Prices of Books Part 22

Beckford (1882), ?300.

Ouvry?s copy of Frobisher, wanting the maps, sold for ?68.

Froissart?s _Cronycles_ (Pynson, 1523-25), two vols. folio.

G. Mason (1798), ?36, 15s. Roxburghe (1812), ?63. Towneley (1814), ?42 (t.i.tle of vol. i. a reprint). W. H. Crawford (Lakelands), 1891, ?25.

Hakluyt?s _Princ.i.p.al Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation_, 1589, with rare map, fine copy, in pigskin.

Jadis, ?26, 5s. Same copy, Duke of Hamilton (1884), ?23.

Hariot (T.), _Merveilleux et estrange Rapport_ ... Francofurti, 1590.

Duke of Hamilton (1884), fine copy, in morocco by Lewis, ?97.

Linschoten?s _Voyages into the Easte and West Indies_, 1598, maps and plates from the Dutch edition, t.i.tle inlaid, and last leaf mended.

Roxburghe, ?10, 15s. Same copy, Beckford (1882), ?14. Colonel Stanley, ?22.

Lodge?s (Thomas) _Rosalynde_, 1598.

Longman (1815), ?20 (imperfect). Heber, ?5, 10s. Ouvry (1882), ?63.

Lok?s (Henry) _Ecclesiastes_ (London: Richard Field, 1597).

Longmans (1815), ?28. Sotheby?s (March 1817), ?6, 16s. G.

Daniel, ?38, 10s.

The first editions of Milton?s works have greatly increased in price.

Not many years ago a copy of the first edition of the ?Paradise Lost?

could be obtained for about five pounds, but now a good copy is worth at least four times as much. The prices vary considerably with the date of the t.i.tle-page, of which there are several issues. G. Daniel?s fine copy sold in 1864 for ?28, 10s.

Milton?s _Maske_ (_Comus_), 1637.

Los...o...b.., ?25. G. Daniel, ?36.

---- _Poems_, 1645, first edition, with portrait by Marshall.

G. Daniel, ?5, 15s. _Rare Books and MSS._ (Sotheby, March 1897), fine uncut copy, ?24, 10s.

_Purchas his Pilgrimes_, five vols., 1625-26.

Digby (1680), ?3, 5s. 6d. H. Perkins, 1873, fine copy, ?86.

Beckford, 1883, fine copy, ?63. Earl of Gosford (1884), ?82 (crimson morocco). Earl of Crawford (1887), ?60.

Rhodes (Hugh), _Boke of Nurture_, 1577.

Steevens (1800), ?2, 2s. Longmans (1815), ?15.

Ricraft?s _Peculiar Characters of the Oriental Languages_, sm. 4to.

Bindley, ?19, 19s. Same copy, bound afterwards in russia extra by Lewis, who charged ?1, 5s. for the binding, sold in Beckford sale (1883) for ?8, 17s. 6d.

Scot?s _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 1584.

Boswell, ?3, 3s. Comerford (1881), ?25, 10s. (citron morocco).

It is interesting to notice that in the old sales of the seventeenth century the folios of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ben Jonson all sold for about the same price. Those of the first now sell for one hundred and two hundred times what they brought then, while those of the second and third do not bring ten times.

Beaumont and Fletcher?s Works, 1647.

Sir Edward Bysshe (1679), 13s. 6d. Smallwood (1684), 8s. A.

Young and others (Puttick?s), 1875, ?5. Alfred Crampton (1896), 10 guineas.

Jonson?s (Ben) Works, 1640.

Benj. Worsley (1678), ?1, 13s. 6d. Sir Edward Bysshe (1677), ?1, 10s. Lord Bateman (1896), ?8, 5s.

Spenser?s _Faerie Queene_, 1590-96, first edition.

Sir Edward Bysshe (1679), 6s. 2d. Lloyd and Raymund (1685), 1s.

Ouvry (1882), ?33. Alfred Crampton (1611), 1896, with additional leaves, ?85.

Weever?s _Funeral Monuments_, 1631.

Two copies on large paper in Beckford?s sale, part 4 (1883), olive morocco, index inlaid, ?25; blue morocco, ?38.

Wycliffe.

Mr. Addington bought at the Dix sale four unique tracts of Wycliffe for ?400, and expressed his opinion that they would have been cheap at any price, but at his own sale (1886) they only realised ?133--viz., Crede, &c., ?37; Consolation, ?27; Testament of Moyses, ?36; Small Prayers to Common People, ?33.

_Americana_ is a cla.s.s of book which has grown enormously in price.

Anything published in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries now fetches a price.

Smith?s _Virginia_, 1624.

Dr. F. Bernard (1698), 4s. 2d. Hunter (1813), ?27, 6s.

A large paper copy sold at the Beckford sale (1883) for ?605 (dedication copy to the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond, in old brown morocco, covered with gold tooling, with the d.u.c.h.ess?s arms forming the centre ornaments).

Eliot Bible of 1661-63.

Dr. L. Seaman (1676), 19s. Wimpole library (Lord Chancellor Hardwicke), 1888, ?580--Quaritch.

At this Wimpole sale (Christie?s) a volume of twelve tracts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries relating to America sold for ?555.

A curious incident occurred at Messrs. Sotheby?s in July 1897, during the sale of the library of Mr. Cyril Dunn Gardner. A volume of Sermons, which included ?A Sermon preached at Plimmoth in New England, Dec. 9, 1621,? was put up, and the biddings, commencing at 5s., were carried on till ?1, 17s. was reached, when the lot was knocked down at that amount.

A dispute arising, it was put up again, and was eventually bought by Messrs. H. Stevens and Son for ?87.