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
J. West (1773), £47, 15s.--George III. J. Ratcliffe (1776), £6.
White Knights supplementary sale (1820), £31, 10s.--T. Payne
(imperfect); not recorded by Blades.
The highest price recorded by Blades is £300, given by Mr. Huth
at Lilly’s sale, 1861. In 1896 two copies (both imperfect) were
sold for over £1000; Mrs. Corbet’s (Barlaston Hall), wanting
nineteen leaves, £1020; R. E. Saunders (wanting only two leaves,
a few wormed, lower margins in Melibeus mended), £1880. Earl of
Ashburnham (1897), £720--Pickering & Chatto (imperfect, also
some leaves from a shorter copy).
---- Second edition (57).
Brand’s imperfect copy (1807) was bought by Heber for 10
guineas; it was sold at his sale in 1834 to the Earl of
Ashburnham for £78, 15s. Lord Ashburnham (1897),
£300--Pickering and Chatto (wanting twenty-eight leaves).
_Boethius de Consolacione Philosophiæ_, translated by Chaucer (25).
B. Worsley (1678), 5s. J. West (1773), £5, 10s.--G. Mason. J.
Ratcliffe (1776), £4, 6s.--George III. S. Alchorne (1813),
bought by the Marquis of Blandford (Spencer duplicate,
imperfect) for £53, 11s.; sold to Watson Taylor, at his sale in
1819, for £22, 11s. 6d.; at Taylor’s sale (£1823) Thorpe bought
it for £13, 5s.
Thorpe bought a copy in old Oxford calf from Browne Willis’s
library, “without the slightest defect or repair,” for £59 in
July 1849, and he sold it in December of the same year for £105.
The Grenville (very fine, clean, and perfect) copy was purchased
for £52, 10s.; Duke of Hamilton (1884), £160 (perfect, stained
and mended); nobleman (Earl of Westmoreland), 1887, £156
(perfect, excepting the blank); Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £510
(two leaves in facsimile).
_Cordyale, or the four last things_ (26).
Osborne (1748), £2, 2s. J. West (1773), £14--W. Hunter.
Stanesby Alchorne bought W. Fletewode’s copy in 1774 for £6,
12s. 6d., and at his sale in 1813 George III. bought it for
£127, 1s. Dr. Valpy’s copy, bought in 1832 by Henry G. Bohn for
£26, 15s. 6d., is not mentioned by Blades; Valpy is said to
have given £87 for it. Earl of Ashburnham (1897),
£760--Pickering & Chatto (wanting eight leaves).
_The Mirrour of the World_, first edition (31).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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