Page:Livingston, Auction Prices of Books, 1905, Volume 1.djvu/10

vi PREFACE England and America before the publication of the annual records was begun. The saving of shelf-room and the saving of expense are very great, but the saving of time and in convenience of use, will, it is certain, be much more important. Buyers and sellers of rare and valuable out of print books know how tedious and exasperating it often is when a quotation on some interesting book is sought for and the information is wanted in a hurry. Tedious, always, almost, on account of the large number of volumes now included in the annual records, exasperating, oftentimes, because the rarer the book the more time must be spent in discovering the sought for record. Before pointing out the limitations and short-comings of the work, let us tell, in a few words, of the modus-operandi which brought the book to its present state.

First, the volumes of " Book-Prices Current " and the " American Book-Prices Current " were cut up, two volumes of each being destroyed in order to secure the records on the two sides of each leaf. These slips, each being one record, were pasted on cards, the cards being stamped with the name of the sale and the date. Then copies in duplicate of the catalogues of the principal earlier American sales such as the Rice, Menzies, Brinley, Barlow, Ives, Coburn, Johnson, Hawkins, etc., etc., were treated in the same way, and copious selections were made from a large number of minor American sales and such important English sales as those of the Daniel, Beckford (Hamilton Palace), Thorold (Syston Park), Wodhull, Sunderland, Earl of Jersey, Corser, etc., etc. As no lots are included in the English " Book-Prices Current " selling less than one pound, this has been taken as the minimum price for English sales, and five dollars as a corresponding minimum for American sales. It is not claimed that every important book sold at auction in England since the George Daniel sale, in July, 1864, or in America since the John A. Rice sale in March, 1870, has been included, as it has not been possible to examine every sale catalogue of the period, but rather only some of the more important ones, and interesting and valuable books are often offered in conjunction with items of small interest or value. As the manuscript was in large part already prepared, the record is less full for 1903 and 1904, but most important items of these years have, it is believed, been included.

After the slips cut from the annual records and the extracts from earlier catalogues were prepared, the whole mass of material was