This is one of the very few books that are absolutely valueless, except in regard to such value as it gains from its rarity and association with a great firm of printers; yet Mr. Lang says that “there are at least four thousand people who would greatly rejoice to possess a Pastissier, and some of these desirous ones are very wealthy.” This is amazing, but I suppose it would scarcely be polite to refer to Carlyle’s verdict as to what the mass of people are.
Another scarce book, which is stupid, and of no interest in itself, is Horace Walpole’s “Hieroglyphic Tales” (1785). The British Museum does not possess a perfect copy, but it has some of Walpole’s own corrected proofs bound up in a volume. The Earl of Orford’s copy, interleaved and bound in morocco by Roger Payne, sold in 1895 for £37.
County histories vary in price, but they must always hold their ground and sell well, on account of the value of the information contained in their pages, which cannot easily be found elsewhere. They may be considered as eminently safe property. The following are the prices of a few of these:—
Atkyns’s (Sir R.) Gloucestershire, folio, 1712. Large paper (first and best edition).
Bryant (1807), £17, 17s. Dent (1827), £14, 14s. Sykes, £16. Nassau, 15 guineas. H. Perkins (1873), £29. Comerford (1881), £41. Beresford-Hope (1882), £38. Beckford (1882), £52.
Aubrey’s Surrey, 5 vols., 1719. Large paper.
Dent, £19, 5s. H. Perkins (1873), £32, 10s.
Blomefield’s Norfolk, 5 vols., 1739-75.
Comerford (1881), £160 (illustrated). Earl of Gosford (1884), £87 (drawings by Cotman inserted). William Brice, &c. (1887), £20.