It is worthy of notice in the above list that the amounts realised for the Heber and Sunderland sales were almost identical, while the totals of the Hamilton Palace libraries were larger than those for any other English sale, viz., £86,543 (Beckford, £73,551; Duke of Hamilton, £12,892).
In these totals the sales of booksellers’ stocks have not been recorded, because they do not sell so well as private libraries, owing to a rather absurd impression in the minds of buyers that the rarer books would have sold out at the shops had they been of special value; but it may be noted here that the stock of Messrs. Payne & Foss was sold in three portions in 1850 for £8645 (certainly much less than its worth) by Sotheby, who sold in 1868-70-72 Mr. Henry G. Bonn’s stock, in three parts, for £13,333, and Mr. Lilly’s in 1871 and 1873, in five parts, for £13,080. In 1873 Mr. T. H. Lacy’s stock of theatrical portraits and books were sold at Sotheby’s for £5157.
Mr. F. S. Ellis’s stock was sold in November 1885 for £15,996, and Mr. Toovey’s in February 1893 for £7090. The latter’s sporting books realised £1031.
It is very much the fashion now to average the amounts realised at auctions, and to point out that at such a sale the amount obtained was about £10 or more per lot. This is a useful generalisation so far as it goes, but further information is required to enable the reader to obtain a correct idea of value. The generalisation is useful in regard to a mass of sales; thus we may say broadly, that in the last century the ordinary large and good libraries averaged about £1 per lot, while in the present century they average at least £2 per lot.
A small and select library will naturally average a much higher amount than a large library, in which many commonplace books must be included. These averages, however, will not help us very much to understand the relative value of libraries.
For instance, at the Sunderland sale some lots sold for enormous sums, while a large number fell for a few shillings; but at the Hamilton Palace sales (William Beckford and the Duke of Hamilton) nearly every lot was of value, and although individual lots did not reach the sums realised at the Sunderland sale, the total was much larger. As an instance of what is meant, we may quote from the notice of the Ashburnham sale in the Times—
“The 1683 lots realised a grand total of £30,151, 10s., which works out at an average of as nearly as possible £18 per lot. Hitherto the highest average was obtained by the disposal in 1884 of the Syston Park library, where 2110 lots brought £28,000, or £13, 5s. per lot, the next highest average being that of the Seillière library, sold in 1887, 1140 lots realising £14,944, or about £13, 2s. per lot. It is scarcely fair, however, to compare the Ashburnham collection with either of these two libraries, as the Seillière was admittedly only the choice portion of the assemblage of the baron, whilst nearly every lot in the Syston Park library was of importance. Eliminating from the Ashburnham collection the hundreds of lots which realised less than £1 each, the average would be nearer £40 than £18.”
This is all very well in its way, but one lot fetched £4000, and such an amount would demoralise any average. Let us therefore see what are the particular points worthy of notice in the sums making up this large total of £30,151. We find that five lots realised £1000 and over each, and including these five lots, forty-two were over £100 each. Now the total for these forty-two lots is £20,348, which, if we deduct from the grand total, leaves 1641 lots for £9803, bringing our average down considerably.
This is not perhaps a quite fair system of striking an average, but it shows better how the prices of the books are distributed.
It is impossible in the following chapters to do more than select some of the chief classes of valuable books in order to indicate the changes that have taken place in the prices. It will be noticed that the great enhancement of prices which is so marked a feature of the present age commenced about the beginning of the present century.
Bibliomania can scarcely be said to have existed in the seventeenth century, but it commenced in the middle of the next century, when the Mead library was sold. Still it attracted little attention until the sale of the Roxburghe library in 1812, when it had become a power. In the middle of the present century there was a dull time, but during the last quarter the succession of sales realising one, two, and three thousand pounds have been continuous, with occasional sales realising much larger amounts. Great changes have occurred at different times in the taste of collectors for certain classes of books.
We may obtain a good idea of the public taste in books by analysing a list of the highest prices obtained at three such representative sales as the Sunderland, the Hamilton Palace, and the Ashburnham libraries.
At the first of these the largest prices were obtained for the first editions of Bibles, classics, Italian poets, &c.; at the second, fine bindings took the lead; and at the third, Bibles and Caxtons, and other early literature occupied the first place.
All these classes are dealt with in the following chapters. In the present one, the most important among the early Bibles, the first editions of the classics, and early Italian literature are recorded. These are among the chief of those books which have been steadily rising for years, and now stand at enormous prices.
It is not safe to prophesy, but there is no reason to doubt that if riches continue to increase these prices will also advance. As these books are placed in great libraries they naturally become scarcer each year. We must, however, always bear in mind that the number of libraries and individuals who can afford to spend thousands of pounds on single books are few, and if they are reduced, those who remain in the field are likely to get books cheaper.
While the first editions of the classics will probably always keep up their price, later editions have experienced a fall from which they are never likely to recover. Scholarship and knowledge of manuscripts have so greatly advanced, that many of the old high-priced editions are now hopelessly out of date, and good German texts, which can be obtained at a few shillings, are naturally preferred.
The Delphin and Oxford classics, which were once so much sought after, have now sunk to a comparatively low price. The large paper copy of Dr. Samuel Clarke’s edition of “Cæsar” (2 vols. imp. folio, 1712), of which only twenty-five copies were printed, was once a high priced book. The Duke of Grafton’s copy fetched £64, and Topham Beauclerk’s £44. There is a story connected with the latter, which should be noted. Beauclerk gave four guineas for his copy to the mother of a deceased officer, the sum she asked, but when he was afterwards told by his bookseller that it was worth seventeen guineas, he sent the additional thirteen guineas to the lady. Certainly the Sunderland copy fetched £101 in 1881, but this was a special case, owing to the connection of the great Duke of Marlborough with the book. The Duke of Hamilton’s copy, which had belonged to Louis XIV., sold in 1884 for £36; but Beckford’s copy, bound in red morocco, only brought £6.
Block books are of such excessive rarity that they have always been high priced, but like the earliest books printed from movable types, they have greatly increased in value of late years. This is seen in the case of the copy of the second edition of the Biblia Pauperum, which fetched £1050 at the Earl of Ashburnham’s sale. This same copy brought £257 at Willett’s sale, but at Hanrott’s the price fell to the small amount of £36, 15s.
The following are some of the prices that those magnificent books—the Mazarin Bible and the first Bible with a date—have realised:—
Biblia Sacra Latina (Moguntiæ, Gutenberg et Fust, circa 1450-55):—
On vellum—G. & W. Nicols, 1825, £504 (Messrs. Arch for H. Perkins). H. Perkins, 1873, £3400. Earl of Ashburnham, 1897, £4000.
On paper—Sykes, 1824, £199, 10s. (H. Perkins). Hibbert, 1829, £215. Bishop of Cashel, 1858, £595. H. Perkins, 1873, £2690. Thorold (Syston Park), £3900. Earl of Gosford, 1884 (vol. i. in original binding), £500. Earl of Crawford, 1887, £2650. Earl of Hopetoun, 1889 (one leaf injured, and slightly wormed), £2000.
Biblia Sacra Latina (Moguntiæ, Fust et Schoeffer, 1462) [first Latin Bible with a date]:—
On vellum—
| Duc de la Valliere, 4085 francs. | } | Same copy. |
| Count MacCarthy, 4750 francs. | ||
| Watson Taylor, 1823, £215. | ||
| Dent, 1827, £173. | ||
| H. Perkins, 1873, £780. | ||
| Earl of Crawford, 1887, £1025. |
The Lamoignon copy, bought by Mr. Cracherode for 250 guineas, is now in the British Museum. Sunderland, 1881, £1600. Thorold, £1000.
The Latin Version of the Psalms, in its second edition, by Fust and Schoeffer, 1459 (printed on vellum), sold at Sykes’s sale for £136, 10s. At the Syston Park sale (Thorold) it brought £4950, a greater price even than has been given for the Mazarin Bible. It has been erroneously stated that this was the MacCarthy copy, which was sold in 1815 for 3350 francs. The MacCarthy copy was bought by Hibbert, and at his sale in 1829 it became the property of Baron Westreenen.54
Biblia Latina, folio Venetiis (N. Jenson), 1476, printed on vellum, capital letters illuminated, in red morocco, sold at the Merly sale for £168. Beckford copy (supposed to be the same copy) sold in 1882 for £330. H. Perkins, 1873, £290.
The first edition of the Bible in English (translated by Coverdale), 1535 (with some leaves mended), was sold at the Earl of Ashburnham’s sale for £820. Dent’s copy £89 in 1827 (title and two leaves in facsimile). Freeling’s copy, £34, 10s. in 1836. Dunn Gardner’s, 1854 (with title and one leaf in facsimile), £365. H. Perkins, 1873 (title and two leaves in facsimile), £400. Earl of Crawford’s (imperfect), £226.
The first edition of Tyndale’s New Testament (1526) sold in Richard Smith’s sale, 1682, for 6s. Ames bought the Harleian copy for 15s. This was sold at Ames’s sale, 1760, to John White for £15, 14s. 6d. It was sold by White to the Rev. Dr. Gifford for twenty guineas, and bequeathed by Gifford, with the rest of his library, to the Baptists’ library at Bristol.
The Complutensian Polyglot (6 vols. folio, 1514-17) is said to have cost Cardinal Ximenes £40,000. Six hundred copies were printed. The following prices have been paid for the one vellum copy in the market, and for some paper copies:—
Three on vellum—(1) Royal Library, Madrid; (2) Royal Library, Turin; (3) supposed to have been reserved for the Cardinal. Pinelli, 1789, £483, bought by MacCarthy. MacCarthy, 1817 £676 (16,000 francs), bought by Hibbert. Hibbert, 1829, £525.
On paper—Harleian copy, sold by Osborne for £42. Maittaire’s imperfect copy sold for 50s. Sunderland, £195. Earl of Crawford, 1887 (general title wanting), £56. Beresford Hope, 1882, £166. W. H. Crawford (Lakelands), 1891, £100.
The vellum copy sold in the Pinelli sale was, according to Dibdin, taken to Dr. Gosset when on a bed of sickness, in the hopes that the sight might work a cure on that ardent book-lover.55
John Brocario, son of Arnoldus Brocario, the printer of this polyglot, when a lad, was deputed to take the last sheets to the Cardinal. He dressed himself in his best clothes, and delivered his charge into Ximenes’ hand, who exclaimed, “I render thanks to Thee, O God, that Thou hast protracted my life to the completion of these biblical labours.” He told his friends that the surmounting of the various difficulties of his political situation did not afford him half the solace which arose from the finishing of his Polyglot.56 A few weeks after the noble enthusiast died.
Plantin Polyglot Bible, 1569-72, 5 vols. Five hundred copies printed; greater part lost at sea.
Earl of Ashburnham, 1897, on vellum (wanting the “Apparatus”), £79.
Walton’s Polyglot Bible, 6 vols. folio, 1657 (with Castell’s Lexicon), does not keep up its price.
Seaman, 1676, £8, 2s. Bernard, 1698, £10. Duke of Grafton (without Castell), £38, 13s. Edwards, £61. Heath, £73, 10s. (bought by the Earl of Essex). H. Perkins, 1873, £19, 15s. At the Wimpole library sale (Lord Chancellor Hardwicke), 1888, a copy of Walton without Castell fetched £9, 5s. The Ashburnham copy, which had belonged to Henry, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of Charles I., with his name on the binding, which was in blue morocco, sold in 1897 for £28.
Æsopus. Fabulæ Latine et Italice. Neapoli, 1485; first edition of Æsop with the Italian version. Hibbert’s, £17; Libri, 480 francs; Earl of Ashburnham, £203.
Anacreon. Lutetiæ, 1554, on vellum. Sunderland, 1881, £221.
Aristoteles. Opera varia. Venetiis, 1483, 2 vols. Earl of Ashburnham, 1897 (printed on vellum), each volume decorated in the highest style of Italian art of the period, fifty-nine beautiful historical and ornamental initials, £800.
Cicero. Opera Omnia Mediolani, per Alex. Minutianum et Gulielmos fratres, 1498-99 [first edition of the collected works], four vols. in two, folio, old yellow morocco. Sunderland, £30, 10s.
—— Epistolæ ad familiares. Romæ (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1467, folio, the first edition and the first book printed in Rome and in Roman letters. Sunderland, £295.
—— Epistolæ. Venetiis, a Nicolao Jenson, 1471, folio. Mead, £3, 3s.; Askew, £11, 16s.; Sunderland, £12.
—— Orationes. Adam de Ambergau, 1472, folio. Askew gave £3, 5s. for his copy, which was bought by Dr. Hunter at his sale for £12. It is now at Glasgow University. Sunderland, £18.
Claudianus. Opera. Venetiæ, 1482, first edition. Mead, £2, 2s.; Askew, £7, 15s.; Pinelli, £9, 9s.; Sunderland (broken binding), £4.
Gellius (Aulus). Noctes Atticæ. Romæ (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1469, folio, first edition. Pinelli, £58, 16s. (printed on vellum); Sunderland, £790.
—— Noctes. Venetiis, per Nicolaum Jenson, 1472, folio. Mead, £2, 12s. 6d.; Askew, £11, 10s.; Sunderland, £13, 10s.
Homerus. Opera Omnia. Florentiæ sumpt. Bern. et Nerii Nerliorum, 1488, two vols. folio, first edition. The British Museum copy was purchased for £17; Wodhull, £200; Sunderland, £48.
—— Homeri Odyssea Græce. Florentiæ, 1488, first edition. Duke of Hamilton, 1884, very large and fine copy, red morocco, by Clarke & Bedford, £25.
—— On vellum (one of the four known to exist). Dent, part 1, 1827, £142, 16s.
Horatius. Opera. 1470, small folio, first edition, with a date. Sunderland, £29. The Naples edition of 1474 is called by Dibdin “the rarest classical volume in the world,” and it was chiefly to possess this book that Earl Spencer bought the famous library of the Duke of Cassano.
Justinus. Venetiis, per Nicolaum Jenson, 1470, small folio, first edition. Mead, £3, 3s.; Askew, £13, 13s. (sold to the British Museum); Pinelli, £18, 7s. 6d.; Sunderland, £15.
Juvenalis et Persius. Editio Princeps. Dr. Askew gave £3 for his copy; at his sale it was purchased by the British Museum for thirteen guineas.
Livius. The first edition, printed at Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz, as is supposed, in 1469. The only copy printed on vellum which is known to exist is now in the Grenville Library (British Museum). It was for years in the possession of the Benedictine Library at Milan. It was bought by Sykes at J. Edwards’s sale (1815) for £903. At Sykes’s sale (1824) it was bought by Payne and Foss for £472, 10s. These booksellers sold it to Dent, and at Dent’s sale (1827) bought it again for Grenville for £262, 10s., a remarkable instance of depreciation in price of a unique book.
The editor of this series contributed an article on this copy to The Library (vol. i. p. 106). The arms of the Borgia family are beautifully painted on the first page of the text, and it has usually been supposed that Cardinal Roderigo Borgia (afterwards Pope Alexander VI.), to whom it belonged, was Abbot of the monastery of Subiaco (where the first productions of Sweynheym and Pannartz were executed) at the time the book was printed. It is proved in the article, however, that the abbey was not conferred upon Borgia by Sixtus IV. until 1471, so that the connection is merely a coincidence. This magnificent volume was probably executed for Borgia, whose character, as delineated by Raphael Volaterranus, is evidently imitated from Livy’s character of Hannibal.
—— Venet. Vindelin de Spira, 1470, two vols. folio, printed on vellum. Sunderland, £520.
Lucanus. Pharsalia. Romæ (Sweynheym and Pannartz), 1469, folio; fine edition, of which only 250 copies were printed. Askew gave £6, 16s. 6d. for his copy, which was bought at his sale by De Bure for £16; Sunderland, £38.
Lucianus. Opera. Florentiæ, 1496, folio, first edition. Askew gave £2, 12s. 6d. for his copy, which was sold at the sale of his library for £19, 8s. 6d.; Pinelli, £8, 18s. 6d.; copy on vellum in the Sunderland library, £59.
Martialis Epigrammata. Ferrara, 1471, quarto, first edition of Martial, and the first book printed at Ferrara. Mead, £4, 14s. 6d.; Askew, £17; Combes, £60, bought for the Bodleian.
Ovidius. Opera. First edition. Mead, £2, 12s. 6d.; Askew, £10, 15s.
—— Romæ (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1471, three vols. folio, probably second edition. Sunderland, £85.
—— Venet. in ædibus Aldi, 1502-3, three vols. 8vo, first Aldine edition. Sunderland, £9; copy on vellum (Askew, £63) sold to Lord Spencer.
Plato. Omnia Platonis Opera. Venet. in ædibus Aldi, 1513, folio, first edition. Sunderland, £31. Copy on vellum, Lord Orford gave £105 for it; Askew purchased it for one-fifth of that price. At his sale it was bought by Dr. William Hunter for £52, 10s. It is now in the library at Glasgow University.
Plinius. Venetiis, Joannes de Spira, 1469, first edition. The British Museum copy was purchased in 1775 for £43; Sunderland, £82; another copy, £70.
—— Venetiis, Nicolaus Jenson, 1472. The British Museum copy was bought at Askew’s sale for £23; printed on vellum, Sunderland, £220.
—— Parmæ, 1476. Sunderland, £7, 15s. Douce gave Payne & Foss three hundred guineas for his copy on vellum. It is now in the Bodleian Library.
Quintilianus. Institutionum Oratoriarum lib. xii. Romæ, 1470, folio, printed on vellum. Sunderland, £290.
—— Institutiones Oratoriæ. Romæ (Sweynheym et Pannartz), circa 1470, folio. Paris library, £26, 5s., now in Cracherode library (British Museum); Sunderland, £26.
Sallustius. Venetiis, Vindelin de Spira, 1470, quarto or folio. Mead, £5, 17s.; Askew, £14, 3s. 6d.; Sunderland, £19, 10s.
Silius Italicus. Romæ (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1471, folio, first edition. Askew gave three guineas for his copy, which was bought for the British Museum at his sale for £13, 2s. 6d.; Pinelli, £48; Sunderland, £20, 10s.
Valerius Maximus. Moguntinæ, per Petrum Schoyffer de Gernsheim, 1471, folio, first edition, with a date. Askew gave £4, 14s. 6d. for his copy, which sold at his sale for £26; Sunderland, £32.
—— Another copy, printed on vellum, sold at the Sunderland sale for £194.
Virgilius. Romæ (Sweynheym et Pannartz), 1469 (?). Most valuable of all the first editions. Hopetoun House, 1889, slightly damaged and slightly wormed, £2000. The previous occasion on which a copy was sold was at the La Vallière sale, 1784, when an imperfect copy fetched 4101 francs.
—— Venet. Vindelin de Spira, 1470, folio, first edition with a date, printed on vellum. A copy sold for twenty-five guineas at Consul Smith’s sale, 1773; Sunderland, £810. A copy on paper was sold in 1889. Hopetoun, £590.
—— Venet. in ædibus Aldi, 1501, 8vo, first Aldine edition, and the first book printed with the italic type invented by Aldus. Sunderland, £65; copy printed on vellum (Askew, £74, 11s.) now in the Althorpe library.
Ariosto. Orlando Furioso. Ferrara, 1516, with William Cecil’s (Lord Burghley) autograph. Sunderland, 1881, £300.
Boccaccio. In the catalogue of the Sunderland library (1881) eight pages are devoted to the description of various editions of his works. One of these, “De la Ruine des Nobles Hommes et Femmes,” Bruges Colard Mansion, 1476, realised £920. An imperfect copy of the celebrated first edition of the “Decameron” (C. Valdarfer, 1471) fetched £585. This was the copy possessed by Lord Blandford when he bought the complete Roxburghe copy. The imperfect copy was afterwards sold in the Lakelands sale (W. H. Crawford) for £230, and is now in the British Museum.
The latter book will always hold a high position in the annals of bibliography, from the fact that when a perfect copy in the Roxburghe library was sold in 1812, it was bought by the Marquis of Blandford after a hard struggle with Earl Spencer for £2260, the highest price ever paid for a book up to that date, and for many years afterwards. It had originally been added to the Roxburghe library at a cost of one hundred guineas. Seven years afterwards Messrs. Longman bought this same book at the White Knights sale for £918 for Lord Spencer.
Dante. First edition of Landino’s Commentary, Firenze, 1481; very large copy, with twenty rare engravings, purple morocco, by Lewis. Duke of Hamilton, 1884, £380.
W. H. Crawford, 1891, with the engravings by Bacio Baldini from designs of Botticelli, £360.
Petrarca. I Triumphi. Venetia, per Bernardino da Novara, 1488, with two sets of six illustrations, one on metal and one on wood. Sunderland, 1882, £1950.
—— Second Aldine edition, printed on vellum, 1514. Hanrott, £73; Beckford, 1883, £66.
Poliphili Hypnerotomachia. Venetiis (Aldus), 1499. Sykes, part 2, beautiful copy, in yellow morocco by Roger Payne, £21; Watson Taylor (on vellum), £82, 19s.; Sir C. Price, £53, 10s.; Howell Wills, £30; Luke Price, £49; Beckford, 1883 (Crozat’s copy, red morocco, richly tooled), £130; Duke of Hamilton, 1884, £80; Earl of Crawford, 1887, £86; W. H. Crawford (Lakelands), 1891 (some of the woodcuts partially coloured, wanting leaf with imprint), £19; Earl of Ashburnham, 1897 (Emperor Charles V.’s copy, in stamped calf, with his figure in medallion), £151.
—— Hypnerotomachie, 1561. [French translation.] F. Hockley, 1887, £8; W. H. Crawford (Lakelands), 1891, £6, 10s.; Earl of Ashburnham, 1897, £15.
A copy bound with “Le Roy, De la Vicissitude des Choses,” 1577, in blue morocco, magnificently tooled by Nicolas Eve for Louise de Lorraine, realised £220 at the Beckford sale, 1897.
An English translation of the first book by R. D. was published in 1592, which is excessively scarce. Mr. Andrew Lang reprinted this in Mr. Nutt’s Tudor Library, 1890, from the copy in the Bodleian Library. There is no copy in the British Museum, and in the introduction to his reprint Lang tells a story against himself. He bought at Toovey’s a poor copy of this book for £1, but shortly afterwards he found that it wanted the last five pages, and exchanged it for “Les Mémoires de la Reine Marguerite,” Paris, 1661, in yellow morocco. He regretted his exchange when he discovered its great rarity. M. Claude Popelin, who had long been lying in wait for this book, bought this copy at a London sale-room “à un de ces prix qu’on n’avoue pas à sa ménagère.”
Vigilles des Mors. Paris, par A. Verard, printed on vellum, with thirty miniatures finely illuminated in gold and colours, blue morocco by De Rome. This copy sold for 150 francs in the La Vallière sale, for 220 francs in the MacCarthy, and for £20 in Hibbert’s. In the fourth portion of the Beckford library Mr. Quaritch bought it for £345.
Tristan. Chevalier de la Table Ronde. Two parts in one. Second edition, by Verard. Fine copy, with rough leaves, morocco super extra by Thouvenin. Duriez, 560 francs; same copy, Prince of Essling, 505 francs; same copy, Duke of Hamilton, 1884, £108.
Augustinus. De Civitate Dei. Venet. Nic. Jenson, on vellum, first page elaborately painted, and illuminated initials. Sunderland, 1881, £1000—bought by Mr. Quaritch amid shouts of applause.
No class of books has advanced in value of late years to so great an extent as the chief examples of old English literature, and of this class the books printed by our earliest printer, Caxton, stand in a foremost position. It is proposed in this chapter to give a general idea of the variations in price of all the books printed by Caxton which have been sold by public auction. The number attached to each entry is that given by Mr. Blades in his great work, and it is hoped that few sales of these books have been left unmentioned.57
We learn from Mr. Blades that there was no fixed published price for these books, but the sellers obtained the best price they could for them. In 1496 the churchwardens of St. Margaret, Westminster, were possessed of fifteen copies of “The Golden Legend,” bequeathed by Caxton. Ten of these took five years to sell. In 1496 one copy was sold for 6s. 8d., and in 1500 the price had gone down to 5s. In 1510 R. Johnson, M.D., bought five Caxtons (“Godefroy of Boleyn,” “Eneydos,” “Faytes of Arms,” “Chastising,” and “Book of Fame”) for a total expenditure of 6s. 8d. These are now in the University Library, Cambridge. In the sale of 1678, to which the name of Voetius is attached, three Caxtons sold for 7s. 10d. At the sale of Secondary Richard Smith’s library (1682) eleven Caxtons realised £3, 4s. 2d.; at Dr. Francis Bernard’s sale (1697), ten for £1, 15s. 4d. There were a considerable number of Caxtons in the Harleian Library, and several of these were duplicates. They do not appear to have sold very readily, and they occur in several of Osborne’s catalogues at a fairly uniform price of one guinea for the folios and 15s. for the quartos. At the Hon. Bryan Fairfax’s sale (1756) nine Caxtons sold for £33, 4s. At James West’s sale (1773) the price had considerably advanced, and thirty-four Caxtons realised £361, 4s. 6d. John Ratcliffe’s forty-eight Caxtons brought £236, 5s. 6d. At Dr. Richard Farmer’s sale (1798) five sold for £19, 11s. 6d. An astonishing advance in price is found at the Duke of Roxburghe’s sale (1812), where fourteen fine Caxtons brought £3002, 1s. At the sale of Stanesby Alchorne’s library in 1813 nine fetched £666, 15s. Ralph Willett’s seven brought in 1813 £1319, 16s. John Towneley’s nine sold in 1814 for £1127. The Marquis of Blandford’s (White Knights) eighteen Caxtons brought in 1819 £1316, 12s. 6d. At Watson Taylor’s sale in 1823 nine brought £319, 14s. 6d.; John Inglis (1826), thirteen for £431, 15s. 6d.; John Dent (1827), four for £162, 16s. 6d.; George Hibbert (1829), five for £339, 13s. 6d.; P. A. Hanrott (1833), six for £180, 16s.; R. Heber (1834), six for £219, 16s.; Thomas Jolley (1843-51), six for £325, 15s.; E. V. Utterson (1852), three for £116; J. D. Gardner (1854), seven for £739.
It will be seen from these totals that the present high prices did not rule at the sales in the middle of the present century.
In 1897 the total for the ten Caxtons in the first portion of the Ashburnham library reached £5622, and the six in the second portion fetched £4264.
The following list contains particulars of the sale prices of some of the chief issues of Caxton’s press:—
The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy (1).
Dr. Bernard (1698), 3s.; Bryan Fairfax (1756), £8, 8s. This perfect copy was bought by Francis Child, and at the sale of the Earl of Jersey’s library in 1885 it was sold to Mr. Quaritch for £1820.
J. West’s imperfect copy was sold in 1773 to George III. for £32, 11s., and it was perfected afterwards.
J. Lloyd of Wygfair (1816), £126. This copy was bought by G. Hibbert, and at his sale in 1829 J. Wilks bought it for £157, 10s.; at Wilks’s sale in 1847 E. V. Utterson bought it for £165; at Utterson’s sale in 1852 the Earl of Ashburnham bought it for £55—not £155, as stated by Blades. This was described in Hibbert’s and Wilks’s catalogues as having “six whole leaves and parts of four others supplied in facsimile,” but at Utterson’s sale it was stated to want no less than forty-seven leaves. At the Ashburnham sale (part 2), 1897, it was said to want forty-nine leaves. It fetched £950.
The Game and Play of the Chess, first edition (2).
R. Smith (1682), 13s. 2d.; J. West (1773), sold to George III. for £32, 0s. 6d.; S. Alchorne (1813), £54, 12s.—J. Inglis. J. Inglis (1826), £31, 10s.—Lord Audley. Lord Audley (1855), £60, 10s.—H. Cunliffe.
White Knights (1819), £36, 15s.—Duke of Devonshire. This copy, sold for £42, was found on collation after the sale to want three leaves instead of only two, as stated in the catalogue; it was therefore returned, and sold for £36, 15s.
Sir H. Mainwaring (1837), £101—J. Holford. This may be the same copy as R. Smith’s, as it has on a fly-leaf in manuscript, “Ex dono Thomæ Delves, Baronett, 1682.”
Old Essex library (Lord Petre), 1886, £645—Quaritch (perfect, excepting only the blanks). Earl of Hardwicke (1888), wanting the Prologue and three other leaves, £260—Quaritch.
It is necessary to quote from Scott’s “Antiquary” a well-known passage, because, as Mr. Blades says, “not a single statement is founded on fact.” The particulars are so circumstantial, that they have possibly deceived many readers, more especially as Scott himself vouches for the anecdote as literally true. “Snuffy Davy bought the ‘Game of Chesse,’ 1474, the first book ever printed in England, from a stall in Holland for about 2 groschen, or twopence of our money. He sold it to Osborne for £20 and as many books as came to £20 more. Osborne resold this inimitable windfall to Dr. Askew for 60 guineas. At Dr. Askew’s sale this inestimable treasure blazed forth in its true value, and was purchased by Royalty itself for one hundred and seventy pounds.” It may be added that Askew never had a copy.
Chesse, second edition (34).
Dr. Bernard’s copy (1698) sold for 1s. 6d.
J. Ratcliffe’s (1776) was bought for £16 by R. Willett; and at his sale in 1813, the Duke of Devonshire bought it for £173, 5s.
Le Recueil des Histoires de Troyes (3).
James (1760), £2, 12s. 6d.—Jacob Bryant. This copy was presented by Bryant to George III., and made perfect with a few leaves presented by the Duke of Roxburghe. It was retained by George IV. when the Kings’ Library was presented to the nation, and is now at Windsor Castle.
Payne, bookseller (1794), £5, 5s.—sold to the Duke of Roxburghe, at whose sale in 1812 it fetched £116, 11s. It has been sold several times since, each time for less money. Among Lord Spencer’s duplicates (1823), for £73, 10s., to J. Dent; at Dent’s sale in 1827, for £36, 10s., to P. A. Hanrott; at Hanrott’s sale in 1833, to the Earl of Ashburnham, for £27. Second part of Ashburnham sale (1897), £600. Wanting thirty-three leaves.
G. Watson Taylor (1823), £205, 16s.—Earl Spencer (perfect, and uncut).
G. Libri (1844), £200 (a perfect and unusually fine copy)—sold to British Museum.
The copy, slightly imperfect, in the National Library, Paris, was purchased at Brussels in the early part of the century by M. de la Serna for 150 francs.
Les fais du Jason (4).
The perfect copy in the National Library, Paris, was purchased in 1808 by M. de la Serna for 2 louis from a stranger, who had obtained it for half that sum.
Propositio Johannis Russell (7).
The Althorpe copy formerly belonged to John Brand, and at the sale of his library the Marquis of Blandford bought it for £2, 5s. At the White Knights sale in 1819 Lord Spencer bought it for £126. The Earl of Leicester has the only other known copy. Both copies are perfect.
Infancia Salvatoris (8).
The only existing copy known is in the Royal University Library, Göttingen. It was from the Harleian Library, and was purchased from Osborne in 1746 for 15s.
The History of Jason (9).
Richard Smith (1682), 5s. 1d.; Dr. Bernard (1698), 3s. 6d.
J. West’s copy was sold in 1773 for 4 guineas to J. Ratcliffe, at whose sale in 1776 it fetched £5, 10s.
John Erskine’s copy was bought in 1817 by G. Watson Taylor for £162, 15s., but at his sale in 1823 it only brought £95, 11s., Richard Heber being the purchaser. At Heber’s sale (1834) it was bought by Payne the bookseller for £87. This uncut copy, which is the finest known, came afterwards into the possession of the Earl of Ashburnham. It sold at the second part of the Ashburnham sale (1897) for £2100.
The White Knights copy (Marquis of Blandford) was sold (1819) for £85, 1s. At W. S. Higgs’s sale (1831) it was bought by J. Wilks for £87, 3s., and at his sale (1847) it was bought by J. Dunn Gardner for £121. This copy was returned as wanting a leaf, and resold for £105. Gardner bought it afterwards from Pickering, who had in the meantime supplied the leaf from another copy. At Gardner’s sale (1854) it was bought for Mr. Lenox for £105.
The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, first edition (10).
Francis Child bought his imperfect copy at Bryan Fairfax’s sale (1756) for £6. It was bound with “Moral Proverbs,” and was one of the copies from the Harleian Library. At the Earl of Jersey’s sale (1885) it brought £141.
John Ratcliffe’s copy was bought by Ralph Willett in 1776 for 15 guineas, and at his own sale in 1813 it brought £262, 10s.
Sales since the publication of Blades’s book:—Rev. T. Corser (1868), £100. C. H. Crawford (1876), £87 (Corser’s copy). Duke of Buccleuch (1889), £650. Earl of Ashburnham, 1897 (one of four complete copies), £1320—Quaritch.
—— Second edition (28).
James West (1773), £21—George III. John Towneley (1814), £189—Duke of Devonshire (erroneously described in the catalogue as “first edition”).
—— Third edition (83).
John Munro (1792), £16, 16s. Dr. Vincent (1816), £99, 15s.—Singer, for Marquis of Blandford. In 1840 some books were turned out of the Blenheim Library, and sent for sale at Oxford. The Bodleian Library bought this copy at that sale for £50. Blades was misled into saying that the Bodleian gave £199, 15s., by the fact, in this copy some irresponsible person has altered the price it fetched at Vincent’s sale to £199, 15s. by the addition of the figure 1. Fuller Maitland (1885), £165—Quaritch (described as a second edition in the catalogue, three leaves in facsimile).
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, first edition (12).
J. West (1773), £47, 15s.—George III. J. Ratcliffe (1776), £6. White Knights supplementary sale (1820), £31, 10s.—T. Payne (imperfect); not recorded by Blades.
The highest price recorded by Blades is £300, given by Mr. Huth at Lilly’s sale, 1861. In 1896 two copies (both imperfect) were sold for over £1000; Mrs. Corbet’s (Barlaston Hall), wanting nineteen leaves, £1020; R. E. Saunders (wanting only two leaves, a few wormed, lower margins in Melibeus mended), £1880. Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £720—Pickering & Chatto (imperfect, also some leaves from a shorter copy).
—— Second edition (57).
Brand’s imperfect copy (1807) was bought by Heber for 10 guineas; it was sold at his sale in 1834 to the Earl of Ashburnham for £78, 15s. Lord Ashburnham (1897), £300—Pickering and Chatto (wanting twenty-eight leaves).
Boethius de Consolacione Philosophiæ, translated by Chaucer (25).
B. Worsley (1678), 5s. J. West (1773), £5, 10s.—G. Mason. J. Ratcliffe (1776), £4, 6s.—George III. S. Alchorne (1813), bought by the Marquis of Blandford (Spencer duplicate, imperfect) for £53, 11s.; sold to Watson Taylor, at his sale in 1819, for £22, 11s. 6d.; at Taylor’s sale (£1823) Thorpe bought it for £13, 5s.
Thorpe bought a copy in old Oxford calf from Browne Willis’s library, “without the slightest defect or repair,” for £59 in July 1849, and he sold it in December of the same year for £105.
The Grenville (very fine, clean, and perfect) copy was purchased for £52, 10s.; Duke of Hamilton (1884), £160 (perfect, stained and mended); nobleman (Earl of Westmoreland), 1887, £156 (perfect, excepting the blank); Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £510 (two leaves in facsimile).
Cordyale, or the four last things (26).
Osborne (1748), £2, 2s. J. West (1773), £14—W. Hunter. Stanesby Alchorne bought W. Fletewode’s copy in 1774 for £6, 12s. 6d., and at his sale in 1813 George III. bought it for £127, 1s. Dr. Valpy’s copy, bought in 1832 by Henry G. Bohn for £26, 15s. 6d., is not mentioned by Blades; Valpy is said to have given £87 for it. Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £760—Pickering & Chatto (wanting eight leaves).
The Mirrour of the World, first edition (31).
R. Smith (1682), 5s. F. Child bought Bryan Fairfax’s perfect copy in 1756 for £3; this was sold to Mr. Quaritch at the Earl of Jersey’s sale (1885) for £195. J. West had two copies, which were sold in 1773—a perfect one to George III. for 12 guineas, and a very imperfect one to Richard Gough for £2, 13s. The latter sold at Gough’s sale (1810) for £4, 14s. 6d. Mr. Cracherode’s perfect copy (now in the British Museum) was bought by him at Ratcliffe’s sale (1776) for £2, 15s. The Duke of Roxburghe’s fine and perfect copy, for which he gave 9 guineas, was sold at his sale (1812) to the Duke of Devonshire for £351, 15s.
The following copies (in addition to the Earl of Jersey’s, mentioned above) have been sold since the publication of Mr. Blades’s book:—
In 1877 Mr. Quaritch had a copy for sale with a vi, a viii, and the last leaf in facsimile, which he priced £200.
Sir John Thorold (1884), £335—Quaritch (perfect, excepting the blanks). Earl of Hardwicke (1888), £60—Quaritch (very imperfect). W. H. Crawford (1891), £160 (perfect, with the exception of one blank). Earl of Ashburnham (part 2, 1897), £225 (leaves in facsimile).
The Mirrour of the World, second edition (84).
West’s perfect copy was bought by Willett in 1773 for £9, 15s.; at his sale (1813) it was bought for Lord Spencer for £136, 10s.
A perfect copy, very clean and large, was sold in 1844 with the library of Calwick Hall, Staffordshire, to Rodd for £41. Thorpe gave Rodd £94 for it, but sold it to Mr. C. Hurt for £90. At Hurt’s sale in 1855 Sir William (then Mr.) Tite bought it for £105. At his sale in 1874 it realised £455.
A perfect copy in the original binding of oak, covered with stamped leather, and almost uncut, is in the library of the Baptist College at Bristol, having been presented by A. Gifford, D.D. It has the following notes on a fly-leaf in Dr. Gifford’s autograph:—
| “Memoranda. Pd. Simco | £2 | 12 | 6 | |
| Another at Mr. Ratcliffe’s sales to perfect ys | 2 | 16 | 0 | |
| Repairing and gilding, &c. | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| 5 | 11 | 0 | ||
| Mem. Mr. White gave for another perfect one at Ratcliffe’s sale £8, 8s. | ||||
| Mem. 2. No copy of this in Museum.” | ||||
The following sales, in addition to Sir William Tite’s, mentioned above, have taken place since the publication of Blades’s book:—
Sale at Puttick & Simpson’s (1884)—a very poor copy, wanting eleven leaves, was sold for £8. Rev. Fuller Russell (1885), £265 (Hibbert’s copy, which sold in 1829 for £36, 4s. 6d.; Hibbert had given £55, 13s. at the Marquis of Blandford’s sale in 1819). Hardwicke (Wimpole), 1888, £60 (with “Cicero de Amicitia”). F. Perkins (1889), £100 (two leaves of Table in MS.). Birket Foster (1894), £77 (wanting eighteen leaves).
The History of Reynard the Fox, first edition (32).
J. Ratcliffe (1776), £5, 10s.—George III. J. Inglis (1826), £184, 16s.—T. Grenville. J. D. Gardner (1854), £195—Duke of Newcastle. (All three copies are perfect.)
—— Second edition.
One copy only—that in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge—is known to exist.
Tully of Old Age, etc. (33).
Dr. Bernard (1698), 4s. 2d. Francis Child bought Bryan Fairfax’s perfect copy in 1756 for 2 guineas. In 1885 this was sold at the Earl of Jersey’s sale (1885) for £350.
Dr. Askew bought T. Rawlinson’s perfect copy in 1756 for £1, 5s., and at Askew’s sale (1775) Willett gave 13 guineas for it. At Willett’s sale (1813) it was sold to the Marquis of Blandford for £210. At the Marquis’s sale (1819) T. Brockett gave £87, 3s. for it. At Brockett’s sale (1823) Watson Taylor bought it for £47, 5s. Thorpe bought it at Watson Taylor’s sale (1823) for £47, 15s. 6d. The “Merly” copy turned up again in 1857, when it was sold to Mr. F. Huth for £275.
The Duke of Roxburghe’s imperfect copy was bought in 1812 by the Duke of Devonshire for £115.
Since Blades’s book was published—the Rev. T. Corser (1868), £96 (“Old Age” only); Mr. Severne (1885), £250 (perfect); Earl of Crawford (1889), £320 (perfect); Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £102—Pickering & Chatto (Declamatio only).
The Chronicles of England, first edition (39).
R. Smith (1682), 3s. 6d.; Dr. Bernard (1691), 4s.; J. Ratcliffe (1776), £5, 5s.; S. Alchorne (1813), £63—Duke of Devonshire.
J. Roberts’s copy (1815) was bought for £105 by John Milner, at whose sale in 1829 W. S. Higgs bought it for £70, 7s.; at Higgs’s sale (1830) it realised £73, 10s.
The following sales have taken place since the publication of Blades’s book:—
Mr. Rainy, Bath (1883), £160—British Museum (poor copy, and imperfect). J. Hirst (1887), £67 (imperfect). Duke of Buccleuch (1889), £470—Quaritch (perfect, blanks excepted).
The Chronicles of England, second edition (43).
Bryan Fairfax’s imperfect copy was sold in 1756 to Francis Child for £5. In 1885 it sold for £40 at the sale of the Earl of Jersey’s library.
J. Ratcliffe’s imperfect copy was sold (1776) to George III. for £4, 5s.
An imperfect copy was bought by the Earl of Ashburnham in 1860 for £180. It was added to the sale after the library of E. A. Crowninshield, of Boston, U.S., had been brought to England. This copy, bound in new brown morocco, with “Description of Britain” (three leaves in facsimile), sold at Lord Ashburnham’s sale (1897) for £610—Pickering & Chatto.
Mr. Quaritch bought the Duke of Buccleuch’s copy in 1889 for £45. This was wrongly described in the catalogue as wanting only “fourteen leaves, of which two are blank,” whereas it not only wanted the first fourteen printed leaves as well as the two blanks, but also the last six.
The Description of Britain (40).
J. Towneley’s imperfect copy was bought by George III. in 1814 for £85, 1s.
The Duke of Buccleuch’s copy was bought by Mr. Quaritch in 1889 for £195. It was made up from two imperfect copies, with some leaves inlaid, but otherwise complete.
The History of Godfrey of Boloyne (42).
R. Smith (1682), 18s. 2d—Earl of Peterborough. Dr. Bernard (1698), 4s. J. West (1773), £10, 10s.—George III. J. Ratcliffe (1776), £6, 16s. 6d.—W. Hunter. Dr. Vincent (1816), £215, 5s., bought by Singer, but Blades says the Marquis of Blandford; but Mr. Norgate thinks this is a mistake, as there was no copy in the White Knights sale. Mr. Holford’s copy and that in the British Museum were the only known perfect copies until 1884, when Mr. Quaritch announced in his catalogue (No. 21,842) a “very fine copy, quite perfect, with all the blanks, and in the original binding,” priced £1000. Mr. Norgate suggests that this may be Dr. Vincent’s copy.
Polycronicon (44).
R. Mead (1755), £3, 13s. 6d. Joseph Ames (1760), two copies; one sold for 7s., and the other for 14s. J. West (1773), £16, 5s. 6d.
There were three copies in Ratcliffe’s sale (1775); one sold for 3s. 3d., another for 2s. 3d., and a third for £5, £5s. 6d.
Heber bought S. Tyssen’s copy in 1801 for £5; at his own sale it fetched £10, 15s.
The White Knights perfect copy was bought by Payne in 1819 for £94, 10s. It is now in the Grenville Library. (Blades overlooked this.)
Dent’s perfect copy was bought by Perkins in 1827 for £103, 19s.; at the latter’s sale (1873) it was bought by Mr. Quaritch for £365.
Lord Charlemont (1865), £477—Walford (wanting two leaves). This copy went to New York, and was sold immediately for 6750 dollars (= about £1380). T. Edwards (1871), wanting seven leaves, £34—Quaritch. This copy was sold at the Earl of Aylesford’s sale (1888) for £110, also to Mr. Quaritch. The seven leaves were supplied in facsimile. Ten were mounted, and a few others mended.
Sir W. Tite’s copy, with a 2, 3, 4, 8 in facsimile, realised in 1874 £150. Ashburnham copy (1897), wanting forty-six leaves, £201.
Other copies sold since the publication of Blades’s book were mere fragments, and only realised small sums.
The Pilgrimage of the Soul (45).
R. Smith (1682), 5s. J. West (1773), £8, 17s. 6d. J. Ratcliffe (1776), £3, 17s. At the Marquis of Blandford’s sale (1819) Earl Spencer bought it for £152, 5s. He perfected it with three leaves from a copy formerly belonging to Heber, and sold it in 1821, when Heber bought it again for £26, 15s. 6d., but at his sale in 1834 it only realised 18 guineas.
The Festial, first edition (47).
J. Ratcliffe had two copies: J. Edwards bought one for £3, 2s., and Dr. Farmer the other for £3. In 1796 the latter bought Herbert’s copy for £2, 2s., and made a perfect copy from the two. Lord Spencer bought this at Farmer’s sale in 1798 for £5.
—— Second edition (88).
The Duke of Roxburghe’s copy was bought by Earl Spencer for £105. Only one has occurred for sale since, viz., Rev. E. James (1854), £27, now in the British Museum.
Confessio Amantis (50).
F. Child bought B. Fairfax’s beautiful and perfect copy for £3 in 1756, and at the Earl of Jersey’s sale in 1885 it realised £810. It is now in the United States. George III. bought West’s imperfect and cropped copy for 9 guineas. Topham Beauclerk’s copy, wanting ten leaves, sold in 1781 for £2, 4s.; in 1881 it was sold at Mr. G. L. Way’s sale for £77. The Duke of Roxburghe’s perfect copy was bought by the Duke of Devonshire for £336.
Willett’s copy has been sold several times, and each time for a lower price than before. In 1813 the Marquis of Blandford bought it at Willett’s sale in 1813 for £315. At the White Knights sale (1819) it was described as “remarkably fine and perfect,” and was sold to G. Watson Taylor for £205, 16s. On being collated it was found to want six leaves, and was consequently returned, and resold to Mr. Watson Taylor for £131, 5s. At his sale in 1823 it only realised £57, 15s.
W. Haggard (1867), £185 (wanting several leaves). Lord Selsey’s perfect copy sold in 1872 for £670. H. Perkins (1873), £245 (six leaves in facsimile). Ashburnham (part 2, 1897), imperfect, £188.
The Knight of the Tower (51).
R. Smith (1682), 5s. 1d. J. Brand’s perfect copy was bought by Earl Spencer in 1807 for £111, 6s.
G. Watson Taylor bought the Marquis of Blandford’s perfect copy (without blanks) in 1819 for £85, 1s. At his sale in 1823 Jolley bought it for £52, 10s. Rodd bought it for Corser, at Jolley’s sale in 1843, for £90. At Corser’s sale (1868) Mr. Quaritch bought it for £560.
Caton (52).
R. Smith (1682),4s. 2d.; Dr. Bernard (1698), 1s. 10d.
The Duke of Devonshire’s fine and perfect copy has the Earl of Oxford’s autograph—“I bought this book at Edinburgh and paid for it the price of £3, 3s. to Mr. Alex. Seymmer Bookseller in the parliament close May 24 1725.” In another hand, “Ex Bib: Harl: £1, 1s., Feb. 1745.” It was bought from Messrs. Arch for £105.
The sale of Watson Taylor’s copy (1823) to Barclay for £30, 19s. 6d. is not recorded by Blades.
Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £295—Pickering and Chatto (imperfect).
The Golden Legend, first edition (53).
West’s imperfect copy was bought (1773) by Dr. Hunter for £12, 15s., and is now at Glasgow. Ratcliffe’s imperfect copy was bought by George III. (1776) for £5, 15s. 6d. The highest price recorded by Blades at which a copy has sold is £230, bought by the Duc d’Aumale in 1854 at J. Dunn Gardner’s sale. This copy wants the last leaf in the Table and Biiij, the latter supplied in facsimile. Corser’s imperfect copy sold in 1869 for £147. It is now in the Huth library. W. H. Crawford’s imperfect copy sold in 1891 for £465.
—— Second edition (66).
There are no records of sales.
—— Third edition (93).
Printed by Wynkyn de Worde.
The Order of Chivalry (56).
J. West (1773), £5, 5s.—G. Mason. J. Ratcliffe (1776), £2, 8s.—George III. (imperfect). Lord Lovat (1852), £55, 10s.—Earl of Ashburnham (imperfect). Lord Ashburnham (1897), £345—Pickering & Chatto (imperfect).
Troylus and Creside (60).
West’s perfect copy was bought by George III. in 1773 for 10 guineas. Ratcliffe’s large and clean, but imperfect, copy has been sold several times at very varying prices. Herbert bought it in 1776 for £2. At Towneley’s sale in 1814 the Marquis of Blandford bought it for £252, 2s. At the White Knights sale in 1819 Watson Taylor gave £162, 15s. for it. Thomas Grenville bought it for £66, 3s. at Watson Taylor’s sale in 1823.
The Life of our Lady (61).
Earl Spencer gave £130 for his imperfect copy. The highest sale price recorded by Blades is £49 for the Duke of Roxburghe’s copy. The Rev. T. Corser’s imperfect copy, for which he gave £32 at Utterson’s sale in 1852, sold for £113 in 1868. Sir William Tite’s very imperfect copy (wanting thirty leaves) belonged to West, and was bought at his sale by Herbert for £2, 12s. 6d. Tite bought it in 1859 for £41, and at his sale it sold for £54. The Earl of Devon’s quite perfect copy (with the blanks) was bought by Mr. Quaritch for £880 in 1883.
The Noble Histories of King Arthur (63).
The only known perfect copy was in the Harleian Library, and was sold by Osborne in 1748 to Bryan Fairfax for £5. At Fairfax’s sale in 1756 Francis Child bought it for two guineas and a half, and in 1885 it was sold at the Earl of Jersey’s sale to Mr. Quaritch for £1950. It is now in New York.
The Life of Charles the Great (64).
The only known copy which is perfect is now in the King’s Library, British Museum. Ratcliffe bought it at West’s sale (1773) for £13, and at Ratcliffe’s sale (1776) George III. obtained it for 4 guineas.
The Knight Paris and the Fair Vienne (65).
The only known copy, in the King’s Library, is perfect. It was bought at West’s sale by George III. for £14.
The Royal Book (67).
West’s imperfect copy was bought by George III. for £10. Gustavus Brander bought Ratcliffe’s imperfect copy in 1777 for £2, 13s., but at his own sale it only brought 15s. It was sold in 1864 to Lilly for £62.
The Althorpe perfect and beautiful copy was bought by the Marquis of Blandford at Louis Goldsmid’s sale (1815) for £85, 1s. At the Marquis’s sale (1819) George Hibbert bought it for £73, 10s., and at Hibbert’s sale (1829) Lord Spencer obtained it for £61, 19s.
The Duke of Buccleuch’s copy (wanting a. i, with two very slight defects, both repaired) is not mentioned by Blades. It was bought by Mr. Quaritch at the Duke’s sale (1889) for £365.
Speculum Vitæ Christi (70).
West’s copy was bought by Ratcliffe, who had three imperfect copies; at his sale in 1776 George III. bought one for £3, 3s., Dr. Hunter another for the same amount, and the third sold for £3, 10s. Earl Spencer bought two copies—one at J. Allen’s sale (1795) for 11 guineas, and the other at the Roxburghe sale for £45; he completed the latter with two leaves taken from the former. The duplicate was sold and came into the possession of Sir Francis Freeling; at his sale in 1836 Mr. Corser bought it for £25, 10s., and at Corser’s sale (1868) it realised £67.
Two copies are known on vellum—-one, in very poor condition, is in the Royal Library at Windsor; the other, in the British Museum, was bought in 1864 for £1000.
The Doctrinal of Sapience (71).
The Duke of Devonshire gave £78, 15s. for the Spencer duplicate (perfect) in Alchorne’s sale (1813). Dawson Turner’s copy (wanting six leaves) was bought by T. Bateman in 1859 for £28; at his sale in 1893 it realised £58. Earl of Ashburnham’s copy (first and last leaf in facsimile), 1897, sold for £660—Quaritch (for the British Museum). The last Earl gave £150 for this copy.
Servitium de Transfiguratione Jhesu Christi (73).
The only known copy was bought for the British Museum at a sale at Puttick’s in 1862 for £200. It was found in a volume of Theological Tracts presented to the Congregational Library, Blomfield Street, by Joshua Wilson of Tunbridge Wells in 1831.
The Fayts of Arms (74).
The largest amount paid for a copy at a public sale is £336, which the Duke of Devonshire gave for the Roxburghe copy (with a few lines of the last leaf in facsimile).
Bryan Fairfax’s imperfect copy was bought by Francis Child for £1, 11s. 6d. At the sale of Lord Jersey’s library in 1885 it sold for £71.
Libri’s perfect, but mended and washed, copy, which he had bought in very poor condition from Mario the great tenor, was sold in 1862 to Mr. F. Huth for £255.
Mr. Corser’s perfect copy was bought in 1868 by Mr. Quaritch for £250.
Sir W. Tite’s copy (with the first two leaves in facsimile) sold in 1874 for £190. This copy was bought by Tite at the Rev. C. H. Crauford’s sale in 1854 for £77. Crauford bought it at Wilks’s sale (1847) for £54.
The Earl of Crawford’s perfect copy, with Table inlaid, sold in 1889 for £235. R. Lindsay, in Philadelphia, had this copy in his catalogue (June 1893) for £425.
The History of Blanchardin and Eglantine (78).
The only known copy, which is imperfect, is in the Althorpe library. This copy was bought at Ratcliffe’s sale by G. Mason for £3, 6s.; at Mason’s sale (1799) the Duke of Roxburghe bought it for £21. Earl Spencer gave £215, 5s. for it at the Roxburghe sale.
Eneydos (81).
R. Smith (1682), 3s. Walter Rea (1682), 1s. 6d.
F. Child gave 30s. for B. Fairfax’s perfect copy, which sold at the Earl of Jersey’s sale (1885) for £235.
Hanrott’s imperfect copy was bought in 1833 by Lord Auckland for £43, 1s.; at his sale two years afterwards H. Holland bought it for £24. At Holland’s sale (1860) Mr. H. Huth bought it for £84.
Mr. Quaritch had a copy in 1875 with two leaves in facsimile, otherwise a fine copy, which he marked £300.
The Art and Craft to Know Well to Die (86).
West’s perfect copy was bought by Ratcliffe for £5, 2s. 6d.; at Ratcliffe’s sale George III. bought it for 4 guineas.
Mr. C. Tutet’s copy was bought in 1786 by Payne for 2 guineas; probably this is the perfect copy which Payne sold to the National Library, Paris, for 10 guineas.
The Chastising of God’s Children (90).
R. Smith (1682). 5s. Dr. Bernard (1698), 1s. 10d. Osborne (1751), 15s.
The Roxburghe copy (perfect) was bought by Lord Spencer for £140.
The Earl of Aylesford bought the Marquis of Blandford’s copy (bound with “Treatise of Love,” No. 91) for £32, 10s., and at his sale in 1888 it realised £305. F. Perkins (1889), £100.
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:—