Before the writer are two catalogues, one from a country bookseller, the other from a well-known London house. Each contains a copy of the 'Thesaurus Cornucopiæ et Horti Adonidis,' printed by Aldus Manutius in 1496. The former offers it for 25s., the latter for £25. Why this extraordinary difference in price?
The reasons are ample. The London copy has this description:
'Fol.; 16th cent. English binding of brown calf, gilt borders and centre-pieces, g.e. (by Thomas Berthelet, the Royal binder), in fine condition: beautiful copy, perfectly clean and large, 320 × 215 m.m., enclosed in case.'
The country bookseller's copy, on the other hand, is described as follows:
'Folio, russia (joints broken), has the 270 ll. of text complete, but wants the 10 ll. unnumbered, of preliminary matter.'
In other words, one copy is a very choice specimen of the book, tall, clean, and perfect; while the other is an undesirable copy of ordinary size, imperfect, and in poor condition.
There is another point also. The London dealer specialises in such books, in fact deals only in ancient and scarce works, and has a definite clientèle of rich and well-known collectors. He can 'place' certain rare books at once, for he knows the desiderata of each of his customers and the deficiencies of their collections. The countryman, on the other hand, deals in all manner of books, ancient and modern, has few rich purchasers among his customers, and knows nothing whatever of their book-buying propensities. Any volume that he offers for sale may remain on his hands for an indefinite time.
Then there are such volumes as 'association books,' by which is meant books possessing an additional interest by reason of their former association with some notability, such association being evident by autographs, corrections, annotations, additions, or binding. Such volumes often exceed enormously the price of ordinary copies. The first Edinburgh edition (1787) of Burns' Poems is worth usually about £5; but a copy realised £75 at auction a few years ago. The reason for this extraordinary price was that in this volume all those lines in which asterisks occur were filled in with the full names in the handwriting of the poet. Moreover it contained an additional stanza on 'Tam Samson' in Burns' autograph. For such a jewel one cannot consider the figure excessive, and it will doubtless run well into three figures if it ever appear in the sale-room again. Similarly, each year witnesses the sale of certain of these 'association' volumes; and unless you are aware of the reasons causing these high prices to rule, such records will be worse than useless to you. A superficial study of all auction-sale prices is apt to be intensely misleading. Unless you are actually on the spot or have handled the volume in question, the price that it realises will tell you little as to the stable value of the work. A torn page, a shaved headline, the underlining of a line or two with ink, a 'mounted' frontispiece, a missing plate, or even a worn impression of it, all these things affect the price of a volume.
Then there are considerations outside the book itself. A scarce volume included in a sale of unimportant books is unlikely to realise so high a price as it might have done had it appeared in a Huth or Ashburnham sale; for important books attract important bidders. The prices paid for poor copies at the Frere sale in 1896 were enormous; the reason being, probably, that this library had long been known to contain desiderata for which public and private collections alike had hitherto thirsted in vain; the sale was something of a battue, and the room was thronged with buyers from all parts of the kingdom.
It is a ticklish question, this matter of the price which the collector pays, and should pay, for his books, and one that may not be resolved early in his career. In addition to exercising your memory when perusing the catalogues which reach you, you will do well to obtain and study 'Prices of Books: an Enquiry into the Changes in the Price of Books which have occurred in England at Different Periods,' an interesting volume by that great connoisseur, Henry B. Wheatley. It was published in octavo in 1898.
