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
Boswell, 13s. Steevens, £5, 10s. Roxburghe, £5, 5s. Heber (Part
2), £16. Daniel (1864), 109 guineas; this fine copy, with
second title, cost him £50. F. Perkins (1889), £30 (headlines
cut off).
_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, _Winter’s Tale_, first editions in
folio.
_Venus and Adonis_ (Richard Field), 1593.
Malone gave £25 for his unique copy, now in the Bodleian.
---- (Richard Field), 1594.
Jolley (1844), £106 (close cut, and mended); now in the
Grenville Library. Daniel (1864), £240--Lilly; finest copy
known.
_Venus and Adonis_ (R. F. for John Harrison), 1596.
Sir W. Bolland (1840), £91--Bright; Bright’s sale (1845), £91,
10s.--Daniel; Daniel’s sale (1864), 300 guineas--Boone.
_Lucrece_ (Richard Field for John Harrison), 1594.
Baron Bolland (1840), £105. Bright, £58 (top margin repaired).
Daniel (1864), 150 guineas--Lilly. W. H. Crawford (1891), £250.
Mr. Holford is said to have given £100 for his copy. F. Perkins
(1899), £200 (small hole burnt in two leaves).
_Sonnets_ (G. Eld for T. T.), 1600.
Steevens, £3, 19s.; this copy cost Narcissus Luttrell 1s.; at
Daniel’s sale (1864) it realised 215 guineas. Edwards (1804),
£8. Longman’s Catalogue, £30. Roxburghe, £21. Chalmers (1841),
£105. Halliwell (1856), £41--bought by Mr. Tite. Halliwell
(1858), £154, 7s.--bought by Mr. Huth.
_Poems_ (Thomas Cotes), 1640.
Collins (1683), 6d. Lloyd & Raymond (1685), 6d. Field, £2, 5s.
Nassau, £3, 13s. 6d. Bindley, £5, 15s. Longman’s Catalogue, £8,
18s. 6d.; another copy, £10, 10s. Stowe, £7, 10s. Bright, £15.
Daniel (1864), £44. F. W. Cosens (1890), £61.
FOOTNOTES:
[58] Steevens’s remarks, given in another page of Dibdin’s “Library
Companion,” are worth quoting here, more particularly as that
Shakesperian commentator gives his opinion of what was a high price
for the first folio: “I have repeatedly met with thin flakes of
pie-crust between the leaves of our author. These unctuous fragments,
remaining long in close confinement, communicated their grease to
several pages deep on each side of them.... Most of the first folios
now extant are known to have belonged to ancient families resident in
the country. Since our breakfasts have become less gross, our
favourite authors have escaped with fewer injuries.... I claim the
merit of being the first commentator on Shakespeare who strove with
becoming seriousness to account for the present stains that disgrace
the earliest folio edition of his plays, which is now become the most
expensive single book in our language; for what other English volume
without plates, and printed since the year 1600, is known to have
sold, more than once, for £35, 14s.?”
[59] “Talk about Autographs,” by George Birkbeck Hill, London, 1896,
p. 69.
CHAPTER XI
PRICES OF VARIOUS CLASSES OF BOOKS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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