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INTRODUCTION.

present volume of BOK-PRICES CURRENT is, strictly speak the first that has accurately coincided with the natural course

n season, which, as is al nost universally known, be, ins, n the mid e of O tober and ends at the end of July, or z the early days of August. It wil be remembered that the $ vou.me was made to commence in December, 1857, a je ne vare a'na utely necessary in order to introduce a new system. The present vowme covers the sales held during the months of taminer, 19an, and July, 1* 2), in-lusive, and I believe that it will

und that no sale or entry of any importance taking place between t'ese dates has been omitted from its pages. Om.ss ons there are, fie it is neither des rabie nor necessary to chronicle that is sold irrespe tive of condition, price, or interest, da à 13, some bons have been purposely overlooked, for is no sa' start in in repeating ad nauseam matters of inh have been dealt with in the same volume with a af revu tom many previous occasions. Book-PRICES CURRENT Cars has been, a work of selection specially constructed for easy referen-e, an i complei în su h a manner as to as true ari fath`ul a picture of the book market for the é as pass due without wear some repetition on the one 17", Hat (5 vs. in on the other

Any de wann takes the trou de to consult this and the pre eding E UITE VO „TES, an i to careful y compare their contents with the eater unes of the series, will, I think, arrive at the great change has come over the bookman s fancy the last few years. He wili observe that the tenden y is a se, that fewer large private librar es have come into

the market of late, and that even the practice of the cataloguers has changed, as if to keep pace with that spirit of restlessness which is death to old time habits as personified by the collectors of a decade or two ago. We read stories without end of the patience of the old school, and lifetimes spent in close application to the business of accumulating an enormous number of books of all kinds to furnish a library that should answer every imaginable question that the wit of man could propound. These libraries have blended with, or at any rate are fast returning to, the world from whence they came, and the modern bookman seems to have fixed his attention upon books of a special kind, interesting, no doubt, but not of a character which can be described as absolutely necessary for purposes of reference or research. The numerous public libraries scattered about the kingdom have perhaps contributed to this result in no small degree. Books of occasional practical use are much more easily obtained now than they were even ten years ago; in fact, in many instances there is no necessity to buy them at all. Another consideration also influences the collector. He has become aware that large general libraries seldom stay long in private hands, and never unless a series of the most favourable circumstances combine to preserve them intact; that their formation takes a lifetime, and that a pecuniary loss is absolutely certain to attend their disposition. The matter of interest on sunk capital is fatal to every scheme for founding a general library on commercial principles that has ever yet been formulated. This is not always the case where books of a special character are concerned, and it cannot be asserted that books are often bought now without any calculation as to their probable fate in the market of the future. If they are, then BOOK-PRICES CURRENT and all other works of the same class are existing without patronage, for the mere amusement of their compilers and publishers.

The truth is that collectors are not now prepared to pay more than they can help for such books as they require, and that they take a keen interest in backing their judgment, so to speak, against that of anyone else who happens to possess the same tastes. It is repeatedly said that books have at last attained to precisely the same level as bric-a-brac. This by way of comment on the large prices which are occasionally paid for pamphlets of little apparent interest, old books which can be read in scores of cheap editions, and volumes which nobody now reads at all. If this be true, it is the specialists who have made it so; they are backing their respective judgments in every bid they make. Generally speaking, it is perfectly clear that the specialists now rule the book-market,

and that all very high prices are e ther pa d by them, or by representatives of the aŋe public Ibraries in England or abroad.

It was recently stated in several of the 1 terary journals that the waun 19 xa had w tnessed no great rise in pri-es. It depends, of course, what is meant by the word "great," but this is certain, 17 at works of the kind reported in Book Eaters CURRENT, that is to say, the better class standard and collectors books, strictly a el, have n-reased in proe most materially during the last twe vẽ months. Or, nal and scarce el tons of the English 48% s are becoming scarcer and more valuable, and the prices vra ned for them are steadily increas ng. First editions of modern contemporary writers of the first rank are in the same position, n the r case the rise has been much more rapid. A glance sms rea sed for copes of the original editions of many of Tax-f Stevenson an 1 K ping wil confirm this. As a whole, f realy good books, or books that are specially sought unt of their merit, scarcity, or for any other reason, aelenty and patently rising in value, and in many cases the snst marked. The following tabular analysis will on at a glance.

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The avera

sum pad per lot was £1 fs 7d. in 18,3; £18s 5d. 1 415 44. n 1775; 20038 Jod in 186; £2 138. yd. in ¤ 1*,*, and 22 198, 3d, in 189) In 1897 the was strera y nduen-ed by the very large amount real sed Authoreham 1 :)rary, and the comparatively small number veta ned in the catalog se, and the same remark apples to event to the a-ene of 1° 8. This season there has been

normal to disturb the average, and yet we find it stand er than ever, i7, at 22 19 3d This shows as con...i ve v as anything can do that desirable books of every kind are n va.e, and the nference is that they have not yet 'be I MAX MLM We shall probably never again see an of £1's 7d, as d sclosed by the sales of 17,3

the most extraord nary n dent in the book world is n now assumed by the works .ssued from the Keimscott Itese have increased in valle enormously during the last

In or al-ut February, 179", the "Chaucer "stood at

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