Of little threads our life is spun,
And he spins ill who misses one.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND NEWS
Correspondence from readers on all subjects of bibliographical interest is invited. The Editor will, to the best of his ability, answer all queries addressed to him.
GENERAL NOTES
THE Christie-Miller sale at Messrs. Sotheby's, postponed from November 28th to December 16th, realised the enormous total of £110,356, thus more than doubling the previous "record" for a single day's book-sale achieved at the Yates-Thompson sale last summer, the total of which was £52,000. The great majority of the items were acquired by Mr. G. D. Smith, the American buyer, who seemed to have learnt to think so imperially about book prices that very few English dealers or collectors were able to compete with him. For the most part the bidding resolved itself into a duel between Mr. Smith and Mr. Quaritch, Mr. Smith being almost invariably the victor.
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The highest price for a single lot—the highest price ever given for a single book or manuscript—was £15,100, which was paid for the minute vellum-bound volume containing Venus and Adonis, The Passionate Pilgrim, and Epigrammes and Elegies, by J. D. (Sir John Davies) and C. M. (Christopher Marlowe). The Venus and Adonis is the only copy known of the fourth edition of the poem; six copies of the first three editions exist, all of which are in public libraries. The Passionate Pilgrim is one of the three known copies of the first edition (1599), while only two or three copies are known to exist of the Epigrammes and Elegies, published at Middleborough (? 1598).
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