Prices of Books: An Inquiry into the Changes in the Price of Books which have occurred in England at different PeriodsWheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin)
History
Prices of Books: An Inquiry into the Changes in the Price of Books which have occurred in England at different Periods
Wheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin)
Books -- Prices -- History
The only existing copy known is in the Royal University
Library, Göttingen. It was from the Harleian Library, and was
purchased from Osborne in 1746 for 15s.
_The History of Jason_ (9).
Richard Smith (1682), 5s. 1d.; Dr. Bernard (1698), 3s. 6d.
J. West’s copy was sold in 1773 for 4 guineas to J. Ratcliffe,
at whose sale in 1776 it fetched £5, 10s.
John Erskine’s copy was bought in 1817 by G. Watson Taylor for
£162, 15s., but at his sale in 1823 it only brought £95, 11s.,
Richard Heber being the purchaser. At Heber’s sale (1834) it was
bought by Payne the bookseller for £87. This uncut copy, which
is the finest known, came afterwards into the possession of the
Earl of Ashburnham. It sold at the second part of the Ashburnham
sale (1897) for £2100.
The White Knights copy (Marquis of Blandford) was sold (1819)
for £85, 1s. At W. S. Higgs’s sale (1831) it was bought by J.
Wilks for £87, 3s., and at his sale (1847) it was bought by J.
Dunn Gardner for £121. This copy was returned as wanting a leaf,
and resold for £105. Gardner bought it afterwards from
Pickering, who had in the meantime supplied the leaf from
another copy. At Gardner’s sale (1854) it was bought for Mr.
Lenox for £105.
_The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers_, first edition (10).
Francis Child bought his imperfect copy at Bryan Fairfax’s sale
(1756) for £6. It was bound with “Moral Proverbs,” and was one
of the copies from the Harleian Library. At the Earl of
Jersey’s sale (1885) it brought £141.
John Ratcliffe’s copy was bought by Ralph Willett in 1776 for 15
guineas, and at his own sale in 1813 it brought £262, 10s.
Sales since the publication of Blades’s book:--Rev. T. Corser
(1868), £100. C. H. Crawford (1876), £87 (Corser’s copy). Duke
of Buccleuch (1889), £650. Earl of Ashburnham, 1897 (one of four
complete copies), £1320--Quaritch.
---- Second edition (28).
James West (1773), £21--George III. John Towneley (1814),
£189--Duke of Devonshire (erroneously described in the
catalogue as “first edition”).
---- Third edition (83).
John Munro (1792), £16, 16s. Dr. Vincent (1816), £99,
15s.--Singer, for Marquis of Blandford. In 1840 some books were
turned out of the Blenheim Library, and sent for sale at
Oxford. The Bodleian Library bought this copy at that sale for
£50. Blades was misled into saying that the Bodleian gave £199,
15s., by the fact, in this copy some irresponsible person has
altered the price it fetched at Vincent’s sale to £199, 15s. by
the addition of the figure 1. Fuller Maitland (1885),
£165--Quaritch (described as a second edition in the catalogue,
three leaves in facsimile).
_Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales_, first edition (12).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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