Book-Prices Current: A RECORD OF THE PRICES AT WHICH BOOKS HAVE BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION, FROM OCTOBER, 1904, TO JULY, 1905, BOOK-PRICES CURRENT, VOLUMES I. TO XVIII. Being a Record of the Prices at which Books have been sold at Auction during the years 1887 to 1904, with the Titles and Descriptions of the Books in full, the Catalogue Numbers, and the Names of the Purchasers. Some of the earlier volumes are out of print and others are at a premium. Reports will be made in answer to queries by the publisher. 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. "Book-Prices Current '-the Whitaker's Almanack of book-buyers and booksellers.""-Illustrated London News. "A very useful and admirably edited and printed publication."-Morning Post. NOW READY. In demy 8vo., bound in buckram, uniform with BookPRICES CURRENT. Price One Guinea net. THE INDEX TO THE FIRST TEN VOLUMES OF BOOK-PRICES CURRENT (1887 to 1896): 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. THIS volume of BOOK-PRICES CURRENT is remarkable for the large number of scarce and valuable books reported in its pages. Of late years, some twenty-five or thirty single volumes or works have each, as a rule, realised £100 or upwards during the course of a season. That may be taken as being about the average, but anyone who took the trouble to go through the following pages would find that this number has been very greatly exceeded. The Shakespeariana alone constitute a formidable list. One copy of the first folio made its appearance, nine of the second, one of the third and seven of the fourth; and, in addition, there were twenty-five early 4to.'s or 8vo.'s, inclusive of the " 'Merry Divel of Edmonton" and that precursor of "King Lear" which was printed for Simon Stafford for John Wright in 1605 under the title of "The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his three daughters, Gonerill, Ragan and Cordella" (see post No. 5104). The following table gives a summary of the more important Shakespeariana reported in this volume, with the prices realised. Ordinary copies and collective editions-of which there were a large number—and more particularly a variety of acting versions, all presentation copies from Charles Kean, are not included, as from a pecuniary point of view they are comparatively unimportant. Titus Andronicus, 1st ed., 4to., slightly defective, 1594 Richard III., 4to., damaged, 1605 ... Realised £ 2,000 ... 1,750 Henry the Fourth, 1st part, 4to., slightly damaged, 1608... 1,000 900 Third Folio, russia, sound copy, 1664 500 Henry the Fourth, 2nd part, 4to., title in MS., 1605 500 True Chronicle History of King Leir, precursor of Shake- 480 255 250 225 |