Fisher," an excellent new Ballad, by
---- Harvey, Esq.--"The Travels of a Marshal of France, from
the Weser to the Mayne"; shewing how he and 10,000 of his
companions miraculously escaped from the hands of the savage
Germans and English; and how, after inexpressible
difficulties, several hundreds of them got safe to their own
country. Interspersed with several Curious Anecdotes of Rapes,
Murders, and other French Gallantries; by P. L. C., a
Benedictine Monk, of the Order of Saint Bartholomew.'
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[100:A] Cooper's hammer was of boxwood. Millington applies to his own
the Homeric line, +deinê de klangê genet' argnreoio bioio+, which anyone
is quite at liberty to believe. James Christie's original hammer is
still in the possession of the firm; Samuel Baker's belongs to Mr. H. B.
Wheatley.
[101:A] In 1686 Millington was selling the library of the deceased Lord
Anglesey. Putting up a copy of 'Eikon Basilike,' there were but few
bidders, and those very low in their biddings. Casually turning over the
pages before bringing the hammer on the rostrum, he read, with evident
surprise, the following note in Lord Anglesey's own handwriting: 'King
Charles the Second and the Duke of York did both (in the last session of
parliament, 1675, when I showed them, in the Lords' House, the written
copy of this book, wherein are some corrections, written with the late
King Charles the First's own hand) assure me that this was none of the
said king's compiling, but made by Dr. Gauden, Bishop of Exeter; which I
here insert for the understanding of others on this point, by attesting
so much under my own hand.--ANGLESEY.'
[121:A] There were 4,313 lots in this sale, the total of which was
£4,001. The catalogue has a very curious engraved frontispiece of an
oak-tree felled, and persons bearing away branches, with a Greek motto
signifying that, the oak being felled, every man gets wood.
[129:A] This particular copy is regarded as the finest ever sold at
auction; it is bound in blue morocco by Derome, and cost Mr. Wodhull 15
guineas in August, 1770.
[132:A] John Ratcliffe, who died in 1776, lived in East Lane,
Bermondsey, and followed the prosaic calling of a chandler. He collected
Caxtons and the works of other early English printers with great
diligence and judgment for nearly thirty years. Many of these appear to
have been brought to him as wastepaper, to be purchased at so much per
pound. An interesting account of this very remarkable man is given in
Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes,' iii., 621, 622.
[133:A] The original or Caxton's price for this book was about 5s. or
6s. per copy.
[136:A] The title-page of the catalogue contained the following
whimsical motto from Ebulus:
+Kai gar o taôs dia to spanion thaumazetai.+
(The peacock is admired on account of its rarity.)
Hearne speaks of Richard Rawlinson as 'vir antiquis moribus ornatus,
perque eam viam euns, quæ ad immortalem gloriam ducit.'
[143:A] The first edition of this play, 1597, sold in 1864 for £341 5s.;
it is the only copy known.
[143:B] Thomas Jolley picked up a volume which contained a first edition
of both 'Venus and Adonis' and the 'Sonnets,' for less than 3s. 6d. in
Lancashire! The former alone realised £116 in 1844, and is now in the
Grenville collection, British Museum. The copy of the former in the
above list was purchased at Baron Bolland's sale in 1840 for £91; at
Bright's sale for £91 10s., when it became Daniel's. The 'Sonnets,' also
Daniel's copy, had belonged to Narcissus Luttrell, who gave 1s. for it.
[Illustration]
BOOKSTALLS AND BOOKSTALLING.
OF the numerous ways and means of acquiring books open to the
book-hunter in London, there is none more pleasant or popular than that
of BOOKSTALLING. To the man with small means, and to the man with no
means at all, the pastime is a very fascinating one. East, west, north,
and south, there is, at all times and in all seasons, plenty of good
hunting-ground for the sportsman, although the inveterate hunter will
encounter a surfeit of Barmecides' feasts. Nearly every book-hunter has
been more or less of a bookstaller, and the custom is more than
tinctured with the odour of respectability by the fact that Roxburghe's
famous Duke, Lord Macaulay the historian, and Mr. Gladstone the
omnivorous, have been inveterate grubbers among the bookstalls. Macaulay
was not very communicative to booksellers, and when any of them would
hold up a book, although at the other end of the shop, he could tell by
the cover, or by intuition, what it was all about, and would say 'No,'
or 'I have it already.' Leigh Hunt was a bookstaller, for he says:
'Nothing delights us more than to overhaul some dingy tome and read a
chapter gratuitously. Occasionally, when we have opened some very
attractive old book, we have stood reading for hours at the stall, lost
in a brown study and worldly forgetfulness, and should probably have
read on to the end of the last chapter, had not the vendor of published
wisdom offered, in a satirically polite way, to bring us out a chair.
"Take a chair, sir; you must be tired."' The first Lord Lytton had a
fancy for these plebeian book-marts; whilst Southey had a mania for them
almost: he could not pass one without 'just running his eye over for
_one_ minute, even if the coach which was to take him to see Coleridge
at Hampstead was within the time of starting.'
The extreme variety of the bookstall is its great attraction, and the
chances of netting a rare or interesting book lie, perhaps, not so much
in the variety of books displayed as in their general shabbiness. Ten
years ago an English journalist picked up a copy of the first edition of
Mrs. Glasse's 'Art of Cookery,' in the New Kent Road, for a few pence.
It is no longer a shabby folio, but, superbly bound, it was sold with
Mr. Sala's books, July 23, 1895, for £10. A not too respectable copy of
Charles Lamb's privately-printed volume, 'The Beauty and the Beast,' was
secured for a few pence, its market-value being something like £20. A
copy of Sir Walter Scott's 'Vision of Don Roderick,' 1816, first
edition, in the original boards, was purchased, by Mr. J. H. Slater, in
Farringdon Road, in January, 1895, for 2d.--not a great catch, perhaps,
but it is one of the rarest of Scott's works; and as the originals of
this prolific author are rapidly rising in the market, there is no
knowing what it may be worth in the immediate future.
Here is a curious illustration of the manner in which a 'find' is
literally picked up. A man who sells books from a barrow in the streets
was wheeling it on the way to open for the day, and passed close to a
bookseller's assistant who was on his way to work. As the man passed, a
small volume fell off into the road, which the assistant kindly picked
up, with the intention of replacing it on the barrow. Before doing so,
however, he looked at the volume. One glance was enough. 'Here, what do
you want for this?' he asked. The dealer, taking a casual glance at the
volume, said: 'Oh, thruppence, I suppose, will do.' The money was paid,
and the assistant departed with the prize, which was a rare volume by
Increase Mather, printed in 1698 at Boston, U.S.A., and worth from £8 to
£12. A copy of Fuller's first work, and the only volume of poetry
published by that quaint writer, the excessively rare 'David's Hainous
Sinne,' 1631, was bought a few years ago for eighteenpence, probably
worth half as many pounds.
The coincidences of the bookstall are sometimes very remarkable. Mr. G.
L. Gomme relates one which is well worth recording, and we give it in
his own words: 'My friend, Mr. James Britten, the well-known plant-lore
scholar, has been collecting for some years the set of twenty-four
volumes of that curious annual, _Time's Telescope_. He had two
duplicates for 1825 and 1826, and these he gave to me. One day last
January I was engaged to dine with him, and in the middle of the _same_
day I passed a second-hand bookshop, and picked out from the sixpenny
box a volume of _Time's Telescope_ for 1816. In the evening I showed my
treasure with great contentment to my friend, expecting congratulations.
But, to my surprise and discomfiture, a mysterious look passed over his
face, then followed a quick migration to his bookshelves, then a loud
hurrah, and an explanation that this very "find" of mine was the _one_
volume he wanted to complete his set, the one volume he had been in
search of for some time.' Another book-collector picked out of a
rubbish-heap on a country bookseller's floor a little old book of poetry
with the signature of 'A. Pope.' Subsequently he found a manuscript note
in a book on the shelves of a public library referring to this very
copy, which, the writer of the note stated, had been given him by the
poet Pope.
The late Cornelius Walford related an interesting incident, the 'only
one of any special significance which has occurred to me during
thirty-five years of industrious book-hunting': 'When living at Enfield,
I used generally to walk to the Temple by way of Finsbury, Moorgate,
Cheapside, and Fleet Street. Every bookshop on the way I was familiar
with. On one occasion I thought I would vary the route by way of Long
Lane and Smithfield (as, indeed, I had occasionally done before). I was
at the time sadly in want of a copy of "Weskett on Insurances," 1781, a
folio work of some 600 pages. I had searched and inquired for it for
years; no bookseller had ever seen it. I had visited every bookshop in
Dublin, in the hope of finding a copy of the pirated (octavo) edition
printed there; and but for having seen a copy in a public library,
should have come to the conclusion that the book never existed. Some
temporary sheds had been erected over the Metropolitan Railway in Long
Lane. One, devoted to a meagre stock of old books, _was opened that
morning_. The first book I saw on the rough shelves was Weskett,
original edition, price a few shillings. I need hardly say I carried it
away. . . . I have never seen or heard of another of the original
edition exposed or reported for sale.'
[Illustration: _Cornelius Walford, Book-collector._]
Mr. Shandy _père_ was a bookstaller also, and if Bruscambille's
'Prologue upon Long Noses,' even when obtainable 'almost for nothing,'
would fail to excite in every collector the enthusiasm experienced by
Mr. Shandy, we can at all events sympathize with him. '"There are not
three Bruscambilles in Christendom," said the stall-man, who, like many
stall-men of to-day, did not hesitate to make a leap in the dark,
"except what are chained up in the libraries of the curious." My father
flung down the money as quick as lightning, took Bruscambille into his
bosom, hied home from Piccadilly to Coleman Street with it, as he would
have hied home with a treasure, without taking his hand once off from
Bruscambille all the way.'
[Illustration: _The South Side of Holywell Street._]
We have already seen that there were bookstalls as well as bookshops in
and about the neighbourhood of Little Britain during the latter part of
the seventeenth century. There were bookstalls or booths also in St.
Paul's Churchyard long before this period; but books had scarcely become
old in the time of Shakespeare, so that doubtless the volumes which were
to be had within the shadow of the cathedral were new ones. Booksellers
gradually migrated from the heart of London to a more westerly
direction. The bookstall followed, not so much as a matter of course as
because there was no room for it; land became extremely valuable, and
narrow streets, which are also crowded, are not a congenial soil for the
book-barrow. The Strand and Holborn and Fleet Street districts, both
highways and byways, became a favourite spot for the book-barrow during
the last century, and remained such up to quite modern times--until,
indeed, the iconoclastic wave of improvements swept everything before
it. Holywell Street still remains intact.
[Illustration: _Exeter 'Change in 1826._]
One of the most famous bookstalling localities during the last century
was Exeter 'Change, in the Strand, which occupied a large area of the
roadway between the present Lyceum Theatre and Exeter Street, and has
long since given place to Burleigh Street. The place was built towards
the end of the seventeenth century, and the shops were at first occupied
by sempsters, milliners, hosiers, and so forth. The place appears to
have greatly degenerated, and soon included bookstalls among the
standings of miscellaneous dealers. Writing on January 31, 1802, Robert
Bloomfield observes: 'Last night, in passing through Exeter 'Change, I
stopt at a bookstall, and observed "The Farmer's Boy" laying there for
sale, and the new book too, marked with very large writing, Bloomfield's
"Rural Tales": a young man took it up, and I observed he read the whole
through, and perhaps little thought that the author stood at his elbow.'
This locality was also a famous one for 'pamphlet shops.' 'Sold at the
Pamphlet Shops of London and Westminster' is an imprint commonly seen on
title-pages up to the middle of the last century. In addition to shops
and stalls, book-auctions were also held here. The curious and valuable
library of Dr. Thomas Pellet, Fellow of the College of Physicians, and
of the Royal Society, was sold 'in the Great Room over Exeter 'Change,'
during January, 1744, beginning at 5 p.m. (see p. 105).
[Illustration: _A Barrow in Whitechapel._]
Early in the eighteenth century, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, in his
'Miscellaneous Reflections,' 1714, refers to notable philosophers and
divines 'who can be contented to make sport, and write in learned
Billingsgate, to divert the Coffeehouse, and entertain the assemblys at
Booksellers' shops, or the more airy Stalls of inferior book-retailers.'
Bookstalls or barrows have been for nearly a century a feature of the
East End of London, more particularly of Whitechapel Road and
Shoreditch. The numbers of barrows have increased, but the locality is
practically the same. Many useful libraries have been formed from off
these stalls, and many very good bargains secured. Excellent collections
may still be formed from them, but the chances of a noteworthy 'find'
are indeed small. The book-hunter who goes to either of these places
with the idea of bagging a whole bundle of rarities is likely to come
away disappointed; but if he is in a buying humour the chances are ten
to one in favour of his getting a good many useful books at very
moderate figures. We have heard of a man who picked up a complete set of
first editions of Mrs. Browning in Shoreditch, but no one ever seems to
have met that lucky individual; and as the story is retailed chiefly by
the owner of the barrow from which they were said to have been
rescued--the said owner apparently not in the least minding the
inevitable conclusion at which the listener will arrive--the story is
not repeated as authentic. One of the last things which has come out of
Shoreditch lately is a copy of the first edition of Gwillim's 'Display
of Heraldry' (1610), in excellent condition, and which was purchased for
a few pence. An East End book-hunter tells us that, among other rarities
which he has rescued from stalls and cellars in that district, are a
first folio Ben Jonson; a copy of the Froben Seneca (1515), with its
fine bordered title-page, by Urs Graf; an early edition of Montaigne,
with a curious frontispiece; the copy of the _editio princeps_ Statius
(1483), which was purchased by Mr. Quaritch at the Sunderland sale; one
or two Plantins, in spotless splendour; Henry Stephens' Herodotus, a
book as beautiful as it is now valueless, but of which a copy is kept in
a showcase at South Kensington, and others, all at merely nominal
prices.