The Confessions of a Collector

An Unique Wynkyn de Worde-A Supposed Undescribed Shakespear in a House-Sale at Bognor-Tom Arthur-The Wynkyn de Worde, which I secured for Another Shilling-Arthur and Sir Thomas Phillipps of Middle Hil

More Uniques-A Singular Recovery from New York-Casual Strokes of Good Luck in the Provinces-The Wynkyn de Worde at Wr

portant in the latter category were the Dodsley and the Montaigne, to the latter of which I contributed only the Introduction, my father revising the text for me, and seeing the proofs, as I was at this juncture extremely busy with all sorts of ventures, and was, above everything else, intent on a new bibliogr

nd every morning certain members of the trade made the place their first destination. I am not going to allege that I never participated in the advantages myself; but my gains were

oguer that the volume containing them was so many inches thick. But it was ever so. There was no discrimination. At one time I bought an important first edition of Heywood, 1605, for half-a-guinea, and a theological tract worth a couple of shillings was marked at the same price. They had only just come in, and not to draw undue attention to the Heywood, I tendered a guinea for the two. On another occasion, a

le came of all this exhausting labour. He parted at too trivial a profit; he was too eager to turn over; and his assistants have told me that he often sold out of the open window for sixpence, items which had cost a couple of shillings. The auction-room in Chancery Lane did not, it is to be feared, contribute

was an edition of 1515, earlier than any on record, and the British Museum paid me ￡12, 12s. for it. The curious part was that some months later Reeves had a very bad copy of the Grammar of the same author from the same press-a thick volume in quarto, marked ￡6, 6s., and I took a note of it, and left it. Wa

such book was known; yet it was perfectly possible that it might have been printed. Reeves thought that it might be worth my while to go down, and insp

e left ￡400 to Mr Ridler his assistant, who, called in Reeves to appraise the stock, and obtained it within that amount. While Arthur was in business, there was a grammatical tract in English printed by De Worde in his catalogue at ￡3, 3s. I went in to ask for it, and Ridler s

book which Wake of Cockermouth had previously offered me; and I agreed to give ￡8, 18s. 6d. for it. It is now in the Museum. In a second case he sold me, with a stern proviso that it was not returnable on any account whatever, a defective copy

h in my way, and perhaps I was not worth the postage. Ridler it

ion, 1621; he got it for a few shillings of Lazarus in the same street, and sold it

ome of the lots had been sold; but the remainder was duly shipped to the Broadway, Worcestershire; and a pretty parcel

d, 1592, at ￡3, 10s., bound up with an imperfect copy of Lyly's Euphues. He declined it, but on his arrival home he reconsidered the matter, and wrote to the wrong man. I dropped in, just as he was deliberating whether it was worth while to write to the right one; but he concluded by giving up the volume to me. I had to pay ￡5 for it, George stating that a party had assured him i

a?ry Queen under that designation, as he had done another lady in his Shepherd's Calendar. Shakespear himself has Rosaline in Love's Labours Lost and Romeo and Juliet, and Thoma

that he had come to buy the new English translation of the Imitatio Christi. I expressed surprise. He explained that it was to give away. I still expressed surprise. 'Well,' said he, 'you see it is the fine sty

assisted in completing. He was a very good fellow, who had been spoiled by companies and company-mongers. He had conceived, before I met him, the design of collecting everything in all languages relative to fermented liquors and the processes of their manufacture. He was not fastidious as to condition, though he preferred a good copy to a bad one; and I left

d I saw that the name was Stopes, and I concluded that the old proprietor was the same Leonard Stopes who printed an Ave Maria to the Queen in or about 1555. The book also bore the signature of his brother, James Stopes

el, clerk to Sir Walter Scott as Sheriff-Depute, who wrote the almost superfluous confu

in the volume was mis-rendered, a piece of family history, va

tion of the Lee Warly collection took place in situ many years ago, and a few remarkable items found their way to Mr Huth, particularly Oxenden of Barham's MS. Commonplace Book, 1647, in which the original proprietor had written a list of his old plays bound up together in six volumes. I copied out this inventory for the Huth catalogue; but it was one of the numerous omissions made by Mr Ellis to save space. B

re my time, among the Wolfreston books. They were the Cruel Uncle, 1670, the story of Richard III. and his nephews, and A Map of Merry Conceits, by Lawrenc

me sixpence and the labour. The author was a native of Blois, where, says he, 'the true tone of the French tongue is to be found by the unanimous consent of all Frenchmen.' At another time, a bookseller at Wrexham had attended the house-sale of the Rev. Mr Luxmoore's effects in the vicinity, and among the lots was Richard Whitford's Wo

t random; and the same story was related of a second haul, which I once made of a Mr Fenn

r dreary lots of volumes which he had carted away from some house-sale for a song; but I never laid out anything there or elsewhere. I always found the cheapest books were to be obtained at the auctions, or at M

ring & Chatto's in the Haymarket, where I have always met with the greatest kindness and consideration. On information received, as the policeman says, I proceeded to the premises, and there, surely enough, I found a dilapidated and imperfect copy, yet still a copy, of the First Part of the First Edition of Johnson's Seven Champions of Christendom, 1596. The Second Part, 1597, was in the Heber sale from Isaac Reed's collection, where it fetched 17s. But no trace of the First was discoverable, till this

cies, to which I have adverted, rather than to choice. I think it not improbable that during the period from 1868 to 1878 the regular trade might have been prepared to raise a handsome subscription to send me and my family to a distant colony. Yet I

rom the monastic era to our own days. I have generally found no difficulty in judging as to the character of entries in books by private owners; and con

empting to be master of some copy which has once been consecrated by the fingers of a king or a queen, or a king's lady, or a queen'

mas May.' I recollect an early Chaucer with Thomas Randolph on the title; of course the vendor avouched it to be the signature of the poet. Joseph Lilly had a black-letter tome with the name George Gascoigne attached to it, and advertised it as a souvenir of that distinguished Elizabethan writer; but unluckily the writer died, before the book was printed. There was similarly more than a single W. Shakespear just about the same period of time; b

e cataloguer, 'on the second leaf occurs "Tho. Cranmer" in contemporary handwriting.' In fact, some one at the time under the line of dedication to the Archbishop of Canterbury had inserted h

rtest notice any books required. We drew up between us a list of some of the rarest volumes in the English language, and one or the other took it to Westerton's, desiring the latter to let him ha

ing as an indifferent and an uncommercial line of industry. For there must be thousands earning livelihoods by it, although very few realise the El Dorado of ￡500 a year, which I have heard Mr Quaritch cite as a kind of minimum, which it is in the power of any poor creature to make out of books

hen you pass and repass their places of business, you wonder how they live, and conclude that the occupation must be profitable even on the smallest scale. For the bargain-hunter-from his point of view-there is nothing to be got out of these outlying or minor emporia nowadays; the whole actual traffic in valuable commodities centres in two or three London aucti

on, a slender margin for himself, yet the number of houses devoted to the business was never greater, and

such a time from them on account of his last book. You listen to his tale with jesuitical reticence; you have just parted from a member of the firm, who has told you exactly how many copies have been sold, and you can do the rest for yourse