Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/335

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

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��Mr. Sidney Hodgson rightly considers that the avidity with which Americans snap up book rarities is largely responsible for the advance in price of choice works in English literature. Well can I remember, as far back as 1854, the large purchases made by them, both for their own. private libraries and for the purposes of sale. British booklovers were slow to recognize this, and many a choice treasure, which should have found its home either in the private libraries of the wealthy or in the British Museum, got shipped off to the United States. Although we may lament this, we can at the same time feel proud that the literature of the old home is so highly valued by our relatives across the sea.

I have been comparing prices, and, thanks to my friend, Mr- Francis Edwards, I am able to quote a few. I have taken the catalogue of Messrs. Willis & Sotheran of 1862 (hi the compilation of which Mr. Charles Edmonds, as Mr. Henry Cecil Sotheran informs me, took an important share), and compared the prices with those in Mr. J. H. Slater's invaluable ' Book-Prices Current,' 1905-6. The conditions of the works are as nearly as possible the same ; the first price quoted is that of 1862, and the second that of 1905-6.

A fine copy of the First Folio, 1623, the text perfect, but the letterpress title and verses in admirable facsimile, 53Z. ; a copy sold in June, 1906, wanting title, portrait, and verses opposite, and other defects, not subject to return, 24:51. A Second Folio, a good sound copy, 181. ; an inferior copy, March, 1906, 4GI.

As regards the original Quarto editions of Shakespeare's works, only two copies of the first separate edition of ' Hamlet ' are known, so that it lies quite beyond the reach of money. The rise in Shakespeare Quartos is well illustrated by ' Henry IV. (Part I.)' This fetched at the Steevens Sale 3Z. 10s., and at the Roxburghe Sale 61. 6s. In 1856 it realized 21Z. 10s. ; and in the following year the Halliwell copy commanded 151. In the sixties Mr. George Daniell valued his copy at 200Z. ; and if a fine example occurred for sale at the present period, it would probably fetch that sum.

The best Quarto edition of ' Henry V.' is that issued in 1608. At the dispersal of Steevens's library a copy was knocked down for the insignificant sum of a guinea, but a hundred times that amount might fail to secure a fine example to-day. But the rise in value is shown in a far more marked degree in the case of ' Henry IV. (Part II.).' This was first published in 1600, by Andrew Wise and William Aspley. About a century ago copies could be bought in the saleroom for 21. or 31, ; but in 1904 an example was put up at Sotheby's, and the bidding only ceased when the sum of 1,035Z. had been reached.

Ackermann's ' London,' 1811, 21 12s. 6d. and 19Z. BoydeU's ' Thames,' 1794-6, 31. 3s. and III 10s.

��The

Americans snap up rarities.

��Mr. Francis Edwards.

��Henry Cecil Sotheran.

��Cheap

Shakespeare

Folios.

��Quartos.

��Henry V. 1608.

��Prices compared.

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