Among other works which at one time were thought more of than they are now is Quaritch's Catalogue of Books, in one thick volume, 1880, and a supplement which is back-dated 1875-7. The chief value of this lay not only in the prices, which were, as in every other bookseller's catalogue, appended to the items, but in the extraordinary number of the entries, which cover the whole range of British and foreign literature. Even now the work is useful, but there is no doubt that it is gradually decreasing in importance, owing to the high-class works of reference which have lately made their appearance. As to values, Book Prices Current gives them much more satisfactorily than any bookseller can pretend or afford to do, while most of the bibliographical notes and references are to be found in one or other of the works I have mentioned.
The collector who, as yet, is not sufficiently advanced to fully realise the difficulties he will have to surmount before he can bring together a judicious assortment of books, will at any rate begin to see that the knowledge requisite to enable him to do so is of no mean order. The preliminaries will take him a long time to master, and he will find that the expense is a factor by no means to be despised. Even the books mentioned are not all that he may have to procure, for if, after consideration, he should decide to devote his attention exclusively to one branch of Bibliography, there are other books of reference to be purchased, and a special course of study must be entered upon and carefully followed, if he would hope to be successful. Thus, should he decide to make Dickens or Thackeray his one author, as so many people are doing now, he will need a guide to direct his course. Memory is so treacherous that he can take nothing on trust, and time so short that he cannot afford to journey two sides of the triangle when he might have taken the third. These special works for special departments are set out and enlarged upon in the following chapter, but before referring to them it may not be superfluous to remind the reader that a book of reference only possesses a relative value. It is quite possible to have a whole library within reach and yet to be ignorant of the proper method of using it. Some of our best writers had no library worthy the name, but the few books they had they knew—knew, that is to say, how to extract the information they required, which book to consult, how it was arranged, and what might be expected of it. Though a book collector is not necessarily a book reader, he will have to be absolute master of his works of reference, or he will find every volume on his shelf a useless incumbrance. Where to possess all the absolute facts is of importance, the newest works are, generally speaking, most likely to be the best; but this is very far from being applicable to a library in all its departments. Yet even in the case of works of a general nature a careful and economic selection may be made, so as to cover, in a small compass, much valuable ground.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophers, Caxton's first book which bears a date, was finished in November, 1477; and it is upon the strength of this that the Caxton Quarcentenary Festival was held in 1877. There can be little doubt, however, that he printed many books of which no copies remain, some of which were probably earlier than The Dictes.
[2] In the annual volume for 1891 a new scheme has been started, the authors and titles entries appearing in one alphabet in "dictionary form".
CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST ENGLISH AUCTION SALE—FASHION IN BOOK COLLECTING—SPECIAL BOOKS OF REFERENCE RELATING TO PARTICULAR BRANCHES OF BIBLIOGRAPHY.
THE first sale of books by auction which is recorded as having taken place in England was held in Warwick Lane exactly 213 years ago, and Dr. Lazarus Seaman, whose library was dispersed on the occasion in question, appears to have confined his attention strictly to Latin Bibles of the 16th century, the cumbrous works of the Puritan divines, and the great editions of the Fathers—huge folios thought so little of that, allowing for the change in the value of money, they can now for the most part be bought from the booksellers for less than they could then at auction. The reason which prompted this old collector to limit his purchases to works of a single class was in all probability much the same as that which prevails under similar circumstances at the present time, namely, a natural desire for finality, the outcome of an experience which shows plainly enough that in order to form a complete collection of anything its scope must be reduced to the smallest possible compass. As a matter of fact Dr. Seaman appears to have embarked on a somewhat extensive undertaking, for in the period mentioned by far the greater majority of works issued from the press were of a religious nature. Still the incident is valuable from an antiquarian point of view, as it forms a good precedent for a large body of modern collectors who, like Seaman, follow the prevailing fashion of the day. This fashion on being analysed will be found to vary at different periods and to be of longer or shorter duration according to a variety of circumstances which appear to be entirely without the range of argumentative discussion.