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
S. Alchorne’s copy sold in 1813 for £94, 10s.; Valentine’s copy
in 1842 for £5. Blades describes this last in his catalogue list
as Alchorne’s; but this is probably a mistake, as Valentine
bought J. Inglis’s copy (1826) for £17, 10s.
_Sex perelegantissimæ Epistolæ_ (1483).
24 leaves. The only copy known of this tract was discovered in
1874 by Dr. G. Könnecke, archivist of Marburg, in an old volume
of seventeenth-century divinity in the Hecht-Heinean Library at
Halberstadt. The discovery was described by Mr. Blades at the
time in the _Athenæum_ (Feb. 27, 1875). This copy was bought by
the British Museum in 1890 for £250.
Almost as scarce and valuable as Caxtons are the books printed at St.
Albans:--
_The Chronicle of St. Albans_ (circa 1484), the second book printed
at St. Albans, and the first edition of the Chronicle, was sold
at the Earl of Ashburnham’s sale (1897) to Messrs. J. & J.
Leighton for £180. It was imperfect, but no absolutely perfect
copy is known.
In Quaritch’s catalogue, 1884 (No. 355), a copy with five
leaves in facsimile and twenty-two others deficient, was marked
£300.
_The Boke of St. Albans_ (1486), a copy perfected in MS., was sold
at the Roxburghe sale for £147. It was resold at the White
Knights sale for £84. In March 1882 Mr. Quaritch bought it at
Christie’s for 600 guineas. The Grenville copy now in the
British Museum has gone through many vicissitudes, which were
graphically described by Dr. Maitland in 1847. It appears that
at the end of the last century the library of Thonock Hall, in
the parish of Gainsborough, the seat of the Hickman family, was
sorted out by an ignorant person who threw into a condemned
heap all books without covers. A gardener who took an interest
in heraldry begged permission to take home what he liked from
this heap, and he chose among other books _The Book of St.
Albans_. This remained in his cottage till June 1844, when his
son’s widow sold 9 lbs. of books to a pedlar for 9d. The pedlar
sold the lot for 3s. to a chemist in Gainsborough, who was
rather struck by _The Book of St. Albans_, and tried to sell
it, but the neighbours did not wish to buy it. Eventually he
obtained £2, 2s. for it from a man who expected to sell it to
advantage. The purchaser sold it to Stark the bookseller for
£7, 7s. Stark took it to London and sold it to the Right Hon.
Thomas Grenville for seventy or eighty guineas. Mr. Blades
communicated this account to _Notes and Queries_ (3rd Series,
iv. 369).
A copy was sold at the Earl of Ashburnham’s sale (1897), which
was stated to be the Roxburghe copy, completed by the Earl from
another copy. Mr. Quaritch bought this for £385.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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