In this chapter some account will be given of a few of the various classes of literature which have not previously been alluded to; but to give a general idea of some of these books which bring a high price, it will be necessary to be brief.
Oldys refers to the sale of a book which he supposes to have been erroneously valued, but he was not quite correct in his statement. He wrote, “The atheistical book of Giordano Bruno sold at Paul’s Coffee-house for £30 in 1709; it has scarcely sold for so many pence since.”[60]
The book referred to was—Giordano Bruno, Spaccio de la Bestia Trionfante. Parigi (Londra: T. Vautrollier 1584), the sale of which is commented upon in The Spectator, No. 389. The sale at which this book occurred was that of Charles Bernard in 1711, and the amount was really £28. The purchaser was Walter Clavel, and this copy was successively in the possession of John Nichols, John Ames, Sir Peter Thompson, and M. C. Tutet. At the sale of the latter’s library in 1786 it was bought by Samuel Tyssen for seven guineas. Another copy, which had formed part of the library of Mr. P. Le Neve, was sold at Dr. Mead’s sale (1754) for four or five guineas.[61] The price has not gone down, as Oldys supposed it would, for at the Dunn Gardner sale (1880) a copy brought £20, 15s., and another, at the Duke of Hamilton’s sale (1884), sold for £18, 10s.
There is a larger circle of bibliophiles in France than in England, and they are more willing to pay high prices for out-of-the-way books. The early editions of Molière and Rabelais, like those of Shakespeare, are sold for large sums, and early French literature generally, like our own, has greatly advanced in price of late years.
Two instances of the great advance that has occurred may be given:—
Perrault, Contes de ma Mere Loye, 1697, wanting leaf of errata, a fine copy, in blue morocco by Bauzonnet, sold at Charles Nodier’s sale for 112 francs. The same copy at the Duke of Hamilton’s sale brought £85.
Gringoire, Les Fantasies de Mere Sote (Paris, 1516), a copy in blue morocco by Padeloup, sold at Hibbert’s sale for nine guineas. The same copy brought the large sum of £180 at Beckford’s sale. One can understand such high prices as these, which arise from the revived interest felt in this kind of book, but the high price of Le Pastissier François (Amsterdam: L. & D. Elzevier, 1655) seems absurd. Such a book can be of little interest to English buyers, although certainly Mr. Andrew Lang grows enthusiastic over it in his “Books and Bookmen.” In an early edition of his Manuel (1821) Brunet wrote—
“Till now I have disdained to admit this book into my work, but I have yielded to the prayers of amateurs. Besides, how could I keep out a volume which was sold for one hundred and one francs in 1819?”
The book has greatly increased in value since then, and, as a consequence, copies not hitherto known have come into the market. Berard only knew of two copies. Pietiers, writing on the Elzevirs in 1843, could cite only five, and in his Annales he had found out but five more. Willems, on the other hand, enumerates some thirty, not including Motteley’s.[62] Mr. Lang himself calculates the number of Pastissiers now existing at forty, and gives a good many prices to show how the book has increased in value. A copy was sold in 1780 for 4 francs. Sensièr’s copy sold for 128 francs in 1828, and for 201 francs in 1837. It was afterwards bound by Trautz-Bauzonnet, and sold with Potier’s books in 1870 for 2910 francs. At the Benzon sale (1875) it fetched 3255 francs, and was sold again in 1877 for 2200 francs. Mr. Lang further says that a copy was marked in Bachelin-Deflorenne’s catalogue at £240, and that Morgand and Fatout sold an uncut copy for £400. The Earl of Orford’s copy sold in 1895 for £100.