Books are published at an equal price, according to size, whether they are good or bad, but they find their level in the catalogues of the second-hand booksellers. The bad soon become waste-paper, or are marked down to very low prices, while the good books increase in price till they come in some cases to be marked more than the original published price. Sometimes when books are printed in limited numbers the public will give more than the published price even before publication; thus the large paper edition of the “Life of the Queen,” by Mr. R. R. Holmes, was subscribed at £8, and the right of receiving a copy when ready is said to have been sold for from £20 to £25. Publishers occasionally reduce the price of a book after publication, but this is seldom a successful operation. The selling-off of remainders has been the means of distributing books to the public at a low rate, and it will often be found that some of the scarcest and highest priced books in the present day are those which have been sold-off. These were good books, which sold too slowly, but which went off quickly when the price was low. When the stock is exhausted, and more are required, the price naturally goes up. A most remarkable instance of this increase in price of a sold-off book is that of Edward Fitzgerald’s wonderful version of the _Rubáiyát_ of Omar Khayyam, the first edition of which was published by Quaritch in 1859. Though the number printed was few, nobody bought, and eight years afterwards the publisher, in disgust, threw the whole remainder into a box outside his door, and marked all these one penny each. It is said that Dante Rossetti found them there, and soon the remainder was exhausted. Now this penny book is worth six guineas.[37] FOOTNOTES: [28] _Archæologia_, xxv. 104. [29] “Life and Typography of William Caxton,” vol. ii. p. lix. [30] _Archæologia_, xlvi. 228, 229. [31] xxxvi. 284-310. [32] _Censura Literaria_, iii. 370. [33] The late Mr. Cornelius Walford contributed to the _Bibliographer_ some articles on Book Patents and Printing Patents. See vol. v. pp. 125, 156; vol. vi. pp. 129, 171. [34] _Archæologia_, vol. xxv. pp. 100-112. [35] Arber’s “Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers.” [36] Gomme’s _Gentleman’s Magazine Library_, “Literary Curiosities,” 1888, p. 79. [37] This was quite true when written a few months ago, but on the 10th February 1898 a copy with the original wrappers was sold at Sotheby’s salerooms for £21. It was bought by Mr. Quaritch, the original publisher. CHAPTER V AUCTION SALES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY