a higher price than those whose edges are trimmed down in binding. To some book-collecting amateurs cut edges are an abomination. They will pay more for a book “in sheets," which they can bind after their own taste, than for the finest copy in calf or morocco with gilt edges. Some books, also, are exceptionally costly because bound in a style of superior elegance and beauty, or as having belonged to a crowned head or a noble person, ("books with a pedigree") or an eminent author, or having autographs of notable characters on the fly-leaves or title-pages, or original letters inserted in the volume. Others still are "extraillustrated" works, in which one volume is swelled to several by the insertion of a multitude of portraits, autographs, and engravings, more or less illustrative of the contents of the book. This is called "Grangerising," from its origin in the practice of thus illustrating Granger's Biographical History of England. Book amateurs of expensive tastes are by no means rare, especially in England, France, and America, and the great commercial value placed upon uncut and rarely beautiful books, on which the highest arts of the printer and book-binder have been lavished, evinces the fact.

(6) The books emanating from the presses of famous printers are more sought for by collectors and libraries than other publications, because of their superior excellence. Sometimes this is found in the beauty of the type, or the clear and elegant press-work; sometimes in the printers' marks, monograms, engraved initial letters, head and tail-pieces, or other illustrations; and sometimes in the fine quality of the choice paper on which the books are printed. Thus, the productions of the presses of Aldus, Giunta, Bodoni, Etienne, Elzevir, Froben, Gutenberg, Fust and Schoeffer, Plantin, Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, Bulmer, Didot, Baskerville, Pickering, Whittingham, and

others, are always in demand, and some of the choicer specimens of their art, if in fine condition, bring great prices in the second-hand book-shops, or the auction room. An example of Caxton's press is now almost unattainable, except in fragmentary copies. There are known to be only about 560 examples of Caxtons in the world, four-fifths of which are in England, and thirty-one of these are unique. His "King Arthur" (1485) brought £1950 at auction in 1885, and the Polychronicon (1482) was sold at the Ives sale (N. Y.) in 1891, for $1,500.

(7) In the case of all finely illustrated works, the earlier impressions taken, both of text and plates, are more rare, and hence more valuable, than the bulk of the edition. Thus, copies with "proofs before letters" of the steel engravings or etchings, sometimes command more than double the price of copies having only the ordinary plates. Each added impression deteriorates a little the sharp, clear outlines and brilliant impressions which are peculiar to the first copies printed.

(8) Of some books, certain volumes only are rare, and very costly in consequence. Thus, Burk's History of Virginia is common enough in three volumes, but volume 4 of the set, by Jones and Girardin, (1816,) is exceedingly rare, and seldom found with the others. The fifth and last volume of Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal History is very scarce, while the others are readily procured. Of De Bry's Voyages, the 13th or final part of the American voyages is so rare as to be quite unattainable, unless after long years of search, and at an unconscionable price.

(9) The condition of any book is an unfailing factor in its price. Many, if not most books offered by second-hand dealers are shop-worn, soiled, or with broken bindings, or some other defect. A pure, clean copy, in handsome condition without and within, commands invariably an extra

price. Thus the noted Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, a huge portly folio, with 2,250 wood-cuts in the text, many of them by Albert Dürer or other early artists, is priced in London catalogues all the way from £7.15 up to £35, for identically the same edition. The difference is dependent wholly on the condition of the copies offered. Here is part of a description of the best copy: "Nuremberg Chronicle, by Schedel, printed by Koberger, first edition, 1493, royal folio, with fine original impressions of the 2,250 large woodcuts of towns, historical events, portraits, etc., very tall copy, measuring 18 inches by 121, beautifully bound in morocco super extra, full gilt edges, by Riviere, £35. All the cuts are brilliant impressions, large and spirited. The book is genuine and perfect throughout; no washed leaves, and all the large capitals filled in by the rubricator by different colored inks: it has the six additional leaves at end, which Brunet says are nearly always wanting."

(10) The first editions printed of many books always command high prices. Not only is this true of the editio princeps of Homer, Virgil, Tacitus and other Greek and Roman writers, published in the infancy of printing, but of every noted author, of ancient or modern date. The edition printed during the life of the writer has had his own oversight and correction. And when more than one issue of his book has thus appeared, one sees how his maturer judgment has altered the substance or the style of his work. First editions of any very successful work always tend to become scarce, since the number printed is smaller, as a rule, and a large part of the issue is absorbed by public libraries. The earliest published writings of Tennyson, now found with difficulty, show how much of emendation and omission this great poet thought proper to make in his poems in after years. A first edition of Ivanhoe, 3 vols., 1820, brings £7 or more, in the original

boards, but if rebound in any style, the first Waverley novels can be had at much less, though collectors are many.

(11) Another class of rare books is found in many local histories, both among the county histories of Great Britain, and those of towns and counties in the United. States. Jay Gould's History of Delaware County, N. Y., published in 1856, and sought after in later times because of his note as a financier, is seldom found. Of family genealogies, too, printed in small editions, there are many which cannot be had at all, and many more which have risen to double or even quadruple price. The market value of these books, always dependent on demand, is enhanced by the wants of public libraries which are making or completing collections of these much sought sources of information.

(12) There is a class of books rarely found in any reputable book shop, and which ought to be much rarer than they are-namely, those that belong to the domain of indecent literature. Booksellers who deal in such wares often put them in catalogues under the head of facetiae, thus making a vile use of what should be characteristic only of books of wit or humor. Men of prurient tastes become collectors of such books, many of which are not without some literary merit, while many more are neither fit to be written, nor printed, nor read.

(13) There is a large variety of books that are sought mainly on account, not of their authors, nor for their value as literature, but for their illustrators. Many eminent artists (in fact most of those of any period) have made designs for certain books of their day. The reputation of an artist sometimes rests more upon his work given to the public in engravings, etchings, wood-cuts, etc., that illustrate books, than upon his works on canvas or in marble. Many finely illustrated works bear prices enhanced by the

eagerness of collectors, who are bent upon possessing the designs of some favorite artist, while some amateurs covet a collection of far wider scope. This demand, although fitful, and sometimes evanescent, (though more frequently recurrent,) lessens the supply of illustrated books, and with the constant drafts of new libraries, raises prices. Turner's exquisite pictures in Rogers's Italy and Poems (183034) have floated into fame books of verse which find very few readers. Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") designed those immortal Wellers in Pickwick, which have delighted two whole generations of readers. The "Cruikshankiana" are sought with avidity, in whatever numerous volumes they adorn. Books illustrated with the designs of Bartolozzi, Marillier, Eisen, Gravelot, Moreau, Johannot, Grandville, Rowlandson, Bewick, William Blake, Stothard, Stanfield, Harvey, Martin, Cattermole, Birket Foster, Mulready, Tenniel, Maclise, Gilbert, Dalziel, Leighton, Holman Hunt, Doyle, Leech, Millais, Rossetti, Linton, Du Maurier, Sambourne, Caldecott, Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, Haden, Hamerton, Whistler, Doré, Anderson, Darley, Matt Morgan, Thos. Nast, Vedder, and others, are in constant demand, especially for the early impressions of books in which their designs appear.

(14) Finally, that extensive class of books known as early Americana have been steadily growing rarer, and rising in commercial value, since about the middle of the nineteenth century. Books and pamphlets relating to any part of the American continent or islands, the first voyages, discoveries, narratives or histories of those regions, which were hardly noted or cared for a century ago, are now eagerly sought by collectors for libraries both public and private. In this field, the keen competition of American Historical Societies, and of several great libraries, besides the ever increasing number of private col