BOOK COLLECTORS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1687, 1 March 1913, Page 11

BOOK COLLECTORS.

What happens when one who has made a fortune in business determines to devote the leisure of his old ago to tho indulgence of his artistic tastes is .. well known and has furnished a theme for the satirist in all ages. Sometimes it is the case, of Sir Visto "

What brought Sir Visto's ill-got wealth' ito waste? '. / Some Demon whispered,. "Visto, have a lasto.' .

Sometimes it is the case of Virro—

For what has Virro painted, built,' and planted? Only to show- how " many'.-Tastes he wanted;'. : ■ ■ \: ■■■;: , In other words, such ai.-man is-likely: to lay out his money both profusely and rashly. If this happens seldomer than one would expect in tho case of the book collector, it is because, rightly considered, book collecting is not, in the. stricter sense, a. laste'at all. It is a Taste in-the sense in which any hobby may be called eo, but not in the sense that it involves tne exercise of artistic perceptions. It is a subject that may be "got up," and a strong memory and a keen pair of eyes are the only equipment which a man of fortune requires to qualify him for success. t Few, accordingly, of those rich Americans who break tho record at the London book auctions aro there or elsewhere ever taken in. They are shrewd men of trained business habits, and, if they, give large prices for the things they buy, see to it that they are buying the right thing.. Moreover, most-• of them, to. make assurance doubly sure, cither employ : a, ; specialist librarian; or keep -in touch with an agent concerning whose expertnoss there is oven less doubt than concerning their own. It is a point on which they are fastidious. Thus the late Mr. Widoner, when, somo rears ago, he wished to acquiro at a London sale a c °Py of the First Folio Shakespeare, did not, being himself in America, employ a London dealer, but sent his agent, to the. sale from Philadelphia, paying both top price for the book and all travelling expenses, in order to be sure of the quality of his purchase; and, similarly, at the'recent Hoe sale, a collector is credited with having paid ,£SOOO for the services of an expert for tho two weeks the sale lasted. When such precautions are neglected, and' the unknowing nouveau richo . simply wishes to build up a fine library in' the shortest possible time, the inevitable "happens, and there is a distinct reversion to tho favourite type of .the satirists. An Instance of this sort is engaging the at-' tention of the. book .world in America, ■where a court of law gave a lady back (some .£BSOO of the money sho had . spent UpoE editions de luxe. She must sometimes have proved a somewhat /by purchaser, because on one occas on sho clinched the bargain only when ± letter, purporting to be from a million;.ire, was produced offering larger prioes for the books than she was being asked;. Nevertheless the extent to which she was taken in is incredible. For an edition of Carlyle in thirty volumes worth £45 a volume she paid ,£OOO a volume, and for each volume of a series of twelvo worth ,£25 ohe paid .£looo.—''-'Manchester Guardian."