Sales since the publication of Blades’s book:—Rev. T. Corser (1868), £100. C. H. Crawford (1876), £87 (Corser’s copy). Duke of Buccleuch (1889), £650. Earl of Ashburnham, 1897 (one of four complete copies), £1320—Quaritch.
—— Second edition (28).
James West (1773), £21—George III. John Towneley (1814), £189—Duke of Devonshire (erroneously described in the catalogue as “first edition”).
—— Third edition (83).
John Munro (1792), £16, 16s. Dr. Vincent (1816), £99, 15s.—Singer, for Marquis of Blandford. In 1840 some books were turned out of the Blenheim Library, and sent for sale at Oxford. The Bodleian Library bought this copy at that sale for £50. Blades was misled into saying that the Bodleian gave £199, 15s., by the fact, in this copy some irresponsible person has altered the price it fetched at Vincent’s sale to £199, 15s. by the addition of the figure 1. Fuller Maitland (1885), £165—Quaritch (described as a second edition in the catalogue, three leaves in facsimile).
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, first edition (12).
J. West (1773), £47, 15s.—George III. J. Ratcliffe (1776), £6. White Knights supplementary sale (1820), £31, 10s.—T. Payne (imperfect); not recorded by Blades.
The highest price recorded by Blades is £300, given by Mr. Huth at Lilly’s sale, 1861. In 1896 two copies (both imperfect) were sold for over £1000; Mrs. Corbet’s (Barlaston Hall), wanting nineteen leaves, £1020; R. E. Saunders (wanting only two leaves, a few wormed, lower margins in Melibeus mended), £1880. Earl of Ashburnham (1897), £720—Pickering & Chatto (imperfect, also some leaves from a shorter copy).
—— Second edition (57).
Brand’s imperfect copy (1807) was bought by Heber for 10 guineas; it was sold at his sale in 1834 to the Earl of Ashburnham for £78, 15s. Lord Ashburnham (1897), £300—Pickering and Chatto (wanting twenty-eight leaves).