Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/173

139 CONSTABLE, C A DELL, AND BLACK. 139 auction at the London Coffee House by Mr. Hodgson. The sale brought together the largest " trade" gather- ing that has ever been witnessed ; there were pub- lishers from the "Row" and Albemarle Street, book- sellers from Ave Maria and Ivy Lanes, and specula- tors from every corner of the kingdom. The stock had been valued at 10, 193 3^., a very low figure, and it was announced that this would be sold only with the copyrights, and that the trustees retained the right of bidding. After much disputing as to these restrictions 5000 was offered, and quickly rose by leaps of 500 to ,10,500, when Mr. Bohn and the " Row" retired, and the struggle lay between Mr. Virtue and some imaginary bidder, visible only to the eyes of the auctioneer. At ,13,500 the copyright was "bought in" making the price, including the stock, 23,693 3^. This afforded a wonderful contrast to the former sale at 8500, more especially when we consider that the copyright of the earlier novels had only five or six years more to run. In a few weeks after this it was announced in the Scotsman that the whole of the copyrights were trans- ferred to the hands of another eminent publishing firm in Edinburgh Messrs. A. and C. Black, who, in conjunction with their friends, Messrs. Richardson Brothers, became the possessors at the price of 27,000. Leaving the Waverley Novels for a time, it will be necessary to bring up the narrative of the career of Mr. Adam Black to the period when he was able to become the owner of the most valuable literary pro- perty that has ever existed. Adam Black, the son of Charles Black, a builder of 92