English book auctions

Hungarian Book Review, 1905 (13th new volume, issues 1-4)

English book auctions.

The Concisseur, a magazine for amateurs, publishes a valuable compilation of the art historical auctions held in England from December 1903 to July of last year, and its data on books interestingly show the perpetual fluctuations and fluctuations of the passion for collecting. Especially the publications of Morris's world-famous Kleinscott Press suffered an extraordinary fall in price, so that those "bibliophiles" who build their collections more for profit than for personal pleasure were bitterly disappointed. In only one area did the buying enthusiasm of book lovers reach the record of previous years: in the demand for the editio princeps of famous English writers. Not only the older classics, but also the first editions of the great works of the last century sold for very high prices, such as the 1847/48 edition of Thackeray's Vanity Fair. for the 1816 edition of Walter Scott's Tales of my Landlord they paid £102 (2550 K), for the 1816 edition of Walter Scott's Tales of my Landlord they paid £101 (2525 K), and for Dickens' Strange Gentleman they paid £141 (3525 K). For the first paperback edition of Shakespeare, enthusiastic amateurs paid £950 (23,750 K), for the second edition of 1632 they paid only £250 (6250 K), while the 1600 edition of Henry IV. Part 2 was driven up to £1035 (25,875 K) by the competition of the auctioneers. In the meantime, 70 prestigious book auctions were held in London, at which 42,000 lots went under the hammer. A total of £110,000 (2,750,090 K) was raised for these, which means that the average price of each item was barely £2 9s. (61 K), which is not a great result compared to English conditions. However, in our country, where the bibliophile passion is still in its infancy, we can say that for such a price — with few exceptions — we can easily acquire the first editions of our most outstanding poets, and we warmly recommend to our readers that they direct their collecting passion mainly in this direction if they want to acquire a first-class, intrinsically valuable book collection relatively cheaply.