BOOK COLLECTING.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17472, 5 June 1922, Page 9

BOOK COLLECTING.

A LIBRARIAN'S IMPRESSIONS. FINDS IN QUEER PLACES. Dr. George C. Williamson, who catalogued Mr Pierpont Morgan's treasures, writing in the "Weekly Dispatch," says:— Everybody collects something nowadays. The difficulty is to find a particular branch of the art left untouched by others and to gather a collection that will not only give pleasure and reveal enterprise, but also will some day, if need demands, fetch more than the ir.odest eum expended. CoTiecting can be a joy, a solace, and a refreshment, as well as an investment. For instance, John bought the paintings of the Barbizon school and the worKs of such men as Diaz, Mauve, and Maris, and his family reaped great advantage from Ins discretion. Mr Yates Ihompson, who bought manuscripts wisely, sold many of them for sums far larger than he gave for them. There are many collectors of mezzotints and drawings whose care in buying has been ampiy repaid at auctions. r men, again, tnere is the delight or purchasing an object which you have long sougnt, or of completing sets, as did Mr Morgan when he bougnt from a casual caller who produced it out of a newspaper parcel a Sevres vase which matcued one he had possessed for years, and for which he would giadly have paid at auction an enormous sum. i myself had an odd and curious experience of this kind. Ay hen a schooluoy 1 bought for lourpence at a bookstall an odd volume of a rare county history, published in 1719. It was the third volume, rather well bound, and in clean condition. The work was published in live volumes-Five-and-twenty years afterwards my father, who, like myself, had long desired a copy of this particular book, purchased in Reading lor a large sum a complete set of the same book, in beautiful order. He and I looked it over, and I drew his attention to the fact that the third volume was bound just a little differently from the others, the variation being slight, but quite clear when it was recognised. We went through the set of five books, page by page, and at the end of the last one found a note by the owner, whose name was inscribed in each, to the effect that he had lent the third volume, soon after publication, about 1750, to a friend, and had never been able to regain it. In consequence I he had purchased an odd third volume, and had it bound to match the other £our as closely as possible. At once I declared that I believed I had the missing one. My father laughed the idea to scorn, but on examination mine was found to be the missing volume—separated from its fellows for over 160 years. Changes in value offer another I series of romances, of which the recent Britwell sale affords examples. Narcissus Luttrell, a Collector and a I bibliographer, who died in 1732, bought j many books and broadsides, forming an extraordinaiy collection. He had a habit of marking inside the books the price he paid. A copy of George Chapman's "Shadow of Night," for which he paid 3d, was sold this year for £270. On the third day's ssle of the Britwell Library another of Luttrell's books, Gale's "Pyramus and Thisbe," for which he paid 2d, fetched £617. Another great collector was Richard Heber, who died as recently as 1833, and many of whose books appeared in the Britwell Library. At his sale, which took place at Sotheby's in 1834, 1835, and 1836, a copy of Henry Petowes's "Faire Lady of Britaine" sold for £4 19s; at the Britwell sale it realised £3OO. Another of his books, by Dekker, called "Warres, Warres, Warres," sold for £6 2s 6d. Dr. Rosenbach gave 250 guineas for it the other day. In the Chalmers sale 80 years ago a book of Willoughby's sold for 10 guineas. This month it fetched £1950; and a Heber book which sold in 1834 for £5 10s was bought for £960. A further instance of romance in book collecting is provided by a tiny volume, only measuring sin by 3jin, found in an attic at Sir Charles

Isham's house at Lamport about 1890. The book contained four little pamphlets and fetched £3600. The most curious occurrence in the Britwell sale was provided by the Marlowe book of "Hero and Leander," which Sotheby's did not even illustrate. It turned out to be the only copy in existence. In 1836 it fetched £4 6s, today £lBlO. Dr. Ilosenbnch, who found out this fact, was the purchaser.