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
Dugdale’s (Sir W.) _Antiquities of Warwickshire_, 1656. First
edition, and the only one admitted as evidence in a court of
law.
Bindley, £10, 10s. Sykes, £11, 11s. Comerford, £12, 10s.
Beckford (1882), £20. Sunderland (1882), £15.
Dugdale’s _Warwickshire_, 2 vols., 1730. Large paper.
Dent, £33. Sykes, £39, 8s. Heath, £64, 1s. Nassau, £33.
Willett, £52, 10s. H. Perkins (1873), £84 (red morocco by
Derome).
Gough’s _Sepulchral Monuments_, 5 vols., 1786-96.
Fonthill, £92, 8s. Beckford (1882), £31. (Same copy.)
Loggan (D.), _Oxonia illustrata_, 1675.
Beckford (1882), £14 (old red morocco).
---- _Cantabrigia illustrata_, 1688.
Beckford (1882), £11 (old red morocco).
Nichols’s _Leicestershire_, four vols. in eight, 1795-1815. Large
paper (original edition of vol. iv., part 1), russia extra.
H. Perkins (1873) £260. Earl of Gosford (1884), £275.
Ormerod’s _Cheshire_, 3 vols., 1819. Large paper.
H. Perkins (1873), plates in three states-etchings, proofs, and
proofs on India paper, morocco extra by Lewis, one of six
copies, £155.
Plot’s _Oxfordshire_, 1677. Large paper.
Beckford (1883), £8, 15s. (old red morocco).
---- _Staffordshire_, 1686. Large paper.
Beckford (1883), £40, 10s. (old black morocco).
Thoroton’s _Nottinghamshire_, 1677.
Heber (part 9), £11, 5s. Beresford-Hope (1882), £11. Beckford
(1883), £14, 10s.
First editions of our English classics have increased
greatly in price of late years. Many of
Defoe’s works are very scarce, and bring good prices.
The late Mr. James Crossley had a fine collection
of these, but his library was in such poor condition
that the books did not sell well. The British
Museum bought at his sale, June 20, 1885, the autograph
manuscript of Defoe’s “Compleat English
Gentleman,” which had never been printed until
Mr. Nutt issued it to subscribers in 1890. The
manuscript remained in the possession of Defoe’s
relations, the Baker family, for more than a hundred
years, as Dawson Turner bought it in 1831 from
the Rev. H. D. F. Baker, the descendant of Henry
Baker, son-in-law of Defoe, for £69. In 1859, at
the sale of Turner’s MSS., Crossley bought the
book for £75, 8s.
_Robinson Crusoe_, first edition, 2 vols., 1719.
Roxburghe (1812), £1, 4s. Sotheby’s (1846), £4, 16s. (with
“Serious Reflections,” 3 vols., 1719-20).
Alfred Crampton, 1896 (3 vols.), £75.
Sir Cecil Domville, 1897 (part 1), £45, 10s.
Walton’s _Angler_, 1653, first edition.
Rev. J. Brand (1807), £3, 3s. (fine copy). Hunter (1813), £7,
10s. Utterson (1852), £11, 15s. Beckford (1883), fine copy in
green morocco, £87--Bain. Gibson-Craig (1887), £195 (morocco).
Gibson-Craig (1888), £23 (imperfect, sold with all faults). G.
Wood (Sotheby, 1891), £310 (clean, in original sheepskin).
Sotheby (December 1895), £415.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account