Prices of Books / An Inquiry into the Changes in the Price of Books which have occurred in England at different Periods

by Henry B. Wheatley

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.