MONEY IN BOOKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 862, 4 January 1930, Page 11

MONEY IN BOOKS

“GULLIVER” FETCHES £360 “RASSELAS” WORTH £255 The demand for first editions of works by well-known English. 18th century authors grows keener every season. So rare are some of their works that even defective copies realise remarkable prices. A case in poiut was a copy of the first edition of Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” (1726) w r hich, though by no means in its pristine state, was readily bid lip at Sotheby’s recently to £360. or just £SO more than was paid for a far finer copy last January. £255 for “Rasselas” In January, too, a copy of Johnson s “Rasselas” made £IOO, but at a recent sale another copy, despite its cracked binding, made £255. The record for this book is the £1,160 paid for Dr. Johnson’s own copy in the famous Kern sale. Other notable items were: Sterne’s “Sentimental Journey” (1768) £IBO Smollett’s “Peregrrine Pickle’’ (1751) £IBB Scott’s “Ivanhoe” (1S20) £l2O La Fontaine’s “Fables’’ (1762) .. £IBO Burney’s “Camilla” (1796) .. .. £l3O For a collection of eight early manuscripts, removed from a celebrated mediaeval library, where they were written and illustrated during the ninth to the 12th centuries, just under £1,500 has been realised.