some hundreds of different works, were mostly confined to twenty copies each, and some to only six copies. Some of them are as rare as many manuscripts, of which several copies have been made, and sell at prices dictated by their scarcity. Most of them are in the Library of Congress. The Kelmscott press of William Morris printed in sumptuous style, improved upon the finest models of antique typography, a number of literary works, which now. bring enhanced prices.

Of the many historical and literary publications of the Roxburghe Club, the Percy Society, the Maitland, the Abbotsford, and the Bannatyne Clubs abroad, only 30 to 100 copies were printed of each. Of those of the Prince Society, the Grolier Club, and others in America, only from 150 to 300 copies were printed, being for subscribers only. Rarity and enhanced prices necessarily result in all these cases. Of some books only five to ten copies have been printed, or else, out of fifty or more, all but a very few have been ruthlessly destroyed, in order to give a fanciful value to the remainder. In these extreme instances, the rarity commonly constitutes almost the sole value of the work.

(2) Even where many copies have been printed, the destruction of the greater part of the edition has rendered the book very rare. Printing offices and book binderies are pecularly subject to fires, and many editions have thus been consumed before more than a few copies have been issued.

The great theological libraries edited by the Abbe J. P. Migne, the Patrologie Grecque, et Latine, owe their scarcity and advanced prices to a fire which consumed the entire remainder of the edition. All the copies of the first edition of "Twenty Years Among Our Savage Indians," by J. L. Humfreville, were destroyed by fire in a Hartford printing office in 1897, except two, which had been deposited in the Library of Congress to secure the copyright. The whole edition of the Machina coelestis of Hevelius was burned, except the few copies which the author had presented to friends before the fire occurred. The earlier issues in Spanish of the Mexican and Peruvian presses prior to 1600 are exceedingly rare. And editions of books printed at places in the United States where no books are now published are sought for their imprint alone, and seldom found.

departed, in however slight degree, from the standard of faith proclaimed by the church, were put in the Index Expurgatorius, or list of works condemned in whole or in part as heretical and unlawful to be read. A long and melancholy record of such proscriptions, civil and ecclesiastical, is found in Gabriel Peignot's two volumes, "Dictionnaire des livres condamnes au feu, supprimes ou censures," &c. Works of writers of genius and versatile ability were thus proscribed, until it gave rise to the sarcasm among the scholars of Europe, that if one wanted to find what were the books best worth reading, he should look in the Index Expurgatorius. It appears to have been quite forgotten by those in authority that persecution commonly helps the cause persecuted, and that the best way to promote the circulation of a book is to undertake to suppress it. This age finds itself endowed with so many heretics, that it is no longer possible to find purchasers at high prices for books once deemed unholy. Suppressed passages in later editions lead to a demand for the uncastrated copies, which adds an element of enhanced cost in the market.

(4) Another source of rarity is the great extent and cost of many works, outrunning the ability of most collectors to buy or to accommodate them on their shelves. These costly possessions have been commonly printed in limited numbers for subscribers, or for distribution by governments under whose patronage they were produced. Such are some of the notable collections of early voyages, the great folios of many illustrated scientific works on natural history, antiquity, local geography, &c. That great scholar, Baron von Humboldt, used jocosely to say that he could not afford to own a set of his own works, most of which are folios, sumptuously printed, with finely engraved illustrations. The collection known as the "Grands et petits Voyages" of De Bry, the former in thirteen volumes, relating to America, and finely illustrated with copper plates produced in the highest style of that art, are among the rarest sets of books to find complete. The collection of voyages by Hulsius is equally difficult to procure. A really perfect set of Piranesi's great illustrated work on the art and architecture of ancient Rome is very difficult to acquire. The “Acta Sanctorum," in the original edition, is very seldom found. But there is no room to multiply examples.

down in binding. To some book-collecting amateurs cut edges are an abomination. They will pay more for a book "in sheets," which they can bind after their own taste, than the finest copy in calf or morocco with gilt edges. Some books, also, are exceptionally costly because bound in a style of superior elegance and beauty, or as having belonged to a crowned head or a noble person ("books with a pedigree"), or an eminent author, or having autographs of notable characters on the fly leaves or title pages, or original letters inserted in the volume. Others still are "extra-illustrated" works, in which one volume is swelled to several by the insertion of a multitude of portraits, autographs, and engravings, more or less illustrative of the contents of the book. This is called "Grangerizing," from its origin in the practice of thus illustrating Granger's biographical History of England. Book amateurs of expensive tastes are by no means rare, especially in England, France, and America, and the great commercial value placed upon uncut and rarely beautiful books, on which the highest arts of the printer and book-binder have been lavished,

(6) The books emanating from the presses of famous printers are more sought for by collectors and libraries than other publications, because of their superior excellence. Sometimes this is found in the beauty of the type or the clear and elegant presswork; sometimes in the printers' marks, monograms, engraved initial letters, head and tail-pieces, or other illustrations, and sometimes in the fine quality of the choice paper on which the books are printed. Thus, the productions of the presses of Aldus, Giunta, Bodoni, Estienne, Elzevir, Froben, Gutenberg, Fust and Schoeffer, Plantin, Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, Bulmer, Didot, Baskerville, Pickering, Whittingham, and others, are always in demand, and some of the choicer specimens of their art, if in fine condition, bring great prices in the second-hand book-shops or the auction room. An example of Caxton's press is now almost unattainable, except in fragmentary copies. There are known to be only about 560 examples of Caxtons in the world, four-fifths of which are in England, and thirty-one of these are unique. His "King Arthur" (1485) brought £1,950 at auction in 1885, and the Polychronicon (1482) was sold at the Ives sale (New York), in 1891, for $1,500.

(8) Of some books certain volumes only are rare, and very costly in consequence. Thus, Burk's "History of Virginia" is common enough in three volumes, but volume 4 of the set, by Jones & Girardin (1816), is exceedingly rare, and seldom found with the others. The fifth and last volume of Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in Universal History" is very scarce, while the others are readily procured. De Bry's voyages, the thirteenth and final part of the American voyages is so rare as to be quite unattainable, unless after long years of search, and at an unconscionable price for an imperfect copy.

Of

(9) The condition of any book is an unfailing factor in its price. Many, if not most books offered by second-hand dealers, or at auction, are shop-worn, soiled, or with broken bindings, or some other defect. A pure, clean copy, in handsome condition without and within, commands invarably an extra price. Thus, the noted "Nuremberg Chronicle," of 1493, a huge, portly folio, with 2,250 wood-cuts in the text, many of them by Albert Durer or other early artists, is priced in London catalogues all the way from £7.15 up to £35 for identically the same edition. The difference is dependent wholly on the condition of the copies offered.

(10) The first editions printed of many books always command high prices. Not only is this true of the editio princeps of Homer, Virgil, Tacitus, and other Greek and Roman writers, published in the infancy of printing, but of every noted author of ancient and modern date. The edition printed during the life of the writer has had his own oversight and correction; and when more than one issue of his book has thus appeared, one sees how his maturer judgment may have altered the substance or the style of his work. First editions of any very successful work always tend to become scarce, since the number printed is smaller, as a rule, and a large part of the issue is absorbed by public libraries. The earliest published writings of Tennyson, now found with difficulty, show how much of emendation and omission this great poet thought proper to make in his poems in after years. A first edition of "Ivanhoe," three volumes, 1820, brings £7 or more in the original boards, but if rebound in any style, the first Waverley novels can be had at much less, though collectors are many.

*

(11) Another class of rare books is found in many local histories, both among the county histories of Great Britain, and those of towns and counties in the United States. Jay Gould's history of Delaware County, N. Y., published in 1856 and sought

(12) There is a large variety of books that are sought mainly on account, not of their authors, nor for their value as literature but for their illustrators. Many eminent artists (in fact, most of those of any period), have made designs for certain books of their day. The reputation of an artist sometimes rests more upon his work given to the public in engravings, etchings, wood cuts, &c., that illustrate books, than upon his works on canvas or in marble. Many finely illustrated works bear prices enhanced by the eagerness of collectors, who are bent upon possessing the designs of some favorite artist, while some amateurs covet a collection of far wider scope. This demand, although fitful, and sometimes evanescent (though more frequently recurrent), lessens the supply of illustrated books, and with the constant drafts of new libraries, raises prices. Turner's exquisite pictures in Rogers' "Italy" and "Poems" (1830-'34) have floated into fame books of verse which find very few readers. Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") designed those immortal Wellers in "Pickwick," which have delighted and amused two whole generations of readers. The "Cruikshankiana" are sought with avidity, in whatever numerous volumes they adorn. Books illustrated with the designs of Bartolozzi, Marillier, Eisen, Gravelot, Moraeu, Johannot, Grandville, Rowlandson, Bewick, William Blake, Stothard, Stanfield, Harvey, Martin, Cattermole, Birket Foster, Mulready, Tenniel, Maclise, Gilbert, Dalziel, Leighton, Holman Hunt, Doyle, Leech, Millais, Rossetti, Linton, Du Maurier, Sambourne, Caldecott, Walter Crane, Kate Greenway, Haden, Hamerton, Whistler, Dore, Anderson, Darley, Matt Morgan, Thomas Nast, Vedder, and others, are in constant demand, especially for the early impressions of books in which the designs of these artists appear.

Finally, that extensive class of books known as early Americana have been steadily growing rarer, and rising in commercial value, since about the middle of the nineteenth century. Books and pamphlets Books and pamphlets relating to any part of the American continent or islands, the first voyages, discoveries, narratives or histories of those regions which were hardly noted or cared for a century ago, are now eagerly sought by collectors for libraries, both public and private. In this field the keen competition of American historical societies, and of several great libraries, besides the ever-increasing number of private collectors

with large means, has notably enhanced the prices of all desirable and rare books. Nor do the many reprints which have appeared at all affect the market value of the originals, or first editions.

The rise in prices, while far from uniform, and furnishing many examples of isolated extravagance, has been marked. Witness some examples: The "Bay Psalm Book," Cambridge, Mass., A. D. 1640, is the Caxton of New England, so rare that no perfect copy has been found for many years. In 1855, Henry Stevens had the singular good fortune to find this typographical gem sandwiched in an odd bundle of old hymn books, unknown to the auctioneers or the catalogue, at a London book sale. Keeping his own counsel, he bid off the lot at nine shillings, completed an imperfection in the book, had it bound in Bedford's best, and sold it to Mr. Lenox's library at £80. In 1868, Stevens sold another copy to George Brinley for 150 guineas, which was bought for $1,200 in 1878 by C. Vanderbilt, at the Brinley sale.

In

John Smith's folio "Historie of Virginia," first edition, 1624, on large paper, was sold to Brinley in 1874 at $1,275, and resold in 1878 for $1,800 to Mr. Lenox. In 1884, a copy on large paper brought £605 at the Hamilton Library sale, in London. 1899, a perfect copy of the large paper edition was presented to the Library of Congress by Gen. W. B. Franklin. Perfect copies of Smith's Virginia of 1624, on small paper, have sold for $1,000, and those wanting some maps, at $70 to $150.

The earlier English tracts relating to Virginia and New England, printed between 1608 and 1700, command large prices, e. g., Lescarbot's "New France," 1609, $60 to $150; Wood's "New England's Prospect," 1635, $50 to $320; Hubbard's "Present State of New England," Boston, 1677, $180 to $316.

It is curious to note, in contrast, the following record of prices at the sale of Dr. Bernard's library, in London, in 1686. Morton's Morton's "New England," 1615, 8 pence; Lescarbot's "New France," 1609, 10 pence; Wood's "New England's Prospect," 1635, and three others, 5 shillings 8 pence; nine Eliot tracts, &c., 5 shillings 2 pence; Hubbard's "Present State of New England," 1677, I shilling; Smith's "Historie of Virginia," 1624, 4 shillings 2 pence.

The numerous and now rare works of Increase and Cotton Mather, printed from 1667 to 1728, though mostly sermons, are collected by a sufficient number of libraries to maintain prices at from $4 to $25 each, according to condition. They number over 470 different volumes.

Several collections have been attempted of Frankliniana, or works printed at Benjamin Franklin's press, and of the many editions of his writings, with all books concerning the illustrious printer-statesman of America. His "Poor Richard's Almanacs,'

Of notable auction sales of books, and of the extravagant prices obtained for certain editions by ambitious and eager competition, there is little room to treat. The oft-told story of the Valdarfer Boccaccio of 1471, carried off at the Roxburghe sale in 1812, at £2,260 from Earl Spencer by the Marquis of Blandford, and repurchased seven years after at another auction for £918, has been far surpassed in modern bibliomania. "The sound of that hammer," wrote the melodramatic Dibdin, "echoed through Europe;" but what would he have said of the Mazarin Bible of Gutenberg and Fust (1450-'55) sold in 1897, at the Ashburnham sale, for £4,000, or of the Latin Psalter of Fust and Schoeffer, second edition, 1459, which brought £4,950 at the Syston Park sale in 1884? This last sum (nearly $24,000) is the largest price ever yet recorded as received for a single volume. Among books of less rarity, though always eagerly sought, is the first folio. Shakespeare of 1623, a very fine and perfect copy of which brought 716.2 at Daniel's sale in 1864. Copies warranted perfect have since been sold in London for £415 to £470. In New York a perfect but not "tall" copy brought $4,200 in 1891 at auction. The copy in the Library of Congress, which is "letter perfect," though the title is mounted, cost £310 at a London sale twenty years ago. Walton's "Compleat Angler," London, first edition, 1653, a little book of only 250 pages, sold for £310 in 1891. It was published for 1s. 6d. The first edition of "Robinson Crusoe" brought £75 at the Crampton sale in 1896.

The rage for first editions of very modern books reached what might be called high-water mark some time since, and has been on the decline. In New York, some first editions of Shelley's poems brought enormous prices in 1897. Shelley's "Adonais," first edition, Pisa, Italy, 1821, $335; "Alastor," London, 1816, $130. But these were purely adventitious prices, as was clearly shown in the sale at the same auction rooms a year or two earlier of Shelley's "Adonais," first edition, Pisa, 1821, $19, as against $335; "Alastor," London, 1816, $32.

The appeal always lies to the years against the hours; and many a poor book-mad enthusiast has had to rue his too easy credulity in giving an extravagant sum for books which he discovers later that he could have bought for as many shillings as he has paid dollars. Not that the Rarissimi of early published books can ever be purchased for a trifle; but it should always be remembered that even at the sales where a few-a very few-bring the enormous prices that are bruited abroad, the mass of the books offered are knocked down at very moderate figures, or are even sacrificed at rates far below their cost. The possessor of one of the books so advertised as sold at some auction for a hundred dollars or upward, if he expects to realize a tithe of the figure quoted, will speedily find himself in the vocative.

A word may be added as to early newspapers, of some special numbers of which prices that are literally "fabulous" ally "fabulous" are recorded. There are many reprints afloat of the first American newspaper, and most librarians have frequent offers of the Ulster County (N. Y.) Gazette of January 10, 1800, in mourning for the death of Washington, a genuine copy of which is worth money, but the many spurious reprints (which include all those offered) are worth nothing.

Of many rare early books reprints or facsimiles are rife in the market, especially of those having but few leaves; these, however, are easily detected by an expert eye, and need deceive no one.

Of some scarce books it may be said that they are as rare as the individuals who want them; and of a very few, that they are as rare as the extinct dodo. In fact, volumes have been written concerning extinct books, not without interest to the bibliomaniac who is fired with the passion for possessing something which no one else has. Some books are quite as worthless as they are rare. But books deemed worthless by the common or even by the enlightened mind are cherished as treasures by many collectors. The "Pastissier Francois," an Elzevir of 1655, is so rare as to have brought several times its weight in gold. Nearly all the copies of some books have been worn to rags by anglers, devout women, cooks, or children.

When a book is sold at a great price as 66 very rare," it often happens that several copies comes into the market, and there being no demand, the commercial value is correspondingly depressed. The books most sure of maintaining full prices are first

editions of masterpieces in literature. Fitzgerald's version of "Omar Khayyam" was bought by nobody when Quaritch first published it in 1859. After eight years he put the remainder of the edition-a paper-covered volume-down to a penny each. When the book had grown into fame, and the many variations in later issues were discovered, this first edition, no longer procurable, rose to £21, the price actually paid by Mr. Quaritch himself at a book auction in 1898.

Auction sales of libraries having many rare books have been frequent in London and Paris. The largest price yet obtained for any single library was reached in 1882:'83, when that of William Beckford brought £73,551, being an average of nearly $40 a volume. But W. C. Hazlitt says of this sale: "The Beckford books realized perfectly insane prices, and were afterward resold for a sixth or even tenth of the amount, to the serious loss of somebody, when the barometer had fallen.

The second-hand bookseller, having the whole range of printed literature for his field, has a great advantage in dealing with book collectors over the average dealer, who has to offer only new books, or such as are "in print."

It may be owned that the love of rare books is chiefly sentimental. He who delights to spend his days or his nights in contemplation of black-letter volumes, quaint title-pages, fine old bindings, and curious early illustrations, may not add to the knowledge or the happiness of mankind, but he makes sure of his own.

The passion for rare books, merely because of their rarity, is a low order of the taste for books. But the desire to possess and read wise old books which have been touched by the hoar frost of time is of a higher mood. The first impression of "Paradise Lost" (1667), with its quarto pages and antique orthography, is it not more redolent of the author's age than the elegant Pickering edition, or the one illustrated by John Martin, or Gustave Dore? When you hold in your hand Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" (A. D. 1600) and read with fresh admiration and delight the exquisite speeches of Oberon and Titana, may not the thought that perhaps that very copy may once have been held in the immortal bard's own hand send a thrill through your own?

When you turn over the classic pages of Homer,. illustrated by Flaxman, that "dear sculptor of eternity," as William Blake called him, or drink in the beauty of those delicious landscapes of Turner, that astonishing man, who shall wonder at your desire to possess them?

The genuine book lover is he who reads books: who values them for what they contain, not for their rarity, nor for the preposterous prices which have been paid for them. To him, book-hunting is an ever-enduring delight. Of all the pleasures tasted here below that of the book-lover in finding a precious and long-sought volume is one of the purest and most innocent. In books, he becomes master of all the kingdoms of the world.

A. R. SPOFFord.

SLEIGHT OF HAND.

Mr. Sennett, the agent, looked up sharply from the letter which he had been reading, gazed towards the door of his private office, and said "Come in." Mr. Palinode, his right-hand man, entered, carrying a manuscript. "Wasn't sure whether anybody knocked or not," said Mr. Sennett. "You have the suaviter in modo in perfection, Palinode, even in the matter of tapping on a door. Well, what have you come up about?"

"This," replied Mr. Palinode, as he seated himself opposite his principal. He put the manuscript on the writing-table, and pointed to it with his forefinger.

"Well, you've had a look at it?" Mr. Sennett inquired.

"Yes," said Mr. Palinode, "and though I've got a sort of nausea of manuscript from constantly seeing it and handling it, and can't usually relish any sort of fiction, I must say this strikes me as being positively great. It's more than talent, you knowthere's a touch of genius in it."

"So I thought," said Mr. Sennett, meditatively, "though I only read scraps of it; and that was why I asked you to run through it. It is fine stuff. I should like to get it published."

Mr. Palinode shrugged his shoulders and leaned back in his chair.

"I don't know who would take it," he observed, "It's splendid stuff, but it's too short and it's gloomy. And, then, the author's utterly unknown. They'd kick at it; it's too much of a risk. I don't believe you'd get anybody to take it."

"I must make somebody take it," said Mr. Sennett.

Mr. Palinode smiled.

Half an hour later Mr. Guddle, the senior partner in the publishing firm of Guddle & Honey, was ushered into Mr. Sennett's private room. He greeted the agent in a very friendly manner, and talked affably for some time about the weather and the news, and about minor matters of business which were pending between his firm and Mr. Sennett. Mr. Sennett waited patiently, and, when Mr. Guddle considered that he had successfully avoided any appearance of eagerness, he came to the reason of his visit.

"Now there's Brumber's book," he began with a smile.

"Yes," Mr. Sennett replied, in a serious tone "What do you think of it?"

"We like it," said Mr. Guddle. "I came up here to talk about it."

"I thought, perhaps that was so," remarked Mr. Sennett, and he smiled quietly.

"Well, about terms, you know, Sennett," resumed the publisher.

Mr. Sennett frowned as if he were confronted with a puzzle. "It's rather early to talk about