HIGH BOOL PRICE

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 407, 16 January 1909, Page 9

HIGH BOOL PRICE

. Tho sale of Lord 'Amherst's library began •v\ °h> at Sotheby's, 1 on December 3. ri 6, , *50 lots in his' valuable library fetched £10,033 17s. Gd., or, within' £500. of tho record" for a single afternoon's sale of rr! i books at Sotheby's; ■ The 50 lots of Bibles contributed, about £5200 to tho aggregate, several present affirming that this' is thrice as much as Lord Amherst paid for Jr GIn n 'o ■"•""ost as much intorest was taken in the 16 vanished Caxtons as in the books .■which actually came under the, hammer. By. a_snnple process of exhaustion Mr. Picrpoiit Morgan is universally supposed: to be thobuyer ; and £20,000 is whispered as thepurchased price. , Tho wealthy- American collector is known to havo been keeii'to possess these Oaxtons eighteen months ago, mid the fact -hat in 1902 ho scoured 32 works from, the press of our first' printer in the library of itlr. Bennett, of Manchester, bought privately, en bloc, does not in 'any way diminish the probability of-the present coup. ' "History has a way of repeating itself," oxclaimed an interested spectator as, he glanced '' at the placard as to tho withdrawal, ho no doubt .having' in mind a similar incident of Sari .Howe s 'Shakespeare" quartos in December of last year. The Earl of Crawford . wa-> another visitor this afternoon, and ho had the ■ satisfaction—or the dissatisfaction—of witnessing:'tho block book "Apocalypsis S." Joanms," Holland, about 1455. bring £2000, or exactly four, times: as much as it made when his library was dispersed in 1887. This, one of Lord Amherst's most prized possessions, goes to Mr. Erskine. The highest figuro of the afternoon. was £2DoO paid .by Mr, Quaritcli (versus Messrs. Gilhoferj : of- for. volume 1 of the famous Mazarine. Bible. It was tho copy from/the Gosford library, which brought £500 in 1884, the same year as the complete Syston Park example' fetched £3900. The actual pin-marks, used to keep tlio leaves in position four- and 'a-half centuries ago are visible. Charles I.'s own. 1 copy . of the v Cambridge. .Biblo : :of;J638, < red velvet binding, richly embroidered with silver thread, tho preservation admirable, brought £1000 (QuaritchV; the second edition of Dame Juliana Barnes's "Treatise," printed by De YVorde in 1496, £600 /(Quaritch),' against £160 for. the Ashburnham' example-in 1897; the editip princeps of Balbus do Janna's ""Catholic'on," .1460, attributed to the press of Gutenberg, £530. (Baer of Frankfurt), against £300.f0r tho Crawford copy in 1889, which was on. vellum; , tho.' Goverdale Bible of 1535; which is the first ■whole_ edition of .the Bible,in English, £385 (Quaritcli), against £820 for tho Ashburnham copy in 18C6; the "great" Bible of 1540, printed by AYhiteclnirch, " £405 (Quaritcli); and the second edition of the "Boole of, Good Manners," printed by Pyiison in 1494; probably the only example in .'existence,, £240;This small folio, which made four guineas atHeber's sale in the 1830' 5,. had soveral leaves misplaced, and on ' that account it was sold to Lord'Amherst as imperfect. He discovered the m'istako, "of course, greatly to his advantage. • '•.