Prices of Books Part 8

?Amongst all these is none more witty than this; and had I time, I would comment upon it, though I know it needs not--for so much as will make you think your _testern_ well bestowed,--but for so much worth as even poor I know to be stuffed in it.?

The poets had a profitable time when their poems, handsomely printed in quarto volumes, were priced so high as two guineas. Sir Walter Scott made great sums by these editions which sold in large numbers, but no other poet was so fortunate as he was. Moore did well with his poems, and in his Diary (Dec. 23, 1818) he records an amusing instance of the practical appreciation of an admirer. He writes--

?The young Bristol lady who enclosed me ?3 after reading ?Lalla Rookh? had very laudable ideas on the subject; and if every reader of ?Lalla Rookh? had done the same, I need never have written again.?

Wordsworth?s ?Excursion? was published in 1814, in a two guinea quarto volume, but it took six years to exhaust an edition of five hundred copies. Such are the inequalities in the rate of the remuneration of authors.

Rees?s ?Cyclop?dia,? which was published between 1802 and 1820 (in forty-five volumes and six volumes of plates), cost in all ?85. The ?Encyclop?dia Britannica,? which has superseded it, is published at the small price of twenty-eight shillings per volume.

In the early part of this century, when it was the fashion to print standard works in quarto, they were very high priced, thus the first edition of ?Pepys?s Diary? was published in two volumes for six guineas.

Now the quarto is almost as much out of date as the folio, and is confined to ill.u.s.trated books.

OCTAVOS

The ordinary octavo volume was published at the beginning of the eighteenth century for five or six shillings. Thus Boyer?s translation of ?The ingenious and entertaining Memoirs of Count Gramont, who lived in the court of King Charles II., and was afterwards Amba.s.sador from the King of France to King James II.,? 1714, was published at five shillings, and George Psalmanazar?s ?Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa? at six shillings. Since then the price for an octavo has gradually increased to seven shillings and sixpence, then to ten shillings and sixpence. In the latter half of the present century there has been a considerable advance to twelve shillings, to sixteen and eighteen shillings, and now fully ill.u.s.trated books are often priced as high as one guinea a volume. Plays, trials, and pamphlets generally have averaged about one shilling apiece.

DUODECIMOS

Walton?s ?Complete Angler,? first published in 1653, was issued at one shilling and sixpence, as appears from the following contemporary advertis.e.m.e.nt, quoted by Hone in his ?Every-Day Book?: ?There is published a Booke of Eighteen-pence price, called ?The Compleat Angler; or, The Contemplative Man?s Recreation,? being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing. Not unworthy the perusall. Sold by Richard Marriot at S.

Dunstan?s Churchyard, Fleet Street.?

In 1663 Pepys bought the first part of Butler?s ?Hudibras? for two shillings and sixpence, and sold it again for one shilling and sixpence.

The Master of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, gave at the same time one shilling for the first part and the same sum for the second part, but later on he gave half-a-crown for the latter.

?The Works of the celebrated Mons. de Moli?re, translated from the last edition printed at Paris, containing his life, all his comedies, interludes, &c., with a large account of his life and remarkable death, who, as he was acting the part of Death in one of his own plays, was taken ill and died a few hours after....? This was printed in six volumes 12mo, ?on a fine paper and Elzevir letter,? and published by B.

Lintott for fifteen shillings (or two shillings and sixpence a volume) in May 1714.

Tom D?Urfey sold his ?Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to purge Melancholy,? at two shillings and sixpence a volume.

Duodecimos have now gone out of fashion, at least in name, as small books are mostly known as post octavos, foolscap octavos, &c. The price of these small handy volumes remains much the same, as the half-crown of the last century is the equivalent of our five or six shillings.

The greatest change in price has been made in poetry and novels, and six shillings has become a favourite price for both. The two guineas for the poem, and the guinea and a half for the three-volume novel, are become things of the past.

Although in the last century many books were published and sold which could not be sold at the present time, it is probable that some of these books paid the publisher but badly, and it was therefore found to be a wise precaution to publish certain books by subscription, and this plan was therefore frequently adopted.

Dr. Brian Walton?s Polyglot Bible (six vols. folio, 1657, ?10) is often said to be the first book printed by subscription in England; but Minsheu?s Dictionary, in eleven languages, 1617, was certainly sold by the author to subscribers. The number of these subscribers was 174, among whom are six--viz., Sir John Laurence, Dr. Aileworth, Mr. Paul Peart, Mr. Brigges, Sir Henry Spelman, and Mr. Booth--who largely a.s.sisted the author with money to complete his great undertaking.

?The Monthly Catalogue? of new books commenced by Bernard Lintott in May 1714 frequently contained lists of the books printed by subscription. In the number for January 1714-15 the terms of subscription to the worst edition of Chaucer?s works ever published are announced--

?Whereas John Urry, Student of Christ-Church, Oxon, has obtained from her late Majesty, Queen Anne, a Licence for Printing the Works of the celebrated Jeffrey Chaucer, corrected from all the printed editions, and from several rare and ancient MSS. not hitherto consulted: from the collating of which he has restored many single lines and added several Tales never yet printed, by which alterations, amendments, and additions, the work is in a manner become new. Thirty copper plates by the best gravers will be printed before each tale; a more compleat Glossary and Table will be added at the end. A small number will be printed on Royal Paper at 50s.

per book, and those on the finest demy at 30s. Half to be paid in hand. Subscriptions are taken in by the Undertaker, Bernard Lintott between the Temple Gates, and by most Booksellers in London and the country. _N.B._--A new Black Letter, accented, has been cast on purpose for this work, for the ease of the Reader.?

Dryden made very good terms with Tonson for the publication of his translation of Virgil, but Pope was still more successful with the subscription to his translation of Homer?s ?Iliad.? The subscription for six quarto volumes was fixed at six guineas, and 575 persons subscribed for 654 copies. The booksellers eagerly made their offers of publication, and the highest bidder was B. Lintott, who agreed to supply all the subscription copies at his own expense, and to pay ?200 for every volume. Pope therefore received altogether ?5320 without any deduction.

Lintott engaged not to print any quartos except for Pope, but he printed the quarto pages on small folio, and sold each volume for half-a-guinea.

These being cut down by some dishonest traders, were sold as subscription copies.

Lintott was defrauded of his profit by the sale of a duodecimo edition, printed in Holland, which obliged him to print an edition in a similar form. Of Lintott?s first duodecimo edition 2500 copies were quickly sold off. Five thousand further copies were at once printed.

Some of Hearne?s antiquarian works were subscribed at ten shillings and sixpence per volume for small paper, and one guinea for large paper.

It seems to have been the practice for the subscriber to a book to pay down half the purchase-money on sending in his name, and the other half on publication.

Another expedient for the rapid sale of books was their issue in numbers. Smollett?s ?History of England? was published in sixpenny numbers, and had an immediate sale of 20,000 copies. This immense success is said to have been due to an artifice practised by the publisher. He sent down a packet of prospectuses carriage free (with half-a-crown enclosed) to every parish clerk in the kingdom, to be distributed by him through the pews of the church. This being generally carried out, a valuable advertis.e.m.e.nt was obtained, which resulted in an extensive demand for the work.

Books are published at an equal price, according to size, whether they are good or bad, but they find their level in the catalogues of the second-hand booksellers. The bad soon become waste-paper, or are marked down to very low prices, while the good books increase in price till they come in some cases to be marked more than the original published price.

Sometimes when books are printed in limited numbers the public will give more than the published price even before publication; thus the large paper edition of the ?Life of the Queen,? by Mr. R. R. Holmes, was subscribed at ?8, and the right of receiving a copy when ready is said to have been sold for from ?20 to ?25.

Publishers occasionally reduce the price of a book after publication, but this is seldom a successful operation. The selling-off of remainders has been the means of distributing books to the public at a low rate, and it will often be found that some of the scarcest and highest priced books in the present day are those which have been sold-off. These were good books, which sold too slowly, but which went off quickly when the price was low. When the stock is exhausted, and more are required, the price naturally goes up.

A most remarkable instance of this increase in price of a sold-off book is that of Edward Fitzgerald?s wonderful version of the _Rub?iy?t_ of Omar Khayyam, the first edition of which was published by Quaritch in 1859. Though the number printed was few, n.o.body bought, and eight years afterwards the publisher, in disgust, threw the whole remainder into a box outside his door, and marked all these one penny each. It is said that Dante Rossetti found them there, and soon the remainder was exhausted. Now this penny book is worth six guineas.[37]

FOOTNOTES:

[28] _Arch?ologia_, xxv. 104.

[29] ?Life and Typography of William Caxton,? vol. ii. p. lix.

[30] _Arch?ologia_, xlvi. 228, 229.

[31] x.x.xvi. 284-310.

[32] _Censura Literaria_, iii. 370.

[33] The late Mr. Cornelius Walford contributed to the _Bibliographer_ some articles on Book Patents and Printing Patents. See vol. v. pp. 125, 156; vol. vi. pp. 129, 171.

[34] _Arch?ologia_, vol. xxv. pp. 100-112.

[35] Arber?s ?Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers.?

[36] Gomme?s _Gentleman?s Magazine Library_, ?Literary Curiosities,?

1888, p. 79.

[37] This was quite true when written a few months ago, but on the 10th February 1898 a copy with the original wrappers was sold at Sotheby?s salerooms for ?21. It was bought by Mr. Quaritch, the original publisher.

CHAPTER V

AUCTION SALES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

The exact date of the first introduction into England of the convenient plan of selling books by auction is known to us through the amiable weakness of the auctioneers for writing prefaces to the sale catalogues; and this history, therefore, is singularly unlike that of most other inventions and customs, the origin of which is usually open to doubt, because the originators have not thought it worth while to explain that they were doing some new thing. The auctioneers, on the other hand, tell us which was the first sale, and which were the second, the third, and the fourth. After this the freshness may be said to be exhausted, and we are contented with less exact particulars.