Chapter IX: Prices of Early English Literature

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 y^s 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:--

_The Chronicle of St. Albans_ (circa 1484), the second book printed
at St. Albans, and the first edition of the Chronicle, was sold
at the Earl of Ashburnham’s sale (1897) to Messrs. J. & J.
Leighton for £180. It was imperfect, but no absolutely perfect
copy is known.

In Quaritch’s catalogue, 1884 (No. 355), a copy with five
leaves in facsimile and twenty-two others deficient, was marked
£300.

_The Boke of St. Albans_ (1486), a copy perfected in MS., was sold
at the Roxburghe sale for £147. It was resold at the White
Knights sale for £84. In March 1882 Mr. Quaritch bought it at
Christie’s for 600 guineas. The Grenville copy now in the
British Museum has gone through many vicissitudes, which were
graphically described by Dr. Maitland in 1847. It appears that
at the end of the last century the library of Thonock Hall, in
the parish of Gainsborough, the seat of the Hickman family, was
sorted out by an ignorant person who threw into a condemned
heap all books without covers. A gardener who took an interest
in heraldry begged permission to take home what he liked from
this heap, and he chose among other books _The Book of St.
Albans_. This remained in his cottage till June 1844, when his
son’s widow sold 9 lbs. of books to a pedlar for 9d. The pedlar
sold the lot for 3s. to a chemist in Gainsborough, who was
rather struck by _The Book of St. Albans_, and tried to sell
it, but the neighbours did not wish to buy it. Eventually he
obtained £2, 2s. for it from a man who expected to sell it to
advantage. The purchaser sold it to Stark the bookseller for
£7, 7s. Stark took it to London and sold it to the Right Hon.
Thomas Grenville for seventy or eighty guineas. Mr. Blades
communicated this account to _Notes and Queries_ (3rd Series,
iv. 369).

A copy was sold at the Earl of Ashburnham’s sale (1897), which
was stated to be the Roxburghe copy, completed by the Earl from
another copy. Mr. Quaritch bought this for £385.

Still rarer than this is one of the treatises in a separate form, and printed in the next century:--

Juliana Barnes’s _Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle_. London:
Wynkyn de Worde (1532). First separate edition, unique.

In the Harleian Library, afterwards in Gulston’s collection,
who sold it to J. Ratcliffe, bought at his sale by White the
bookseller, sold by him to Mr. Haworth, at whose sale it sold
for 19 guineas (unbound). Earl of Ashburnham (1897), green
morocco, £360.

A few prices may now be given of some of the most interesting publications of the old English press, consisting of the works of poets, travellers, &c., all of which have greatly increased in value, and will probably increase still more:--

_King Arthur_, W. Coplande, 1557.

Dent, £20, 9s. 6d., fine copy, in olive morocco by Lewis. H.
Perkins (1873), £120 (same copy).

Bancroft’s (T.) _Two Bookes of Epigrammes and Epitaphs_, 1639.
_Rare Books and MSS._ (Sotheby, March 1897), fine uncut copy,
£42.

Barnfield’s (Richard) _Encomion of Lady Pecunia_, 1598.

Malone bought Farmer’s copy for 19s. Ouvry (1882), £105.

Bradshaw’s (Henry) _holy lyfe and history of Saynt Werburghe_
(Pynson, 1521, 4^o, pp. 294).

Only three copies known: (1) Gough’s, now in the Bodleian; (2)
Heber’s, sold in 1834 for £19, 5s.; (3) copy in Longman’s
catalogue (Bibl. Anglo-Poetica), 1815, marked £63.

The prices of Caxton’s two editions of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” are recorded on a previous page of this chapter. Imperfect copies of Pynson’s first and second editions were marked £25 in Longman’s catalogue (1815). The first edition (fifty-four leaves inlaid and two leaves in facsimile) fetched at the Heber sale £60, 18s., and at the Earl of Ashburnham’s, £233. The second edition (1526) sold at the Roxburghe sale for £30, 9s., and an imperfect copy at the Ashburnham sale for £26.

Wynkyn de Worde’s edition is as valuable as a Caxton, and a fine and perfect copy sold at the Ashburnham sale for £1000.

Cutwode’s (T.) _Caltha Poetarum; or, Bumble Bee_, 1599.

Three copies only known: (1) Malone’s, now in the Bodleian; (2)
Heber’s, from which the Roxburghe Club reprint was made, sold
in 1834 for £3, 18s.; (3) a copy which belonged successively to
Steevens, Caldecott, and Freeling. Steevens’ sale (1800), £2,
12s. 6d.; Freeling (1836), £11, 15s.

According to Ritson, this book “was staid at the press by order
of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London; and such
copies as could be found or were already taken were to be
presently brought to the Bishop of London to be burnt.” Dibdin
gives an amusing account of the Roxburghe Club reprint (1815) in
his “Reminiscences” (vol. i. p. 465, note):--“A bet was laid
(the winner of the bet to give the Roxburghe Club a dinner)
between Sir M. M. Sykes and Mr. Dent whether the anniversary
meeting of 1815 was the third or fourth of the club. Mr. Dent
was the loser, when Mr. Heber promised to present the club with
a reprint of the above poem at the extra dinner in
contemplation. Only nine days intervened, but within that period
the reprint was transcribed, superintended at the press by Mr.
Haslewood (without a single error), bound by Charles Lewis, and
presented to the members on sitting down to dinner. Mr.
Haslewood was reported to have walked in his sleep with a pen in
his hand during the whole period of its preparation.”

Drummond of Hawthornden’s _Forth Feasting_, 1617, bought by Ouvry
at Sotheby’s in 1858 for £8, 15s. (bound in morocco), fetched
£60 at Ouvry’s sale in 1882.

Fabyan’s _Chronicles_ (Pynson, 1516), first edition.

Dr. F. Bernard (1698), 4s. 8d.

Roberts (1815), £84--North. John North (1819), £92. (Perfect.)

Samuel Lysons (1820), £35--Lord Aylesford.

Lord Aylesford (1888), £250--Christie Miller. (Completed by
leaves from another edition.)

Foxe’s _Acts and Monuments_ (John Daye, 1562-63), first edition,
complete.

Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £150.

Frobisher’s _Three Voyages of Discoverie_, 1578, with Keymis’s
_Second Voyage to Guiana_, 1596, in one vol., calf gilt, by
Kalthoeber.
Beckford (1882), £300.

Ouvry’s copy of Frobisher, wanting the maps, sold for £68.

Froissart’s _Cronycles_ (Pynson, 1523-25), two vols. folio.

G. Mason (1798), £36, 15s. Roxburghe (1812), £63. Towneley
(1814), £42 (title of vol. i. a reprint). W. H. Crawford
(Lakelands), 1891, £25.

Hakluyt’s _Principal Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the
English Nation_, 1589, with rare map, fine copy, in pigskin.

Jadis, £26, 5s. Same copy, Duke of Hamilton (1884), £23.

Hariot (T.), _Merveilleux et estrange Rapport_ ... Francofurti,
1590.

Duke of Hamilton (1884), fine copy, in morocco by Lewis, £97.

Linschoten’s _Voyages into the Easte and West Indies_, 1598, maps
and plates from the Dutch edition, title inlaid, and last leaf
mended.

Roxburghe, £10, 15s. Same copy, Beckford (1882), £14. Colonel
Stanley, £22.

Lodge’s (Thomas) _Rosalynde_, 1598.

Longman (1815), £20 (imperfect). Heber, £5, 10s. Ouvry (1882),
£63.

Lok’s (Henry) _Ecclesiastes_ (London: Richard Field, 1597).

Longmans (1815), £28. Sotheby’s (March 1817), £6, 16s. G.
Daniel, £38, 10s.

The first editions of Milton’s works have greatly increased in price. Not many years ago a copy of the first edition of the “Paradise Lost” could be obtained for about five pounds, but now a good copy is worth at least four times as much. The prices vary considerably with the date of the title-page, of which there are several issues. G. Daniel’s fine copy sold in 1864 for £28, 10s.

Milton’s _Maske_ (_Comus_), 1637.

Loscombe, £25. G. Daniel, £36.

---- _Poems_, 1645, first edition, with portrait by Marshall.

G. Daniel, £5, 15s. _Rare Books and MSS._ (Sotheby, March
1897), fine uncut copy, £24, 10s.

_Purchas his Pilgrimes_, five vols., 1625-26.

Digby (1680), £3, 5s. 6d. H. Perkins, 1873, fine copy, £86.
Beckford, 1883, fine copy, £63. Earl of Gosford (1884), £82
(crimson morocco). Earl of Crawford (1887), £60.

Rhodes (Hugh), _Boke of Nurture_, 1577.

Steevens (1800), £2, 2s. Longmans (1815), £15.

Ricraft’s _Peculiar Characters of the Oriental Languages_, sm. 4to.

Bindley, £19, 19s. Same copy, bound afterwards in russia extra
by Lewis, who charged £1, 5s. for the binding, sold in Beckford
sale (1883) for £8, 17s. 6d.

Scot’s _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 1584.

Boswell, £3, 3s. Comerford (1881), £25, 10s. (citron morocco).

It is interesting to notice that in the old sales of the seventeenth century the folios of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ben Jonson all sold for about the same price. Those of the first now sell for one hundred and two hundred times what they brought then, while those of the second and third do not bring ten times.

Beaumont and Fletcher’s Works, 1647.

Sir Edward Bysshe (1679), 13s. 6d. Smallwood (1684), 8s. A.
Young and others (Puttick’s), 1875, £5. Alfred Crampton (1896),
10 guineas.

Jonson’s (Ben) Works, 1640.

Benj. Worsley (1678), £1, 13s. 6d. Sir Edward Bysshe (1677),
£1, 10s. Lord Bateman (1896), £8, 5s.

Spenser’s _Faerie Queene_, 1590-96, first edition.

Sir Edward Bysshe (1679), 6s. 2d. Lloyd and Raymund (1685), 1s.
Ouvry (1882), £33. Alfred Crampton (1611), 1896, with
additional leaves, £85.

Weever’s _Funeral Monuments_, 1631.

Two copies on large paper in Beckford’s sale, part 4 (1883),
olive morocco, index inlaid, £25; blue morocco, £38.

Wycliffe.

Mr. Addington bought at the Dix sale four unique tracts of
Wycliffe for £400, and expressed his opinion that they would
have been cheap at any price, but at his own sale (1886) they
only realised £133--viz., Crede, &c., £37; Consolation, £27;
Testament of Moyses, £36; Small Prayers to Common People, £33.

_Americana_ is a class of book which has grown enormously in price. Anything published in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries now fetches a price.

Smith’s _Virginia_, 1624.

Dr. F. Bernard (1698), 4s. 2d. Hunter (1813), £27, 6s.

A large paper copy sold at the Beckford sale (1883) for £605
(dedication copy to the Duchess of Richmond, in old brown
morocco, covered with gold tooling, with the Duchess’s arms
forming the centre ornaments).

Eliot Bible of 1661-63.

Dr. L. Seaman (1676), 19s. Wimpole library (Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke), 1888, £580--Quaritch.

At this Wimpole sale (Christie’s) a volume of twelve tracts of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries relating to America sold
for £555.

A curious incident occurred at Messrs. Sotheby’s in July 1897, during the sale of the library of Mr. Cyril Dunn Gardner. A volume of Sermons, which included “A Sermon preached at Plimmoth in New England, Dec. 9, 1621,” was put up, and the biddings, commencing at 5s., were carried on till £1, 17s. was reached, when the lot was knocked down at that amount. A dispute arising, it was put up again, and was eventually bought by Messrs. H. Stevens and Son for £87.

FOOTNOTE:

[57] Mr. Blades has given full particulars of all the sales in his “Life and Typography of William Caxton” (1863); but there have been many sales since the publication of his great work, and particulars of these are given chiefly from two valuable articles, entitled _Caxtoniana_, by Mr. Frederic Norgate, which were published in _The Library_, Nos. 8 and 9 (August and September 1889). That accurate bibliographer has kindly allowed the author to see and use his manuscript corrections and additions to these articles.