BOOK-PRICES CURRENT ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT Being a Record of the Prices at which Books have been sold at Auction, with the Titles and Descriptions of the Books in full, the Catalogue Numbers, the Names of the Purchasers, Special Notes on certain Books. Demy 8vo. bound in buckram, and printed on good paper, with fine margin for notes, price £1 12s. 6d. net each. Opinions of the Press. "We acknowledge, with much pleasure, that 'Book-Prices Current' is now the most carefully edited work of its kind published in this or any other country."-Athenæum. "With the present season of book auctions, 'Book-Prices Current' reaches its 25th year, and it is, we believe, the only purely bibliographical periodical in existence which has continued to appear for a quarter of a century regularly, uninterruptedly, and with a promptitude which is a credit to those who produce it and a boon to those who use it. It has had many rivals and imitators, both at home and abroad; but the only effect of this rivalry has been many improvements in matters of detail."-The Times, Sept. 29th, 1911. "It exhibits all those good qualities of accurate record which have raised the publication to such a position of universal esteem.”—Publishers' Circular. Uniform with BOOK-PRICES CURRENT, INDEX ΤΟ BOOK-PRICES CURRENT 1907-1916. Constituting a Reference List of Subjects and, incidentally, a Key to Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature. "If money, as Anthony Trollope neatly put it, be the reward of labour, too much is certainly not asked for the labour which has marshalled into order a manuscript involving 33,000 distinct titles and considerably over 500,000 numerals.' The typographical arrangement of the volume will receive praise from those who can understand the difficulties of the printers' task."The Guardian. A RECORD OF THE PRICES AT WHICH BOOKS HAVE BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION, FROM OCTOBER, 1920, TO AUGUST, 1921, BEING THE SEASON 1920-1921, Soth (Cont.) INDEX TO Book-Prices Current Volumes XXI. to XXX. For the Years 1907-1916, FORMING A KEY ΤΟ BOOK PRICES CURRENT, AND, Uniform with "Book-Prices Current." Demy 8vo. The Clique says :— "In the course of testing a great number of references, to see whether we could discover any errors, we are glad to say that we can find none. This is high praise when the author says in his preface, 'This Index contains about one hundred thousand entries, while the numerals employed, which closely approach a million, almost defy counting.' Among the great advantages of the Index may be mentioned the promptitude with which the reader may now find and compare the relative value of any book during the decade covered (bringing to a point the various copies sold), enabling him to ascertain whether its value has increased or dimished during the period. . . . The Second Index is so superior to the former one that the permanent value of B.P.C.' as a bibliographer's guide is increased fourfold. This index is one of the largest ever compiled, and it represents three years' work." The Library Association Record says: These volumes are indispensable to every reference library, and add considerably to the reputation of English Bibliography." LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 7, Paternoster Row, E.C. 雌 INTRODUCTION. THE present volume of BOOK-PRICES CURRENT has been produced under very considerable difficulties, brought about chiefly by the lamented death on April 3, 1921, of Mr. J. Herbert Slater, its founder, and editor for thirty-four years. Mr. Slater's ripe experience enabled him to cope with the work of preparing the mass of material each year. Progress had already been made with some of the earlier sales reported in this volume when Mr. Slater died; thenceforward I had practically to work out my own system of continuing BookPRICES CURRENT on the lines which have made it such an indispensable annual to book collectors and booksellers all over the world. I cannot hope to have accomplished in a season what Mr. Slater arrived at after the experience of many years. Copies of the same book will doubtless in several instances be found under more than one heading, but inconsistencies of this kind will be eliminated as time goes on. Mr. Slater was in many ways an ideal editor for such a publication as BOOK-PRICES CURRENT. His legal training, and his entire absence of bias for or against any phase of book collecting, in addition to his immense capacity for work, enabled him to edit every year a thoroughly impartial volume dealing with rare books of all ages and many periods and countries. The difficulties and the pitfalls can only be adequately realised by those who have attempted tasks on lines at all similar. The present volume of Book-PRICES CURRENT is somewhat extended by including many MSS. and autograph documents which have a definite and permanent literary interest for future enquirers; and also many books and 416129 pamphlets printed in England or elsewhere relating to the United States when it was a British colony. The high prices, and often the literary and historical interest, of Americana make that section an important one to British booksellers, because old libraries in this country have so far proved to be the main source of the supply; and the obvious aim of BOOK-PRICES CURRENT is to keep the collector, as well as the seller, in touch with the current market values of these, as of all other book rarities. The chief feature of the 1919-1920 season of book auction sales was the disposal of a further portion of the splendid library which for many years made Britwell House one of the greatest storehouses in the world of literary rarities, chiefly of works by British authors or from British presses; many of these-probably, indeed, the greater number-have now passed into the equally wonderful library which Mr. Henry E. Huntington has erected and endowed in California, for the use and benefit of students for all time. A considerable number also have gone into other libraries in the United States, some now held by private collectors, who in the course of time will hand over their literary treasures to public institutions in that great country. We cannot but regret the wholesale exportation of the rare books which form so important a part of our literary heritage, and our chief consolation is that they have gone into the custody of those who share with us a common language and like traditions. No other bond can so securely link together the peoples of Great Britain and the United States; and so the rare English books which have been for so many years drifting westward have a political as well as a literary and a social mission, of the success of which there can be no doubt. 18, KING'S AVENUE, S.W.4. W. ROBERTS. September, 1922. |